Home Depot has become the latest U.S. company to warn customers it may have to raise its prices on the shelves in response to President Donald Trump’s divisive tariff strategy.
Until now, the home improvement retailer, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, has been reticent about commenting on the Republican’s aggressive trade tactics and their possible impact on its business.
But announcing the company’s quarterly results on Tuesday, CFO Richard McPhail admitted it may have to act to mitigate the impact of Trump’s tax on imported materials from overseas.
“For some imported goods, tariff rates are significantly higher today than they were at this time last quarter,” McPhail told The Wall Street Journal.
“So as you would expect, there will be modest price movement in some categories, but it won’t be broad-based.”
Just under half of Home Depot’s stock is bought in from retailers outside of the U.S., according to CNN, and the company has previously suggested that it will seek to diversify its supply base so that no one foreign country is responsible for more than 10 percent of its goods to shield itself from overexposure.
The health of Home Depot is often seen as a good indicator of the state of the U.S. housing market in general, and its sales for the second quarter proved worse-than-expected, according to its latest earnings call, coming in at 1 percent rather than the 1.5 percent predicted by analysts.
Its total customer transactions fell to 0.9 percent for the quarter, its executives said. Still, the average ticket size rose by 1.2 percent, and the company said its full-year forecasts remained on course despite the choppy headwinds likely to be forthcoming.
Home Depot came into more direct conflict with the president’s MAGA movement on Monday when it was forced to ask the Republican Party of Florida to pull a line of deportation-themed merchandise from its online store that parodied its corporate insignia without authorization.
“We don’t allow any organization to use our branding or logo for their commercial purposes,” Sarah McDonald, its director of public affairs, told The Independent.
The full impact of Trump’s much-changed tariff policy has yet to be felt. However, businesses are beginning to feel the first ripples of the consequences of the administration’s policies after eight months in power.
Last week, AriZona Iced Tea’s Don Vultaggio said he might reluctantly have to crank up the price of his $0.99 Big Can in response to Trump’s 50 percent levies on imported steel and aluminum, which his business relies on for its receptacles.
“At some point, the consumer is going to have to pay the price,” Vultaggio said. “I hate even the thought of it. It would be a hell of a shame after 30-plus years.”
