Letter from the publisher: Enough is enough

I’ve been getting distress calls from a number of manufacturers lately. Retail partners are asking to be “made whole” with tariff refund checks and questioning the ethics of any manufacturer who doesn’t comply.

 So let’s pull that thread.

I spoke with dozens of manufacturers during our liberation. Without exception they struggled for a solution to a problem not of their making. They all reconciled themselves to new layers of margin pressure. They worked with their own suppliers to see where reductions could be made, passing some pressure upstream so that the pain was shared by all. They did this so that the smallest increase possible could be passed on to retailers. 

Downstream, retailers were faced with two options:

1. They could share in that new layer of margin pressure, passing on a smaller increase to consumers.

2. They could pass on all of the increase, maintaining margin and participating in broader marketplace inflation.

If they chose path No. 1, they made less money. They joined the club and suffered with everyone upstream. Conversely, if they chose to pass on the cost increases, they likely made a sound near-term business decision that reflected our market reality.

So now we find ourselves in a new period of tumult. Where one set of tariffs was deemed illegal, new ones are popping up on an arbitrary whim. Input costs are rising for everyone on everything. Amidst this uncertainty, the internal squabbling is becoming acute.  While some tariff refund checks are begrudgingly being delivered, no one is getting rich. They’re just preparing for the next gut punch.

For retailers seeking a kickback, I would ask this: Do you plan to sort through the tariff cost for every item sold during our liberation? Do you subsequently plan to seek out every consumer said item was sold to so you can cut them a check for $27.00 on the chair they bought last fall? Color me skeptical. 

I have a modest proposal. Instead of fighting each other, why don’t we fight the source of the problem? Where could we possibly assign blame for — gestures broadly — all of this? Maybe it’s time for our industry collectively, finally, to say enough. Enough. 

Yes, most of us are small. Yes, we are fragmented. But as a group, our resources and our reach are vast. We provide the “real” jobs that politicians like to point to.

Say enough.

During my years in this industry, I have had the chance to build an array of relationships around the globe. I’m proud to count a large number of Canadians as friends. Lately I’ve been embarrassed nearly every time I’ve spoken with them. I’ve watched as their positions evolved from pained confusion to angered resolve. So to close, I’ll remind us all of a time when we stood shoulder to shoulder with our partners to the north. Back when our agreements weren’t written in pencil.

“Geography has made us neighbors. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies. Those whom nature hath so joined together, let no man put asunder.”

John F. Kennedy

Address to Canadian Parliament

May 1961