Prices they are a-changin’

When all the political smoke clears, the truth about “tariffs” is that they amount to a tax increase that isn’t called a tax increase.

And it isn’t the Chinese or the Mexicans or the Canadians who pay the tax. It’s American consumers.

For those who buy water treatment equipment, taxes are going up sharply. One of our vendors just notified us that all products from one major American supplier are going up 4 to 8 percent because of tariffs. Our main parts vendor has just notified us that the prices of filter media and softener resin, filter tanks, and control valves are going to increase sharply. That means prices of finished filters and softeners will rise considerably.

Prices tend to spiral. When a tax on Chinese carbon forces up the price, this allows domestic carbon makers some room to raise their prices and still remain competitive. Foreign-made and American-made both go up. And once prices go up, they hardly every come back down, tariff or no tariff.

In a nutshell: because of the tax increase, we expect that our water softeners, tank-style and cartridge-style filters, filter media and parts in general will be selling for about 10% more.  Very soon.