Tariff Fears: Why We're NOT Raising Prices

tl;dr: We will be using a method to tank all the duties and customs ourselves for all orders, and you shouldn't see any additional costs from things you've ordered.

Tariffs are just another way governments tax their own people.

You could be paying 35% more on EVERYTHING... but not Vite, because we’re doing something a little different. In fact, we’re not going to raise prices AT ALL. Here’s why.

Eggs are already expensive(last i checked, we just crossed the $1 per egg mark at some stores, ouch), and things are getting even worse.

But not just food is getting more expensive-- everything is about to get a whole lot more expensive as manufacturers scramble and sweat to figure out how to deal with the new tariffs that have been put into place by the US Government.

See, tariffs aren’t paid for by other governments. It’s paid by people like us, small businesses, regular people, and I guarantee that big companies have the lawyers and unscrupulous means to loophole and otherwise get around a lot of things.

Meanwhile, those of us regular folk won’t have those means to loophole and slip past the new laws and regulations.

I know a lot of people will say, simply produce in the USA... which, hey, we already do. Unfortunately, suppliers down the chain also use China, Canada, Mexico, and other countries as raw material suppliers, and those costs WILL get passed all the way down to you... usually.

Some of the things we use are affected, like knives, packaging(almost all raw material of packaging originates from China), and even the quinoa that we use in our flour. See, we actually use Canadian clear core quinoa, as it has a smoother flavor and texture for noodlemaking compared to Bolivian or Columbian quinoa varietals.

See, when a product is made and imported into the US, then it’s the US company that’s paying the tariff and duties, NOT anyone else. This also includes any private citizens who are trying to get anything shipped from another country-- they’re the ones who are paying these duties and tariffs. When tariffs get levied onto another country, it’s a weird roundabout way to try and punish the other country by making your own people pay more for things.

We can call it what it is-- Tariffs are just another way governments tax their own people.

Fun fact: I do actually have the qualifications to talk about this-- I actually have a bachelor’s of science from UC Davis in Managerial Economics. Promise I’m not going to be drawing graphs about supply and demand and deadweight loss and stuff though :^)

You’ll see this tariff tax be passed on by most companies onto people, and you’ll see other businesses raising prices even if they’re not implicated in those tariffs, using it as a good excuse to raise prices.

The unfortunate part of things is that when all these prices are raised, for good reasons or not, they’re very unlikely to ever come down again, as the new, higher prices are the new normal.

Which, we do have a term for that too... inflation! Wheeeeeeeee love that for us.

Why are we not raising our prices then?

Well... because things kinda suck enough already, right? At the end of the day, we have a lot of things that’s going to be coming in and being hit by these duties and tariffs eventually, as the rules imposed have been very broad and not clear, meaning customs has been forced to apply these tariffs and duties to basically everything.

Some things will be hit by 10%, others by 25%, others by 35%-- we’re just not sure and just don’t know right now. That kinda sucks! But we have full confidence that this kind of policy will not sustain in the long run, as...

Okay, let’s be real honest here, if it does, we’re all gonna be screwed, so... it’s fine :^)

For now, what we’re trying to do is to make bulk massive purchases ahead of time of materials that are already in the USA, and therefore has not been subject to these raised prices. My current hope is that we’ll have enough of these materials in order to last through the current policies, and give us adequate time to prepare other ways of doing things that will negate the need for direct price increases, finding new efficiencies, product types, and whatever else can help make things work out.

So, that’s kind of it for now. We’re going to do a lot of stuff in the backend to figure things out, and we won’t be raising prices on our ramen or anything else in the near future. This means we’ll be absorbing any additional costs that we face because of this, and we hope that you will continue supporting us through these times, so that we’ll continue to be able to make healthy, high protein ramen, awesome kitchen knives, and other cool things!

So, with that being said, I guess... go buy some ramen and other stuff, haha. Help us keep the pricing that we have!

Remember to be kind, and savor life’s little victories. I think we all need to remember that, these days.

-@TimJZheng, CEO/Founder Vite