NYC stores urging shoppers to buy now before Trump tariff price hikes hit: ‘I just bought a Subaru’

Some NYC stores are urging customers to make their purchases quick before President Trump’s new tariffs hike prices — and nervous shoppers are rushing to showrooms across the city to snatch up electronics, appliances, and even cars while prices hold.

“Honestly the company’s urged us to tell customers it’s best to buy before the 10% tariffs kick in,” said Xavier Poindexter, 27, a sales associate at a Flushing PC Richards & Son electronics and appliance store.

“I’ve been hearing a lot on this topic from customers,” he added. “Our customers are worried about the product prices going up and the corporations that sell the products taking advantage of the situation and raising the prices even further.”

The first round of Trump’s newly announced tariffs — a baseline 10% on all imports into the US — come into effect first-thing Saturday.

Heavier reciprocal tariffs — including on electronics powerhouse nations like Japan and China, which will face 24% and 34% tariffs — become effective April 9.

Some store managers and sales reps say they’ve received no directives about raising prices yet, while others have been directed not to comment on the topic — but many customers aren’t waiting around to find out what might happen.

 “I just bought a Subaru Ascent and I paid $50,247, and I told them that if they couldn’t get it to me before the tariffs, forget it, the deal was off,” said MJ, a 74-year-old from Brooklyn who decided to trade in her old cars once Trump’s plans started looming.

After the full scope of the president’s tariffs were announced Wednesday MJ decided it might be time to swap out all of her home’s aging appliances, too, so she went down to PC Richards & Son Thursday to scope out the prices.

“I’m worried because I live in a house where all the appliances are about 10 years old, and that’s about how long they last nowadays. The repairman said I don’t want to be buying parts for all these old appliances after the tariffs happen, so I’m pricing them now,” she said.

At the Apple store in SoHo, several customers scooted in to upgrade their iPhones fast and pick up products they’ve had their eyes on in case prices spike within a week.

“[We planned to buy] for his birthday next week, but we decided to move it up,” said 40-year-old mom Jackie Carter, who stopped in ahead of her 12-year-old son’s big day next week to buy him a pair of Beats headphones. 

“I think it’s horrible, and it’s inhumane,” she said, issuing a gloomy take on Trump’s grand gamble to boost America’s economic standing.

Another customer who came in for a new iPhone ahead of the tariffs was also disgusted by them.

“If you’re asking me very simply what I think about the whole thing, it’s a very, very bad idea,” said the man, asking not to be named. “It breaks all of the alliances and promises, all of the work that our entire government and our civil service has been preparing for, including a lot of my friends, since 1945.”

President Trump framed the tariffs as a measure to reinvigorate local manufacturing and bring money back into American pockets — calling the move a “declaration of economic independence.”

“Factories will come roaring back into our country — and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers,” he said during his announcement Wednesday, which was branded “Liberation Day.”

But not everybody is so optimistic — with some analysts predicting the tariffs could cost Americans upwards of $3,800 per year.

And in the Big Apple, business owners and workers are scared.

“Business down, very down. A lot of tax now,” said Abdul Kadir, cashier at New York Gifts and Luggage in Times Square.

“A lot of product come from Bangladesh and now 37 percent tax. Mexican product. In another week the whole market blow up. When they raise price, we raise price too, how are we to pay the rent? My boss also mad, all cashiers scared.”

Still, some shoppers supported the move.

“He’s lining up the deal to make it fair for us and get companies making stuff here,” MJ said. “I’m willing to go through whatever we have to go through to get back to the country we had when I was a kid. I truly believe he’s on the right track.”