Last July, I wrote about how notebook prices had increased over the years. Since then, a lot has changed in the political and economic landscape, and it could mean that notebooks will become even more expensive.
Tariffs are constantly in the news now, with Trump’s policies changing from one day to the next. It’s a mess… and I can’t imagine how manufacturers and retailers will figure out how to move forward! As of this writing, there are huge tariffs being imposed on China, where many notebooks are manufactured. Even if a notebook is manufactured in the USA, it’s possible it is made of paper and ink manufactured in China, or printed and bound on machines that require parts from China. How will notebook brands deal with a 145% tariff on these elements?
Some of this will depend on whether notebooks are being imported in bulk for resale, vs. being delivered to consumers directly from China. Moleskine is apparently making at least some of their notebooks in Vietnam now, so they may be avoiding the worst tariffs, and at least for the moment, their prices seem to be the same as they were a year ago. The same may be true for other brands. But what about smaller brands that are doing direct to consumer business via Temu, Amazon or AliExpress?
For example, I bought a notebook from China about a month ago via AliExpress– I expected to see that its price had increased since then, but at least for now, the price is the same. But that pricing doesn’t include the tariff at all. According to a thread on Reddit, if I ordered that notebook today, I might be hit with a bill for the tariff myself sometime after its delivery. The shippers that are clearing items through customs are apparently passing along the extra tariff costs to the recipient. USPS may be starting to charge a $9 fee for any incoming packages, and it sounds like that is just for the nuisance factor of handling the shipment, on top of the tariff itself! I would imagine we’ll start to hear more outrage about this in the coming days as people start to get surprise tariff bills after ordering items online.
I’m all for made-in-USA goods, and I’ve often written nostalgically about vintage notebooks from the days when there were lots of regional stationery manufacturers in this country. Notebooks are a great case study for how global trade has evolved over the past century, not entirely for the best. But it’s not like those American factories are just sitting there dormant, waiting to be turned back on the minute tariffs make it easier to compete with cheap Chinese products. And the factories for the materials they would need aren’t sitting there waiting either– there’s a whole supply chain ecosystem that can’t be rebuilt overnight. There must be a better way to re-grow American manufacturing jobs without a sudden, drastic and chaotic change that hurts the economy in other ways in the meantime.
Is it the end of the world that a $30 notebook from China would now probably cost me over $80? No– it’s just a notebook and I can live without it. But say a pocket Moleskine starts to cost $25 or more at your local stationery store, or a 3-pack of Field Notes goes up to $15.95 because the aluminum used in their printing plates is from China and is now more expensive. If everyone starts deciding they can live without those too, it will hurt American small businesses and Americans may lose their jobs.
I don’t pretend I know the best answer to this. I just hope the most dire predictions don’t come to pass.
I am sorry but what exactly did you expected? Tariffs are of course paid by recipients so the fact that Trump says billions and billions are received he is talking about American citizen money as end user will pay these and those billions are not from countries but US ;-) The fact that Americans do not understand this is exactly why dumb Trump and dumb Americans deserve each other.
I definitely expected that American consumers would pay the costs of the tariffs one way or another, but was more focused on how they would be baked into higher retail prices and other downstream effects. I hadn’t really considered how it would function with shipments coming direct to consumers from other countries. I’ve ordered a lot of products from overseas and remember seeing warnings about how I’d be responsible for any customs fees or duties but I never actually had to pay any and hadn’t thought about how that would work– I suppose people like me have been spoiled up til now.
You are so right about American manufacturing not being there just waiting for the lights to come back on. You can’t protect an industry you no longer have. People are so ignorant.
I keep on saying this in stationary circles, but the best thing you can do for yourself and your wallet is to work on what you got. Chances are if you are reading this you have more notebooks than you know what to do with… whittle down that stack, enjoy what you purchased.
The things you already have are just waiting for the experiences you were hoping to have with them. While I think the tariffs is economic suicide bought on by people who don’t understand the global enconomy, we can all work on our stash and find new experiences in what we have, and new appreciation.
my heart goes out to the manufacturers though, I wish there was a way for them to hit pause and I wish they just didnt have to deal with this crap.
Very true!