How much are tariffs impacting the cost of your Thanksgiving dinner and holiday shopping

Well, as we sit down for Thanksgiving dinner this weekend, many of us, uh, might notice that the bill a little bit higher than last year. And the question that I have is how much of that is actually tariffs, and what does it mean for your holiday shopping, which will be upcoming? My next guest is retail expert and analyst Bruce Winder, president of the Bruce Winder Retail. He will join me to break down what is driving prices and where shoppers are gonna feel it the most in the coming weeks and months. Welcome back to the program, Bruce.

Yeah. Thanks for having me on, Rob.

Well, let's start with the Thanksgiving table. When people look at the price of a turkey and vegetables and stuffing and everything else this weekend, how much of that increase is actually because of tariffs?

Yeah, hard to say. Probably not as much as we think. I mean, there was a report that came out, uh, last week from Dalhousie University that says on average, you know, for a family of four, a, uh, turkey dinner is gonna be about 10% more expensive this year than last year. Um, but a lot of that is actually because of protein because, um, beef prices have shot up because of herd constraints, and people have moved over to turkey and chicken and poultry and things, and that's increased the price. Um, one of the big issues that's actually affecting groceries right now is the diesel, the increase in diesel, which has doubled from a year ago. But there are select increases due to the tariffs and counter-tariffs. I mean, the Canadian government was pretty, uh, tight this time around, and they tried to pick categories that wouldn't impact Canadian consumers as much, where we have more choice.

Where are shoppers most likely to feel these tariffs directly? Are, are we sticking to the basics? Like, is it dairy, appliances, electronics?

Yeah, you got it. I mean, the stuff that came out a couple months ago. You've got some, uh, dairy products and cheeses from American, uh, producers. Um, you've got whey as well, which is an ingredient for protein. Um, and then like you mentioned, some other, uh, the major appliances, and then a whole bunch of industrial products, which one can argue will make its way into, you know, costs eventually, but in the short run, maybe not as much.

I was talking to a retailer the other day, and he's been sitting on a bunch of inventory that he bought before the latest tariffs took effect. How long can that cushion prices? A- a- and when should consumers expect to see the real impact on the shelves?

Yeah, I mean, it really varies by retailer. I mean, there's only so much inventory you can buy in advance, uh, before, you know, it starts to really hurt your margins and your operating costs. So, you know, if, if you're buying sort of a c- uh, one-- I think one of the categories that was hit was cosmetics. You know, that, that may have a longer shelf life, you know? It-- You might start to see those, uh, tariffs hitting shelf prices now or in a couple weeks. But, you know, if you're, if you're looking at obviously the cheese and dairy, that, that may have a shorter shelf life, and you probably have already started to see some of those, uh, on shelf.

Okay, so let's