I am an elderly senior, but I do have an MBA in business. That said, I am still not sure how — or who is going to pay for the pending tariffs.

Our president asks businesses not to make consumers pay, or he is asking the business to absorb the 10%, 20% or whatever percent tariff is to be added to almost their entire product costs.

In my experience, there are very few merchants of any kind that have a profit margin of 10% and very few at 20%; they cannot absorb these added costs.

Since we have a 90-day reprieve on most tariffs, I suggest merchants adjust their sales tickets to add another line item of “tariff” just between the tax charge and the sales total. This will draw attention to the true inflationary impact on the voting public on who is really bearing the brunt of the tariff's costs.

Ron Koch Sr., Butler