The mighty American consumer keeps shrugging off tariffs as retail sales rise 0.5% in July

Retail sales rose 0.5% last month, a slowdown from a revised 0.9% in June, which was revised upward, according to the Commerce Department’s report released Friday

The pace in July matched economists’ estimates

They appear to have returned roughly to normalized spending after a surge in March and April as Americans attempted to get ahead of Trump’s 25% duty on imported cars and parts and then a slump after that, according to Samuel Tombs, chief U.S

Economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics

Still spending appears to be holding up even as Trump’s tariff are resulting in a slowdown in hiring and rising prices for shoppers

Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that U.S. hiring is slowing sharply as Trump’s trade policies paralyze es and raise concerns the outlook for the world’s largest economy

U.S. employers added just 73,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Aug 9, well short of the 115,000 expected

Another government report, issued Tuesday, on U.S. inflation showed that inflation was unchanged in July as rising prices for some imported goods were offset by declining gas and grocery prices, leaving overall prices modestly higher than a year ago

The new numbers suggest that slowing rent increases and cheaper gas are offsetting some impacts of Trump’s sweeping tariffs

Many es are also ly still absorbing much of the cost of the duties

U.S. wholesale inflation soared unexpectedly last month, signaling that Trump’s taxes are pushing costs up and that higher prices for consumers may be on the way

The Labor Department reported Thursday that its ducer price index — which measures inflation before it hits consumers— rose 0.9% last month from June, biggest jump in more than three years

The figures were much higher than economists had expected

The report comes as major retailers Walmart and Target are slated to report their fiscal second-quarter earnings reports starting next week

Analysts will stud the reports to see how much retailers are absorbing the costs and how much they’re passing on to shoppers

They’ll also want to get insight into the state of consumer behavior heading into the critical fall and winter holiday seasons

In May, Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, warned t hat it had increased prices on bananas imported from Costa Rica from 50 cents per pound to 54 cents, but it noted that a large sting for shoppers wouldn’t start to appear until June and July

But a growing list of companies including cter & Gamble, e.lf

Cosmetics, Black & Decker and Ralph Lauren told investors in recent weeks that they plan to or have already raised prices

Some, eyewear retailer Warby Parker, are trying to be selective and are trying to focus on raising prices on just their premium ducts as a way to offset the higher costs from tariffs

But it’s also having to deal with higher tariffs costs in other countries

But it’s increasing prices on select lens types

It also wants to cater more to older shoppers who need more expensive gressive lens

Warby Parker said that gressives, trifocals and bifocals make up roughly 40% of all prescription units sold industrywide

Company executives said gressives are its highest priced offering and offer the highest fit margins. “We were able to quickly roll out select strategic price increases that have benefited our growth,” Neil Blumenthal, co-chairman and co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, told analysts last week

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