COVER STORY
Most retailers cite minimal impact from tariffs, but inflation concerns linger The SN 2026 Retailer Survey: Confidence slips
BY MARK HAMSTRA
Despite the challenges the industry faced from the tariffs—and the uncertainty that continues to surround them—retailers remained optimistic about the year ahead.
MORE THAN NINE IN 10 RETAILERS (93%) said tariffs impacted their profitability in 2025, according to the latest edition of the Supermarket News Retailer Expectations Survey. About three-fourths of retailer respon - dents (76%) said tariffs had a slight impact, while 17% said the impact was significant. Among the overall respondents, which included wholesalers, manufacturers and others in the industry, 33% said tariffs had a significant impact on profitability, reflecting the increased upstream costs of tariffs on manufacturers.
Almost all retailers took some actions to minimize the impact of tariffs, including 69% who said they passed some of their added costs on to their customers and 55% who said they worked with different suppliers to find lower-cost items. Forty-one percent said they sought more efficient operations to drive cost savings elsewhere to avoid raising prices for their customers. Despite the challenges the industry faced from the tariffs—and the uncertainty that continues to surround them—retailers remained optimistic about the year ahead, although their confidence has waned from
a year ago. More than three-fourths of retailers (76%) said they were confident about the strength of the economy, down from 82% who were confident in the economy heading to 2025. The percent who are extremely confident in the economy in 2026 was down to 17%, vs. 26% a year ago. About a quarter of retailers (24%) said they expected the U.S. to enter an economic recession in 2026, up seven percentage points from a year ago, when 17% said they expected a recession in 2025. About one- in-seven retailers (14%) said they believed
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