We asked 65 Woodside students what their most recent purchase was to gauge how tariffs will affect students’ wallets. Responses were split up into four categories: clothing, beauty, food and other. For the clothing category, products from Depop, thrift stores and flea markets, along with clothes from Zara, Aerie, Aviator Nation and Pacsun were frequent purchases. As for food, Starbucks, Chipotle, boba, candy, chips and frozen yogurt were common responses. Only three students had recently purchased beauty products, which made up a small percentage of responses. Finally, the category “other” included everything from books and phone cases to video games and yarn.
The top items from each category were chosen to see how tariffs would affect their prices.
Boba Guys Strawberry Matcha Latte
Boba Guys’ most popular product, the Strawberry Matcha Latte, includes aspects of drinks students recently purchased, with students buying both matcha and boba often. There are four main components to this drink: matcha, strawberry puree, milk and boba pearls.
Boba Guys sources their boba from a factory in Hayward, the only boba factory outside of Taiwan, yet essential ingredients can’t always be sourced in the US. A 10% price increase for these pearls is expected for distributors, but it’s hard to predict how it will end up affecting consumers.
Boba Guys’ milk is from California’s Straus Creamery, garnering no tariffs.
Their matcha is grown and produced in Japan, which currently holds a 15% tariff.
Finally, the strawberry puree includes strawberries sourced in Mexico. There is a 25% tariff on Mexican agricultural imports.
In addition, all of these higher prices aren’t even counting the increased price of cups, straws or manufacturing equipment from the boba factory.
Current price: $6.40-$7.40
Expected price: If there is an increase due to tariffs, the price will most likely be less than a dollar higher.
Starbucks Strawberry Acai Refresher
Starbucks has committed to freezing prices for the rest of 2025, announced in Oct. 2024, pre-tariff talks. It’s expected that they’ll keep their word, but there is a chance portions or prices will change in the future to compensate for high tariffs on coffee, produce and more.
Bottom line: No change in price.
Chipotle
Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright is committed to not letting tariffs affect costs for consumers despite key ingredients for Chipotle coming from Mexico, a soon-to-be highly tariffed country. Although customers have already speculated that prices may remain constant, their infamous portion sizes may start to decrease.
Bottom line: No change in price.
Thrifted clothing
As thrifted clothing generally doesn’t come from other countries, its prices shouldn’t really increase. Although it is important to keep in mind that other products, including bags and display prices, could increase, causing the store’s prices to increase as well. Also, if clothing becomes more expensive, thrift stores will most likely keep this in mind when pricing their products.
Bottom line: The prices shouldn’t change much.
Fast Fashion (Hollister, Zara, Brandy Melville)
Most fast fashion comes from China, where tariff rates are constantly changing. Currently, a 30% tariff stands on Chinese imports. This would turn a $20 shirt into a $26 one. However, since negotiations are still underway, the tides could quickly turn and could drive up tariff rates or bring them down.
Average H&M price: $26
Average H&M price with tariffs: $33.80
Books
The majority of books sold in the US are printed domestically. Despite this, materials and machines needed to print the books are typically still imported. Bookweb.com suggested that domestic books could end up having a minimum of a 5%-10% increase in price due to tariffs, despite being produced in the US.
Average Price: $9.99 to $18.99
Average price with predicted increase: $10.75 to $19.42
Vinyl
Vinyl, along with CDs and cassette tapes, will be exempt from trade tariffs due to the fact that they are classified as “informational materials.
Bottom line: prices shouldn’t change
