Are you aware who your favorite brands really are?

~Year’s ago I bougt an All-in-one Intel desktop computer from Dell computers. I only bought the $1,500 computer because of the brand names (Dell, and Intel). With a conveniece of a recognized website.

They sold me a computer that crashes often, was not the same 2 TB and optical drive that we agreed on.

It finally crashed during an update and needed a whole new hard drive with Windows 11.

I ended up donating it to the repair guys, for scrap.

First, it is really hard to verify. There was just something on NPR about this last week. There are a bunch of clothing manufacturers in Vietnam or Sri Lanka (or elsewhere in Asia) that will dye the cloth, cut it, measure it, put it 80% together, and then ship it to the US for final assembly. And because a little bit of work was done in LA or NY, it can have the label Made in USA.

You’ll never get that level of information from the company or the retailer.

Second – a lot of old names (RCA, Polaroid, Kodak, MInolta, Bell and Howell, Gateway Computers, for example) were sold when the original company went bankrupt. Kodak, for example, means nothing – cameras are made in Korea (?) or China, and then they slap the Kodak name on it. Don’t believe the old names at all.

Finally, go to your medicine cabinet and look at your drug bottles. Most drugs (at least the ones I take) are made in India.

Comparatively little is manufactured here.

^^ I think that’s what Levi is doing. At least they are honest enough to say “assembled in America”. They just fail to say that everything being assembled here is made elsewhere!!!

It seems that most items “produced” in the US are merely assembled from parts made in various places in the world. Over the past sixty years I have witnessed the transition of the US economy from a manufacturing economy (especially in the post-WWII years) to a full fledged service economy. Hardly anything is completely produced in the US anymore, including food.

I recently received a piece of clothing as a gift. the source label read: “Made in Bangladesh for American Eagle Outfitters.”

I believe in researching and buying quality items that will last.
I am not against outside US manufacturers.
I side on manufacturers who value sustainability in their process and value their employees.

Finding something made totally in the USA is difficult. Even many brands that were originally US based companies have been bought out by China. But for the longest time Fords were made almost entirely in Mexico. Nike uses Chinese slave labor. Even Smithfield meats are no longer a US company (China).

Yes, I look into things like this a lot, but find it is difficult to buy only American. Buying from local businesses like farms is about the best you can do.

@seawulf575 “Buying from local businesses like farms is about the best you can do.”

This. Not only because buying American is a good thing to do, but also local products don’t involve the impact on the planet of shipping raw materials to the other side of the world to be made into something and then shipping it all the way back.

My first choice for food is the local grower’s market.
Second choice, if not a specific farm’s store, is a shop called the Farmer’s Market, which has a lot of local produce.
Third choice is Trader Joe’s.
Fourth is a variety of other local stores.
Fifth is a chain grocery store.

I use the Buycott app, which lets you scan UPC codes and cross-references them against a database of campaigns you can choose from, and will show you which causes each product conflicts with. The products at chain grocery stores tend to conflict with many of mine, but Trader Joe’s, not nearly so often.

Henry Repeating Arms rifles are “Made in America or Not Made At All”.
They make high quality products and their customer service line is often manned by their Founder and CEO, Anthony Imperato.

@seawulf575 Don’t you just love it when there’s something we can agree on! I think local farmers and family-owned companies strengen local economies.

@gorillapaws Additionally it keeps local merchants in business. Something that disappears when the go to big stores and/or order online.

@Strauss Absolutely. I may be a salty, crusty, curmudgeon that disagrees politically with many people on this site, but I really do care about society. I just don’t see the solutions as many do.

I was in NO way trying to imply that there is anything wrong with buying from outside the US!!! In many instances, it’s the ONLY option we have. I was just shocked at some of the US companies who have quietly become foreign companies. Several are names that I’ve wondered who they are & where did they come from. I often hear people swear that they ONLY buy “made in USA” products & there fridge is a Frigidaire & there TV is RCA & they drive a Chrysler or a Jeep…NONE of those are even owned by a US company. I have several friends who buy Levi brand because it’s a “made in America” company when they ONLY “assemble” here depending on other countries to do the intial work.

Living in a small town with LOTS of farmers, I purchase a good amount of veggies, fruit, etc from neighbors. I also buy my eggs fresh from the hen. My go to grocery store sources locally & my fave restaurant sources locally as well. My town was a textile town until it wasn’t. I would have NEVER moved here had it not been to move back home to take care of my aging parents. We don’t have all the conveniences of a big city. Then we also don’t have ALL the problems of a big city either & people are more willing to help each other when needed!!! It’s definitely NOT a bad place to spend my old age!!!

I used to like the Kroger brand. I used to like Vitacost, an online supplement company. Then the vitamin company was bought out by Kroger, and about the same time I started to notice the quality of merchandise and customer service from both companies was slipping. They were probably slipping earlier, but at last I began to pay attention.

After an insulting and alarming interaction with Vitacost a few weeks ago, I promised them I’d take my business elsewhere. And since then I’ve begun a war with Kroger, because they switch out conventionally grown produce for organic, and they also spray pesticides on their organic apples.

There are 3 grocery stores left in my town that still have a decent reputation (they’re smaller companies too), so I’m shopping there now.

My favorite brands aren’t people and, yes, I’m aware of what they are.

I try to stay away from anything owned by Nestlé. because they steal water all over the world.

Two years ago we bought a wood stove insert with a blower. The fireplace is small and an unusual shape, so our options were quite limited. We ended up with an Ashley brand, but after we had purchased it, we discovered it had been made in China. The stove is well made, except for the cheaply made blower part that failed. @LuckyGuy helped me find a part to fix it, but so far it’s running fine.

@ragingloli Didn’t know about that. Reading about it now. :/