Sunday, June 05, 2005

Made to be hip, in america

I have been out of town for the last week (and will be for the next two weeks) so I haven't really been able to get to posting.

Mandy and I went down to the American Apparell store in the University District and bought some super hip clothes yesterday. That place is pretty expensive, but as I have said before, we should be willing to pay a little more for products that help provide our fellow americans with jobs. They are ecconomically and socially responsible, and I have to support that. If you won't do that then you are like a terrorist or something. Well maybe not, but you really should buy american. Check your labels.

We also hit the kitchen supply store yesterday to get a new kitchen scale (cuz I melted the bowl on the last one), and to get a new probe thermometer (cuz Mandy melted that one). Unfortunatelty there were no probe thermometers made anywhere but China, and the only alternative to chinese in scales was a reasonably priced one from Germany (which we bought). While checking labels on all this stuff, I noticed a few things there that were not labeled Made in China, but labeled Made in PRC. Now I know that means china, but I'll bet a lot of people don't. Those sneaky bastards!

What I really would love to find is a good usable resource for finding american manufacturers of things like this so that I can hunt down american made scales and probe thermometers, rather than just picking through the selection at Sur la Table. Anybody that knows of one please let me know.

4 comments:

mandy said...

I searched a bit and found this site: US Stuff. It's a start...

Anonymous said...

we (as americans), settle for poorly designed, cheap ass crap (ie: look how many people ride Motive bikes, or drive Chevy Aveos)... we (as americans), also produce poorly designed, cheap ass crap. our culture is driven by getting the cheapest hunk of crap and then replacing it every few years and what is the result of this?? stuff made in america, in general, sucks. it is poor quality. the people making it don't care they just want to get out of work so they can go home and watch tv while eating mcdonalds and swilling bud lite. the people financing the manufacturing don't care they just want to squeaze every last penny out of us.

while of course there are plenty of exceptions (typically small companies with crafted goods as opposed to manufactured goods), i say screw us! i am glad to buy stuff from germany, and some of the best bike frames in the world are coming out of taiwan (really, in quality they blow italy out of the water).

shop for the quality. shop for the design. don't waste your money shopping to support us fat, lazy, gw supportin' americans.

mandy said...

You know, when Bodie first started talking about how people should buy American, I had the same thoughts. Why would I want to buy US when I really don't want to support our current administration? But then I started thinking about it on a purely selfish level. If I stop buying US products, then US people lose their jobs. That means less people paying taxes and more people on unemployment. Which means more taxes for me, and I don't want that.

And then there's the fact that by buying crap made in China, we are, in effect, giving money to a government even more screwed up then our own. And thats pretty shitty too.

Lefty said...

Scotty,

I agree with what you are saying about quality. People in general won't pay for quality, and there has been a lack of quality in some american goods. But for every Motive there are pre-Trek Fishers and Bontragers and Kleins. When companies find that they can use a label like Bontrager, but ship production to Taiwan to save a few pennies and we will still buy it, we all lose. I say fuck Trek and Taiwan and buy a Rock Lobster or a Paul, or at least one of the Fishers still made here.

I will never advocate the purchase of crap out of patriotism, but it foolish to eschew American products out of general spite.

PS Did you know that over the last several years the German auto manufacturers have had the lowest levels of customer satisfaction in the industry?