re: Will you try to buy less made in China

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Greed of the customers, mostly. Like I said, if the Made In America tag actually generated any additional business, I'd go 100% MIA. But it doesn't. Everyone says they want Made in America, but goes right to the cheap stuff when crunch time hits.

I'll give you an example: one of our headline products was made in china for $32 cost, shipping included. They sell on my and my competitors' sites for around $69.99.

I sell the Made in America version. It's better quality, has more features, and the shipping time is 5 days instead of 15. The problem is it's $55.

I still have to list it for $69.99 because the customer is not comparing like to like, they see product X on competitor.com is selling for $69, and I'm selling for $79, and they go to the competition. I advertized all over the place about the Made in America, no one cared. I dropped the price to the Chinese price, and my customers were back, but with me making barely any margin. So I just don't advertize that product.

You say you want Made in America, but you don't. You want Made in America at Made in China prices, and you'll be willing to swallow your pride when it comes down to it and buy the Chinese version, because you don't want to pay the premium.

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I do think perhaps it depends on what type of product we are talking about. You say you work in textiles so im assuming clothing?? Or maybe that could mean bedding materials?

At the end of the day I would still say we as Americans aren't educated enough (though maybe that's now going to change) on buying from China vs here. I don't think it's advertised properly. Im no expert on advertising...but if I were trying to market and sell made in America vs my competition made in China? I would hammer their arse with the nastiest rhetoric of China possible. Educate your customers on why they should buy American. Hell, I even do it on a local level. Rarely will I go to a bar/restaurant that isn't locally owned and ran.

Back to on what I was talking about with the yeti cooler example. Im 100% done buying their stuff. I'll buy something good ole boys from Tennessee manufacture and assemble...Orion coolers.

Another example, I wanted to get my brother in law a high end pocket knife for Xmas. I live in NW Arkansas, and had heard about AG RUSSELL knives. The story is a local guy from back in the day making these high quality knives. Sounds great right? I walk in the place and they have this recording playing in the background going on about this good ole boy starting this business from scratch showing him and employees hand making these knifes...just the All American Dream story.

This is a decent sized building and an absolute tiny store where they actually sell the knives. So...I figured there were a bunch of guys in the rest of the building making these knives. So I ask the girl working in assuming fashion if they were in the back making knives as we speak. This girl kind of scoffed at me and let me know "oh no, we contract that stuff out to other countries." She said this as if it were a GOOD thing. I couldn't believe my ears. I asked her I said you mean with this story and advertising these knives not only aren't even made in Arkansas...but are made in China? She was taken aback I had a problem with it...needless to say I didn't buy an AG RUSSELL knife for my brother in law. Wound up buying a Case knife instead. Kind of generic but at least they are 100% manufactured and assembled on our soil.