The holiday influx of people, pets, and goods around my household has made a need very apparent. I need a new vacuum cleaner. Badly. I’m shopping at Oreck, an American manufacturer with a plant in the U.S.
A friend of mine just got a gorgeous, authentic pea coat made by Sterlingware. It’s heavy and stylish and is made in the U.S. of entirely U.S. made material! It will last him many years and will never be out of style.
I found it!! Performance underwear for my family. Check out Wickers. An alternative to the foreign made sports underwear at the mall. It is polyester and available in many styles. They even have flame retardant undergarments and apparel worn by the U.S. Special Forces. I haven’t bought it yet, but you can bet I will. Their prices are much better than what I’ve seen at large sporting goods stores!
I just received the printed t-shirts I got for my son from Athletic Appeal. They are very nice shirts and were delivered very quickly. Give them a try!
I was recently out shopping and did some thinking. There were some lovely pillows on sale and I was very tempted to buy them. They were made in China. I put them back, thought about it for a while, and left without them. I decided to get my pillows and pillow covers at a craft fair or some other U.S. source. I didn’t need the pillows. They would have been pretty in my home but they would have been a frivolous purchase. I looked around the mall and saw people buying all sorts of things that are probably frivolous. I thought about our consumer culture and trade deficits. I thought about the morning news, where they reported on how little we are saving for rainy days and retirement.
I’d rather my money go towards a company here in he U.S., with fairly paid workers. A company that does not depend on sweatshops with 90 hour weeks and adolescent workers who should be in school. A company that does not have employees working with toxic chemicals without gloves or masks. There is no guarantee that by buying from a U.S. company everything will be rosy and that they only have happy employees and trustworthy suppliers. Nevertheless I choose to keep my dollars here whenever possible. Doing so seems like the best bet for our future and I want to reward those companies who choose to stick it out and find their niche in spite of foreign competition.
I’m glad I put those pillows back.
