That is an interesting point. I had forgotten that people's choices are often intermediated through stores. There are two things we still need to remember. Those stores stock what people buy. If people were consistently choosing to buy American products they would stock more American products. Second, with online shopping you can buy directly from manufacturers. Take my two most recent online purchases for example, a bike tube and a pen. For the bike tube, I had no idea where in the world it was made. All I knew is that it had the best reviews for the lowest price. When I just checked, sure enough it's from China. Or the pen, it's German and was shipped directly.
In the first example I purchased purely from merit and ended up with a Chinese product, and in the second I purposely chose a foreign product over any other domestic competitors because the Germans, Japanese, and Taiwanese are the only countries that can make a nice pen to save their life. The best example of this is cars. American car manufacturers got out-competed fair and square and now an American car is something I would personally avoid.
All to say, big box stores aren't unilaterally deciding what people must buy, and "Made in America" can sometimes be good, America has generally moved up in the world economy to performing higher skilled labor instead of everyone being factory workers.
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And you've raised an "interesting point" when making direct reference to online shopping. Which could also be generically described as the most direct way of purchasing from any manufacturer (domestic or foreign). In other words the buyer cuts out the middle man and evaluates products using online "reviews" or their own emotional impulses, or serendipity.
It would appear our exchanges on this topic have already revealed that this particular "Onion" has rather more layers than first met the eye.
| QUOTE: "and in the second I purposely chose a foreign product over any other domestic competitors because the Germans, Japanese, and Taiwanese are the only countries that can make a nice pen to save their life."
But have you not heard of Cross (A.T. Cross Company, LLC) ... a famous American manufacturer of high quality pens, based in Providence, Rhode Island??
About 17 years ago, I stumbled upon Cross Pens while browsing inside a giant Shopping Mall in Central Bangkok. I really liked what I saw, and eventually chose a mini-pen (i.e., half the length of a standard pen) which I could easily carry with me inside my shoulder pouch. Back in those days, I was keeping a daily journal in a pocket-sized notebook. On that day, Cross Pens provided me a novel solution to a fairly unique problem... which is another characteristic of American manufacturers I've often valued: the ability to offer novel solutions to highly personalized problems.
Cross writing instruments are generally sold in the mid-range of the market, rather than at the extreme luxury end. Yet paradoxically, I then discover (thanks to Wikipedia) that most, but not all, Cross writing instruments are now made in China!!! Although (that article continues) some of the work for customized pens is still performed in New England.