If Sellers Noted "American-Made"...

 Look, I'm trying really hard to buy American-made stuff these days. Maybe I should be totally honest and say that I'm actually trying hard not to buy China-made stuff. But, as I've said more than once, that's tricky.

If sellers of non-China-made products wanted to rack up more sales, they'd be smart to make sure that the country of origin is prominently marked. I know for sure that if Amazon sellers displayed the country of origin more boldly, they'd get more sales.

Right now, when I'm browsing for something (the latest thing was a bowl scraper), I have to play detective to find out where the item is made. Often, I have to contact the seller or put in a question for other shoppers to tell me. 

A few weeks ago, after I got my Christmas present (another stand mixer, y'all, to replace the one that I killed), I wanted to get an Anchor Hocking measuring cup. My mother always used A.H. cups and cookware (along with Corningware and another brand I can't remember right now). I remember that the measuring cups were really accurate and sturdy. You could throw that glass across the room and it wouldn't break. (I won't tell you how I know that!)

Let's take a moment to talk about prices, shall we?

I went to Amazon (of course) but the prices were outrageous! One 4-cup measuring cup was priced anywhere from $18 to $35. I'm not kidding. Well, that's a big old Not For Me. A couple of days after I saw those prices, I was ordering groceries from Walmart and happened to see the very same Anchor Hocking cup - for $5.17. I almost broke a finger putting in the order. To make it better, for $3.90, there was a 2-cup size. Yep. Got it.

My insurance covers certain OTC items ordered through Walmart. So the other day, I was getting some vitamins and... happened (yes, happened) to see an Anchor Hocking 5-ounce measuring cup. For under $2.50,

Just because I was curious, I tabbed over to Amazon to price the same cup. The prices were all over the place. Some were as low as 9 dollars (the same as the non-sale price at Walmart) and a couple of them were as high as $25. A couple of the cheaper ones were not Prime so the shipping was crazy high.I snagged the one from Walmart.

Okay. Back to the country of origin thing...

Now, here is my gripe about the beloved Anchor Hocking brand...

When I did a quick "where is it made" search, this kind of thing came up more than once:

Anchor Glass Container has manufacturing facilities in China; Tampa, Florida; Jacksonville, Florida; Warner Robins, Georgia; Lawrenceburg, Indiana; Henryetta, Oklahoma; Shakopee, Minnesota; and Elmira, New York.

Huh?

I checked the Anchor Hocking  website and saw this:

LET’S SUPPORT AMERICAN JOBS

CRAFTED IN THE USA SINCE 1905

We’ve been making Anchor Hocking glassware right here in the USA for more than a century. For all that time, our products have remained a staple in kitchens around the world by staying on the edge of craftsmanship and in the center of American-made quality. 

Supporting American jobs is a source of great pride for us, and it’s important to our customers too. They appreciate our dedication to the workforce here at home. And abroad, “made in the USA” means something else – quality.

Well, that... reassuring???

Anyway, I love the Anchor Hocking brand for the same reason I love Lodge and the original-made-in- New York Corningware, and hot grits with butter: my mama did. (By the way, I think modern Corningware items are made in France.)

So I've got my set of Anchor Hocking cups and I've got the beautiful uh, made-in-China Cuisinart mixer the kids got me for Christmas so I'm good. (I'm still mad that I thought Cuisinart was made in the USA and that they put the c/o in the smallest font possible on the bottom of the box!)

Apparently, I can't afford any more measuring cups, no matter where they are made so it's a good thing my set is now complete... Hopefully, my glass cups will last as long as Mama's did. Hers never did break but I have no idea who I gave them to when we were moving house. I do still have a couple of the good old glass bread pans from her ❤.

Anyway. I wish there was a way that I could get word to a lot of sellers. If they could help the customer out by letting us know that their items are NOT made in China, that would be a big help to us and a boost for them.

In the meantime, I literally have "Is this made in China?" pinned to my PC clipboard. That way I can just plug it into the question box for Amazon products. Yeah. It's like that.

Peace

--Free

NOT Made in China?

 While I'm not longer big on making New Year resolutions (birthday resolutions are better anyway), I do have one thing I'm going to work on starting in 2023. My goal is to try to support non-China-made products and goods.

I can already tell that this is going to be difficult for a LOT of reasons:

1. It's tough to find such items, especially since Amazon and Walmart are my go-to shopping places.
2. Products not made in China tend to cost more - in some cases, a lot more.
3. A lot of American-based companies' products are manufactured in China.
4. It's often difficult to tell where a product is from until after you've received it.

When I started exploring ways to weed out China-made goods, I had so much fun that I had to take a couple of Tylenol and a nap to recover.

This is a product I recently ordered for myself for Christmas: 

I stupidly assumed that it was American-made (or at least not China-made) because Nutra Track's site so proudly claims that their products are "Proudly designed in the rainy Pacific Northwest by aging fitness fanatics." In my head, "Pacific Northwest" does speak of "aging fitness fanatics"!

Well, if I had paid closer attention to the product page on Amazon before ordering the item, I would have noticed something. Someone else asked what I should have (and will be doing in the future):

Q: Where is this made?

A: Hello, Our company is US Based (Seattle, Washington) and our scales are manufactured in China to keep our price competitive.

And I can relate to the whole keeping the prices "competitive" thing. Just do a quick Amazon search on any product you want, then compare the costs of non-Chinese goods to those made almost anywhere else. Of course, the costs are higher for American-made goods for several reasons. Good reasons but, still.

However, I am talking about being more careful from here on out in choosing non-China goods. That scale was my Christmas gift (to me!) to replace my 4-year-old scale, which is also China-made...

When my family asked, as they do every year, what I wanted this Christmas, I requested a replacement for my stand mixer - a 4-quart Hamilton Beach electric stand mixer, made in the USA, mind you - that died while trying to mix brioche dough. (If I'd bought the mixer myself, I would have gotten an extended warranty. My family never does that.) 

After I asked for a replacement mixer, one of my brothers hinted that I might actually be getting a KitchenAid. That made me so happy and I assumed at first that it would definitely be American-made. But that might not be true...

Doing a little bit of research for this post on KitchenAid mixers, I ran across this on the No To China (NTC) page:

KitchenAid is indeed shifting production to hand mixers to China and didn’t bother telling its customer service team.

KitchenAid is testing the waters to see if consumers care where their mixers are made.

KitchenAid is manufacturing in Ohio, but tapping China to meet demand.

KitchenAid manufactures in both Ohio and China, and chooses to sell the cheap, China-made models through retailers like Amazon.

This information was given in answer to NTC's inquiry about the country of origin. They received a response from someone in KitchenAid's Consumer Services which NTC said:

"...led me to even more questions, as Brittany asserted that “all of our hand mixers are in fact made in Greenville, Ohio” when in the same conversation Tammy listed one model that was made in China."

Yeah, so, I am over here hoping for an American-made KitchenAid. Feel free to put that to music.

I wondered if, since there seems to be an app or extension around for almost anything, if there was one for weeding out China-made products. I found a couple of sites that are... kind of useful. Sorta, maybe, etc. I found the main ones via a page on the Kim Komando site. Here's my starter list:

• Not China
• China Never 
• Not Made in China Directory
• Product From

There is also an Alliance for American Manufacturing site worth checking out.

I had problems navigating the Not Made in China Directory. Maybe it's my browser but I had to reload the page often because the scroll bar would disappear. I sent them an email about it.

The bottom line is that it's difficult to find weed out China-made items - in-store and online. There are horror stories of some companies switching out Made in China tags to replace them with Made in USA tags. Seriously.

If you try searching Amazon with "not made in China", good luck because it doesn't work well. According to some folks on Reddit, the best way to search on Amazon is to narrow the search field by selecting "Sold By Amazon". I guess that works if you trust Amazon. I don't.

In my opinion, it's best to find several items of the kind you are looking for and then, check each product's Question & Answer section for "made in", "China, "country", and "manufactured in". If nothing comes up, I will post the question. If you are really desperate to know quickly, you can try something very risky (and you have been warned):

1. Order the item
2. Go to your Order Details page
3. Find the seller and left-click on that link to open it in a new tab
4. Cancel the order before it goes through (this is the risky part)
5. Now you can use the storefront link and either "Ask a question" with the link on the top left side or view the seller's store business address - which usually tells you all you need to know!

The seller's storefront shows their customer's feedback ratings and detailed store information, and also provides a link to other products they sell.

My question for Amazon is: why not make it easier to find a seller's storefront in the first place? In some cases, you can find a seller's storefront in other ways. You can Google-search it, or ask Reddit.

Anyway, I am going to try hard to stop buying more China-made stuff to better support U.S. workers.

Peace

--Free

FYI: My "buy American" attitude is not rooted in animosity for the Chinese people or for their country. I am trying to be pro-American worker.