In the course of my holiday shopping, I’ve made a disconcerting and highly disappointing discovery. The majority of the children’s books I’ve sought for purchase are printed overseas.
The most popular presses are in China, although Singapore more specifically gets credit a large amount of the time. (Is that because “Printed in Singapore” somehow reads better than “Printed in China”?) Read the rest of this entry »
Next time you’re in Target, or Wal Mart, or any discount store for that matter, pay attention to the country of origin of everything you want to buy. Seriously. Just try it. Report back if you want. But just try it.
I just did it, obviously because I do it every time I’m in a store. But this time was different. Read the rest of this entry »
Okay, so I promise after this I’ll let the coffee comments (see previous couple of posts) go.
Yesterday I listed some common comments that I found on a blog from someone trying to find an American-made coffee maker. I listed those comments. Now I want to address them.
I just think it’s *better* for the US economy if we would buy more “Made in US”.
It sure seems like it would be. It only makes sense. Except, it may not actually be any better that we make our own stuff (economy-wise, I mean). Read the rest of this entry »
Shelley gave me a gift. Not really a gift, per se, but when we were cleaning out her office (she’s moving down the hall for the second time in two years) she gave me the junk she no longer needed or wanted. Most of it was probably made far away and is relatively useless. But still I want. I did take a nice compartmentalized tin that is now storing tea. And some tea that is now in the tin. And a convention giveaway that I’m using as a gym bag. And a 1-gigabyte USB thumbdrive that wanted to make very clear its vital statistics.
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Not my hand.
National Geographic doesn’t just write about far away places. They write about the stuff from far away places that we bring home.
It’s really hard to not buy Chinese junk.
Not for me personally, I don’t think it would be terribly hard. But I don’t live in a bubble.
I had to buy some props for a photo shoot on short notice. A spatula, a frying pan and a platter. Read the rest of this entry »
I needed brads to hold together three-hole-punched paper scripts. 99 pages each. (For the story about how Kinkos… er, Fedex Office, screwed up the order and printed seven sets of 99-page documents backwards, from 99 down to 1, email me. It got the project started on the wrong foot. Things went downhill from there.)
They did punch the holes in the scripts, though, so that was good. And the holes were even on the left! Thank heaven for tiny miracles. Read the rest of this entry »
Re. the post “If you buy CFL light bulbs you might be a bad person” and reader Ryan’s thoughtful comment pointing me to the “Lights of America” web site:
I need a body cap for my Canon camera. A body cap, for those who don’t know, is like a lens cap for the camera body when the lens isn’t on it.
Normally a person in need of a body cap would go to a camera store and say “I need a body cap for my camera.” They would then be handed a body cap in exchange for $10 or so (which is an outrage for a little blob of plastic) and everybody would go about their merry way. Read the rest of this entry »
So CFL on this blog does not involve Canadian Football. It means Compact Fluorescent, as in the light bulb variety.
I’ve mentioned before that, to the best of my understanding, no CFL light bulbs are manufactured in the U.S. Based on further recent personal investigation, it is my belief that none are manufactured anywhere outside of China. Read the rest of this entry »
In a move expected to cost 300 American jobs, the government is switching to cheaper off-shore condoms, including some made in China.
The excerpt above is taken from a Kansas City Star story about USAID, distributors of more than 10 billion MITUSA condoms to prevent AIDS in poor communities around the world, moving from Alabama-made condoms to Chinese-made condoms. Read the rest of this entry »
Last night Shelley and I went to the mall.
She bought me a lovely sportcoat for Christmas, but it didn’t fit. (I’m larger than usual.) So we returned it a while ago and finally went to replace it.
I had also received a button-down shirt from The Gap. That Christmas gift from her aunt was also too small, and when I went to exchange it post Christmas the store was ransacked, so I waited. Last night, I traded it in. Read the rest of this entry »
Scare yourself by reading about Chinese-made auto parts in the New York Times. Or just read the pull-quote:
For consumers, that means automotive equipment made in China is less likely to comply with safety standards than the same product made in the United States.
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On vacation in Florida. Orlando, to be exact. Went to the Bass Pro Shop (I went fishing today; see the fish I caught below) and Shelley and I were greeted with a display of great American flag shirts. Really tacky in a really great jingoistic way. This is why I love the girl: she said “wait a second,” and marched Read the rest of this entry »
When I was at the grocery store I looked for CFLs. That’s Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs. I’ve been hearing lots of friends talk about how they’ve drastically reduced their energy consumption (and, therefore, electric bills) by smart usage—including installing CFLs around the house.
I’ve also heard the rumor that you can’t buy American-made CFLs.
I looked at two brands, and both were made in China.
We’ll see. Fingers are crossed.
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1.5.09: My mail order socks arrived today.
I placed the order post-Christmas, pre-2009-only-buying-American-made-stuff resolution. I’ve done it before, although not via mail. What I’ve done is replace every one of my myriad black socks, and every one of my myriad white socks, with a batch of brand new black or white socks from a single manufacturer. Twelve sets of each color, 48 socks in all. I’m in OCD Read the rest of this entry »
12.31.08
I have a feeling that one of the hardest parts of this process—at least at the beginning—is going to be simply remembering to check where the stuff I buy is made. Every little purchase I’ve made in the past few days, as a warmup perhaps, has caused Shelley to inquire without missing a beat: “Was it made in China?”
Ugh.
If nothing else, hopefully this process will at least make me aware of where my stuff comes from.
An informed consumer must be a better consumer, right?
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Bye, American 