Dozens of tour buses have added the tiny town of Elma, N.Y., as a stop this year. On their way to scenic sites like Niagara Falls, these tourists are squeezing in a visit to the Made in America store.
Shop owner Mark Andol climbs aboard a bus and tells the riders that shopping here is a patriotic act.
“When you walk through them doors, I guarantee when you’re shopping — the homework’s been done — it’s 100 percent made-in-America products. Made in this country by American workers, and the money stays in our economy. So, enjoy yourself,” he says.
Customers pour into the spacious building, which used to be a Ford dealership. American flags and patriotic quotes adorn the walls.
Gloria Giesa of Vaselboro, Maine, says she always looks for “Made in the USA” labels when shopping. But this store saves her the trouble.
“Makes me think of when I was young and everything was American. And that’s the way it should be,” she says.
So far, principle hasn’t turned into a profit. Any money the store has made has gone into acquiring new products. Sales have doubled from this time last year, thanks to word of mouth and visits by out-of-towners.
Franchisees are already planning to open more Made in America stores, envisioning it as the next Wal-Mart — without the foreign goods.
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I don’t have anything against this concept but… it is impossible. The cash registers were made with parts bought from outside the US. The factories that made the “All American Products” had machines either made outside the US or the machines were made from parts made outside the US.
It is simply impossible to have a true trade terrif and buy anything because the cost of things is not just in the product itself, it is in the tools.
It is now a world economy. No one nation can control the entire chain of manufacturing of any product. Raw materials come from one part of the world and are transformed into component parts in another, then assembled into sub-assemblies in yet another nation and finally assembled into complete products in yet another. This principle is especially true with automobiles, electronics, and many of our common household gadgets.
Raw chemical elements, rare earths, copper, semiconductor elements, metal ores etc are mined and sometimes processed, then shipped elsewhere to be transformed into useful materials that are then shipped elsewhere to be turned into their final functional forms. (Think steel, aluminum, tin, copper, silicon, glass, etc …)
The best that a “made in USA” retailer can hope to do is to look for products where more that 50% of the value of the product was created in the US, so that more than 50% of the total profit for the product (that is to include ALL markups during all phases of production) go to Americans.
oh cool. I drive by this place on the way home from work every day but haven’t been in.
Google Maps fans can count the number of large industrial complexes in a five mile radius… it’ll surprise you. Across the street is a busy welding shop & a coin-op car wash and next door is a tow truck operator and a gas station. After that, open fields mix with forest. It’s as "American" a location as you could pick– and living in this area, I don’t doubt the sincerity of the owners.
Huh. Everything looks different when you change the context.
So… No inexpensive electronics?
@sonic – likely no electronics at all.
I don’t have anything against this concept but… it is impossible. The cash registers were made with parts bought from outside the US. The factories that made the “All American Products” had machines either made outside the US or the machines were made from parts made outside the US.
It is simply impossible to have a true trade terrif and buy anything because the cost of things is not just in the product itself, it is in the tools.
It is now a world economy. No one nation can control the entire chain of manufacturing of any product. Raw materials come from one part of the world and are transformed into component parts in another, then assembled into sub-assemblies in yet another nation and finally assembled into complete products in yet another. This principle is especially true with automobiles, electronics, and many of our common household gadgets.
Raw chemical elements, rare earths, copper, semiconductor elements, metal ores etc are mined and sometimes processed, then shipped elsewhere to be transformed into useful materials that are then shipped elsewhere to be turned into their final functional forms. (Think steel, aluminum, tin, copper, silicon, glass, etc …)
The best that a “made in USA” retailer can hope to do is to look for products where more that 50% of the value of the product was created in the US, so that more than 50% of the total profit for the product (that is to include ALL markups during all phases of production) go to Americans.
The name of the place is a bit misleading, no?
oh cool. I drive by this place on the way home from work every day but haven’t been in.
Google Maps fans can count the number of large industrial complexes in a five mile radius… it’ll surprise you. Across the street is a busy welding shop & a coin-op car wash and next door is a tow truck operator and a gas station. After that, open fields mix with forest. It’s as "American" a location as you could pick– and living in this area, I don’t doubt the sincerity of the owners.
Huh. Everything looks different when you change the context.