OT, Made in the USA

[Ralph, Ohio]

My wife bought an inexpensive 20" box fan at the local small-town independent hardware store yesterday. I was amazed to see it was made in the USA. Very likely it has imported parts but 'made in USA' still sounds good to me!

 

[senoj]

Made in USA. or usa . After the War Japan renamed an Island "usa" things then were marked Made in usa Would not suprise me if China may have renamed a city "usa" Just a thought. Hope I am wrong. sdd.

 

[Tim(nj)]

Is it a Lesko?

 

[Chris (WA)]

McMillan Electric in Woodville, Wisconsin was still making fan motors last I heard.They were struggling hard to keep work in Wisconsin!

 

[Kruse]

In this particular case, I believe the fan is made, er...., ASSEMBLED in the good old USA. Probably quite a few parts from somewhere else, but at least assembled here.

 

[hanovertom]

I wish it was required to show country of origin. I question where things are made. Some examples I have noticed recently
Crest Distributed by Procter & Gamble
Cheerios Dist by Gen Mills
Fisher nuts - Packaged in USA Where grown?

 

[Ohio wd45]

Thanks to your wife for supporting the small independent hardware store. I would much rather shop at the local hardware store than the big boxes. Everyone thinks that the big boxes are cheaper, and this is not always the case. I am looking more at where products are made. I don't think it is any mistake that some products from China contain cadmium or melamine.

 

[Eric SEI]

The city of Usa in Japan is older than the United States. You should check such things before posting old wives tales. And the Customs office isn't that easily fooled anyway.

 

[Flurette Farm]

What's a "Big Box"?

 

[Kruse]

Well, before we chastise too much, the Northern Mariana islands by Japan could pay a textile worker $3.05 an hour and could legally produce a product that said "Made in USA". This miminum was was in effect until 2007 and by 2015 the minimum wage for a textile worker will be the same as the U.S. thanks to a law signed by Bush.
That wage increase will probably kill their textile industry.
Enter "Northern Mariana" in Wikipedia for a better description.

 

[Ohio wd45]

"Big box" is a term applied primarily to Lowe's and Home Depot.

 

[camju]

cherrios is made in Portage La Praire Manitoba Canada. I've lived here for 38 years and only found this out 2 months ago.They also make oat meal.

 

[Dick L]

Not all Made In USA marked products are mad in the USA.
I had a customer that would not except my wheels with bearings installed that said china on them. Because the cost on manufacturing of that size bearing they are made in the US. Most come from china. I told my bearing supplier of the problem and he said the best he could do was to bring them in from china unmarked or they would mark them Made In USA if I wanted to go that way. He said it was done all the time. I just ordered them unmarked. Only deal is I had to take 10,000 at a time. Bad deal is that I found out that you can not trust the made in USA marking on all products. Sometimes where the carton was made that the product was packed in is the only clue.

So it is against the law to make it in china and mark it made in USA. It is a federal law and they only enforce those that benefit themselves so it seems.

 

[Tim(nj)]

I used to work at a pipe fitting manufacturing plant that shall remain nameless. Stock pipe that came in from Poland, Ukraine, South Korea, Mexico and Italy was checked to meet ASTM, and sometimes additional, standards. Under the trade laws, if the pipe was cut, heated and bent, and then machined at the plant in the US, it could legally have the 'made in xxx' ground off and 'made in USA' stamped on.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Just bought a new toilet and found out it was made in China from Vitreous China of course. I never even thought to look and would not have bought it if I had realized before I installed it. Yep the chinese buy the names we are familiar with to label their products so we will buy them.

 

[RobMD]

I bought a Kohler toilet from lowes once and the china feels very fragile. Worst part of it is that I had to use krazy glue and pieces of hard plastic to get the toilet to sit level and stop rocking on a perfect floor.

 

[Anonymous-0]

We in the USA are the world leader in manufacturing but not for long. The problem is that we do not employ the amount of people to produce that we once did. If you look at the man hours that it took to produce one ton of steel at the beginning of the 1900's versus the tons of steel produced per man hour now. This holds true in almost every industry. Our efficiency has change our work force. China is projected to become the world leader some time in 2011. Hopefully we can keep or reclaim the title once we wake up and move away from socialism.

 

[Lamar Fudd]

Lowes and Home Depot both get "seconds" from Kohler. Usually the glaze is too thin or doesn't go up in the trap far enough. Wholesale price on a first run Kohler is what Home Depot sells them for at retail.

 

[bill mart]

from the web,

Cheerios are made in Buffalo, New York, according to a representative at General Mills. Since its inception in 1941, the Cheerios family has grown to include Honey Nut Cheerios, Apple Cinnamon Cheerios, Frosted Cheerios and

 

[camju]

I guess these cherrios mite be "no name" not genmils

 

[Ralph, Ohio]

Not Lesko. It has the names "Intertek" & "Comfort Zone" on the box & on the instructions with a NJ address.

 

[Cas]

I try to buy American, but it is getting harder.
Only 10 percent of our national GDP is from manufacturing. My generation watched the deindustrialization of America.

 

[bc]

If it is a Vornado fan, it is made in Andover (east side of Wichita), Kansas. One of their guys worked up to District commander for the Legion and then they decided he was spending too much time with Legion business and give him heck if he wanted to keep his job. He had nothing but good things to say about Vornado though.

 

[olgentdc]

them dirty asian bast-urds...

 

[Anonymous-0]

I had to shim the tank in order to level it even though the base was level. The square hole for the flush level was so large the threaded body would not stay in one place so I used a square desk leg foot pad insterted between the flush lever and tank body square hole to take up the clearance. The seat that came with it would not stay in place because it had only two plastic bumpers instead of four bumpers. The plastic hinges were very loose and sloppy and allowed the seat to skid sidways so I replace it with a new metal hinged seat with four bumpers. It does flush better than the old one and I don't have to keep a plunger handy for the stopped up toilet incidents that happened on the old toilet.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I busted up the old toilet in order to find out why it plugged up so frequently. There was a cast intrusion that had a point jutting into and obstructing the discharge flow. It would never work right no matter what steps were taken to improve the discharge flow.

 

[Kruse]

To match the decor of our house, I bought an oak toilet seat. I look for the "Made in USA" label, but because we were in a hurry and short on funds, I purchased a no-name Chinese-made brand for ~$20. It lasted about 4 years before broke. The next time, I searched for an oak American-made seat and it happened to be a Kohler. It was right at $70. About a year went by and the thing broke where they glued the wood together. There was no dowel or anything holding it together but glue; it was just a simple butt-joint. (Not trying to be funny here) I went back to the no-name seat. I was not impressed with the Kohler brand.

 

[Inno]

The problem is that a large number of people are only shopping for a price, they don't care if it breaks and they have to replace it, if the price is cheap enough they don't care. In addition the electronic and cell phone companies are dictating to us what we should have, what is new and cool. I don't dance to their drum!
I am definitely looking at where things are made. I service office equipment and we of course can get OEM parts and we can get aftermarket parts. We had a certain heat roller bearing that was used in a few different machines that we got aftermarket. We noticed a very early failure rate on these bearings. After looking into it a bit more the aftermarket ones were made in China, the OEM ones were from Japan and lasted at least twice as long as the aftermarket. So in going with the OEM we not only saved because we didn't have to buy a second set of bearings, we also saved the labor to replace 'em. And because all our machines are on contract it is to our advantage to cut down on costs and reduce down time.

 

[Jack345]

Lets add Hershey's chocolate (Mexico) and Vitamins
all time made in CHINA to the list.

 

[Richard from SE AZ]

Still looking for an American made shop vice.Going on 3 months now. ALL the ones I have looked at in EVERY store I have been in to say, you guessed it, MADE IN CHINA!!!

 

[LenND]

Bought a new belt for Hoover vacuum at Ace hardware. It was printed on the belt "Goodyear Made in USA". How about that for a surprize.

 

[farmer boy]

Look at Yost vises and Wilton vises. http://www.mile-x.com/wilton-tradesman-vises.aspx
Yost Vises Tradesman combo.