Are You a Price Shopper? Consider This

     When you decide you want to buy a new pair of jeans, a new bicycle, TV or chain saw, what most affects your choice of which one to purchase?  Is it price, quality, preference to support local businesses?  All valid considerations but a growing trend is to throw those to the wind and BUY AMERICAN.  Entire websites have been dedicated to making it easier for consumers to KNOW which brands and products are American made.

Consider the benefits:

• US Manufacturing Processes are much healthier for the environment than many other countries.
• Many foreign countries have low standards that allow unsafe working conditions. 
• When one chooses American made products, they are supporting a fair day’s wage for an honest day’s work. 
• Supporting domestic manufacturing by purchasing American products prohibits the “leakage” of US funds overseas. 
• Foreign product safety standards are much lower than those in the US. 
• When we make the decision to purchase American goods we are helping America to grow more independent by not forcing us as a nation to outsource our need for manufactured goods to any other country.
• If America’s commerce becomes solely dependent upon service and agricultural endeavors, we allow precious jobs to continue to disappear and support the economy of other countries to the detriment of our own.

What Can You Do To Keep Americans Working?

First, keep the idea of buying American foremost in your mind when shopping, whether online or in stores. 

Second, let companies know that you would rather buy products made in The USA. 

Additionally, educate yourself about which companies out source support jobs.  

Look for the "American Made Matters" logo on items you're shopping for.

     Rather than reading every label and searching store product inventories to discover product origins, you can consult one of the many directories compiled to direct us to domestically 

manufactured items.  One such is : 

http://www.Americansworking.com.  Lots of good info is available here on what each of us can do to be apart of the solution.

     Each individual has to personally decide with each purchase whether price, origin of manufacture or any other number of factors will be the most powerful determination in picking a particular product. In a difficult economy, paying a higher dollar for a locally made item is not always feasible.  Certainly though, if everyone considers the benefits to buying things made here,  namely making more jobs for ourselves, we will have at least the tendency to look for our needs from among items available domestically. 

    Happy Shopping!

    Thanks to Joyce Crocker for compiling the research and info for this post.