Posted on 12/25/2001 4:47:42 PM PST by Billy_bob_bob
I posted this on another thread, and decided this is too good of an idea to let sit there. Here it is pretty much as originally posted.
How about a whole new idea for retail, the department store that sells ONLY goods made in the USA (and I mean the lower 48 plus Alaska and Hawaii, none of this "free trade zone" horsepucky). Every product sold there should have a tag on it showing what state it was made in and the name of the company that made it. Maybe even put up displays showing the people who worked on the products being sold. Give the people buying the products a sense of where they came from and why they should care.
I think a store like this could have a lot of appeal for a lot of people. I would like to think that a store like this could open up some opportunities for more American based businesses as well, giving them a retail outlet where their products have a major advantage over products made in other countries. Let the traitors shop at China-Mart, the rest of us could buy our goods at the "Made in the USA" store!
I like this idea a lot. Anybody out there with retail experience who knows how to make this work? I could be made very interested in investing in something like this if I thought there was a good management team willing to take it on.
However, what we are dealing with nowadays is a situation where people are not getting a choice between an inferior domestic product and a superior imported product, they are given the opportunity to buy imported products only, while domestic products are forced off of the shelves. The end result has not been an increase in choice but an elimination of choice. Since the result has been to make it difficult for people inclined to purchase goods made in the USA to find them, I'm proposing this retail concept as a way to make it easy to find these domestically produced goods.
Americans don't want to produce anything anymore. GM is shutting down the oldest car line in America, Oldsmobile after they developed one of the best automobile engines in decades (other than Caddy's Northstar moniker). Buick is next.... by the end of this decade.
Our steel mfg. industry is almost finished. Apparel, textiles, leather, shoes... are mostly imports. Tremendous amounts of produce are imported from South America; not just banannas!
After Clinton sold secrets to the Chinese, we'll be importing missiles and rockets from Asia.
At the end of this decade, we can walk into a McDonalds and buy a Happy Meal for $.99 and it will have a wrapper (made in China) with a logo stating "This Burger Prepared By the USA." Of course, the guys flippin' these inedible pieces of crap, will be illegal immigrants.
There is no accountability anymore in this country. I travel a LOT, and have always rented American cars. They're CRAP. For the first time since in 40 years, I bought a foreign car (BMW540i). Because they run reliably, best fit/finish, quiet, reliable. Ford figured this out when they bought Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Masseratti. Polaroid is in chapter 11, HP is in deep sh!t, Kodak is scrambling, the Europeans are beginning to eat our lunch in telecommunications, Lucent Technologies (formerly Bell Labs - hugh tech US research) is caught in a competitive difficulties (dare I use the term"quagmire?).
I love this country, but for whatever reasons, it appears that since we have lost so many battles against offshore producers, we are losing the war.... it's sad. I was in the steel business for 30 years.
IMOHO
Try to understand that as of today entire American industries have been wiped out by unlimited free trade. If a retail chain like this can be successful, then perhaps it could help to make more jobs here in the USA, and then those people who have those jobs could use the money they make to buy whatever goods they wanted to buy, and I'm willing to bet a good portion of those goods will be imported. So, all in all, it would seem like this idea would help to promote MORE trade over the long haul, instead of less.
You see, people with jobs can afford to buy imported goods. Jobs that make things tend to pay better than jobs that don't make things, so the people who make their living making things usually more disposable income, so they can buy more goods, domestic or imported. Whereas if everybody ends up flipping and selling hamburgers to each other, then nobody is going to be able to afford much in the way of goods, domestic or imported. Am I making sense here?
Tesoro's refining capacity are all on the west coast, it make sense to get the crude from AL and western CAN instead of transporting crude from ME over ocean. For the same reason Tesoro is in active discussion with the Russian Luke Oil to gain access to Siberian crude.
Arco also gets majority of tis crude from AL because it was primarily a west coast op, it really has nothing to do with "Buy USA" (please, these are oil companies), it has to do with what make sense to them to refine and market products. BP Amoco bought Arco for its access to AL crude. So now BP Amoco refining operations on the west coast gets AL crude, the ones on the east gets ME oil.
As for WalMart, WalMart has several mid-stream refining sources - Tesoro is one of them, they also use Koch and Murphy Oil, and those guys (since they don't have the upstream taps themselves) buy on the spot market whereever there is crude and refining capacity to be bought at a good price
On shoes - it's hard to even find a cobbler anymore as we have become such a THROW AWAY society.
On a positive note, I purchased most of my Christmas gifts from local craft fairs and found the items to be the most unique and high quality I have ever seen.
Shoemaker Showing Patriotism
Cape Girardeau, Missouri
October 23, 2001 — Eli Fishman is getting a boost from people who want to buy American and walk American. His Missouri-based Cape Shoe Company produces made-in-the-USA footwear.
Everything from the leather to the laces comes from U.S. factories. He even requires some suppliers to provide affidavits assuring him of the fact.
Fishman tells the Wall Street Journal that his business has jumped more than 15 percent since September 11. He says America needs more of the good factory jobs like his company provides.
(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Last Updated: Oct 23, 2001
Harley's,McItosh Stereo Amps, Cadillac's, Craftsman Tools... what else?
GREAT IDEA!!
How about the 1st one in Argentina!!!!!!!
Used to have a slogan:
There's no Iran in our can!
I suppose some other countries could be substituted, and no longer cans, but bottles.
Since Amsoil improves fuel economy by about 10%, think of all the foreign oil we wouldn't need!
I have used it in everything I've owned since 1976 including my present 1997 Saturn (312,000 mi @ 40+MPG); 1996 Unimog 404 Funkwagen (14,000 Km @ 12 MPG); 1987 Range Rover (116,000+ mi., 20+ MPG)
Would you all like to know where you point squarely to in identifying one of the primary causes of the above?
Can you say "unions"?
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