I'd love to carry only Made in the USA items in our stores. But we would be out of business in three months.
No individual consumer ever believes it is his or her personal responsibility to "Buy American". They approve of the concept in general, but when it is their dollars being spent, all of a sudden they want items priced at a level no American manufacturer can meet.
There's no way we could afford anything with a union label. (and no one really wants to support the union thugs, either).
Other nations don't have the high taxes, oppressive regulations, or additional union expences, so their products can be made cheaper and better. In todays economy, especially in the economy we have now, people can't afford anything else. (At this point, they really can't afford anything at all.)
Until America wakes up and becomes more business friendly, there aren't going to be any inexpensive products in the U.S. They've all been driven out.
Go back a few more years. Everyone wanted to buy American - cars were first. The elites wanted trade deals and all the rest. Anyone who didn’t want to buy Japanese, for example, was made fun of. Eventually we couldn’t find American made in any store. Even our food now comes from Mexico.
It was never what we wanted, because we knew our country was losing jobs and losing our national security. Now it’s here and the elites are still doing what we don’t want done.
Multinational corporations pay off our politicians and force American out of the stores. We speak of Walmart etc as if they were loyal to America - they aren’t.
Say goodbye to the middle class and hello to serfdom. Say goodbye to the American culture that was based on Christian values and hello to Nihilism.
Yeah, I note that L.L. Bean even says “imported” on most of their merchandise. But they still price it as though it was made right here.
I believe a truly made in the USA retail store would make a lot of money. Quality matters and when you factor that in Made in USA is a better value almost all of the time. Even the most labor intensive manufactured products, labor only accounts for, at most, 9-10% of the retail price.