Only the Beginning

Lately, on the news, they are touting buying local and now, buying American. I mean, I know it's nothing new. We're supposed to buy American. Everyone knows that (I think). But just lately there is a bit of a push on the idea. Buying American, even a little bit, can help create jobs and job creation seems to be the topic o' the day.

So I thought I'd make it my New Year's resolution but then I thought, why wait? It actually makes no sense to wait so today, for the first time, I made a very concerted effort to buy American. Now, that's not to say everything I bought was made in America. Not by a long shot. I think that very well might be impossible. And, if I'm being honest, if there was something I REALLY WANTED (like the Jennifer Lopez red dress at Kohl's that ended up looking WAY better on the hanger) I would buy it, China or not. But if I was able to make an American choice, I made it and I am confident that I came home with a much larger percentage of American made goods than I would have if I wasn't paying attention.

The first store I went to was store called Big Lots which calls itself a "closeout" store. This was literally a store FULL of items from China. CHOCK FULL. The only purchase I made there were two Gibson greeting cards which are made in the U.S.A.

Then I went to my favorite, favorite store....Target. To be honest, it was almost as bad as Big Lots. Well, that's not really being fair but all of the Target brands I looked at be it a dog bed or a water bottle were made in China. Even Target brand toilet paper isn't made in the U.S. It's made in Canada. I bought Bounty, a brand made by Proctor and Gamble who runs a very large plant and employs thousands of people pretty close to where I live, in Mehoopany, PA. To be honest, I've been trying to buy Proctor and Gamble products whenever I can for some time now but I'm going to try harder.

I even looked at foodstuffs and most of them say on they "Distributed by:" and then the name of the company. All of them listed U.S. companies but I'm wondering exactly what they mean by "Distributed By" and does that mean they made it at or near the U.S. address listed on the box? I wonder if there is a way to find out?

Sterlite is made in the United States and this was something I was very excited to discover. Mostly because I had just looked at probably 30 products in a row that were made in China. I bought a Sterlite ornament organizing box. It made me feel good and I imagined in my head a plant somewhere full of American workers making me my ornament box. It was a nice feeling.

You really have to think about this as you're shopping because it's amazing how easily you forget. I looked at every single label of everything I bought or considered buying but a few times I forgot. I got in to the swing of shopping and started grabbing what I needed without looking on the package for where it was made. But I remembered and went back and checked the items I missed and it turned out the ones I forgot to check WERE made in the U.S. I bought stick on letters for our mailbox at Lowes and there wasn't a lot of choice. Even so, when I was in the store I forgot to look to see where they were made until I got out to the car. Ended up the ones I bought were made in America. Nice.

So, that's it for day one and I guess what I took away from this day is that it's not easy to buy American but when you do, it feels good. Until my next shopping trip........