American Spectacles

Watch this segment of Rock Center with Brian Williams if you want to swell with the pride of Made in America:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/46198559#null

As you contemplate your next furniture purchase, consider Cochrane Furniture and what Bruce Cochrane is doing to not only make quality furniture but re-create American jobs! 

Mr. Cochrane, I hope this gets back  to you to know that there are those of us out here cheering you on and thanking you for having the courage to do what you have done!

Last week we traveled home from a week long vacation in England.  Coming out of London’s Heathrow we went through Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class security line.  I got picked on and picked upon.  The security people decided to search my briefcase/backpack and take out every single item and put them in bins and rerun them through and then gave it back to me to repack.  In the course of the repacking, I didn’t notice that the cables for my Dr. Dre Beats headphones didn’t come back through.  When I opened up the case on the plane, the headphones were there, the cables weren’t.  So, that put me this week trying to find a replacement cord (with microphone).  Guess what?  I checked every electronic store and they didn’t carry replacement cables, only full box set.  What to do?  I could choose to not use my headsets for a year or go to look for a replacement online?  The salesperson @ the Radio Shack on Market Street in San Francisco told me that the best thing I could do was to go online and purchase a separate cord, which would likely be stolen, but that would be the best choice.  Frustrating.  So, this morning, I went online and looked at Craigslist.  None there.  Next it was ebay and there was the cord:

So, for $34.99 I can have the cord that comes with the headset, but that this cable is made nowhere close to America.  Monster Cables, who seem to be the dominant supplier for everyone makes everything in China or Taiwan.  I did find that Cables for Less,  http://www.cablesforless.com, do “assemble” in Indiana but I still couldn’t find this cable that has the audio microphone contained as well.  I applaud Cables for Less, I just wish they were distributing into those places where we shop locally.  So, Dr. Dre beat down my buy locally and buy American. 

What we know is that the same will happen if I have to replace an ipad, an iphone, yada, yada, yada.,…

I need a new golf travel bag.  Golfsmith is both located in San Francisco and not far from me in San Carlos.  I stopped by the store in San Francisco and prominently displayed was the bag I could buy and you can see why.  There are better looking ones.  There are cheaper one’s but not by much.  This bag will do the trick and keeps me right in the USA Fairway.

Patti came home with this cup the other day:

She bought it at the Starbucks in San Mateo.  I flipped it over and of course, it said, “Made in China”. 

“But, I wanted a plastic glass with a straw in it”, she said. “And where I am going to find one that is made in America?” 

After we discussed it, I thought for sure that Starbucks, with their in-store emphasis on American Jobs

would certainly have cups that were “Made in America”. http://news.starbucks.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=581

Patti called me this last Sunday morning from the same Starbucks store.  She was emphatic and actually a little upset. 

“Everything in this store is made outside of the U.S.!  How can they do that when they are selling wristbands for $5 telling people that we need to create American jobs?”.  I too was a little taken aback at that thought as I am trying to do my part to be an American helping Americans create jobs. So I went to check it out myself.  Patti was right all this stuff is made outside of the United States, mostly in China.

While it my responsibility, not Starbucks, for me to influence with my wallet on what is important, I do think that there is something missing in the equation when there is a call to us as consumers to be helping them create jobs in America then they, with the largest influence of purchasing power, choose suppliers supporting just the opposite.  I wonder how many jobs they could create if they were to move their suppliers to all American made?  I don’t want to be cynical, but it does feel a little like we are being sucked in. Am I off base here?

So, I decide last year that I am going to live off of Main Street and buy locally and American.  Seems easy and quite doable, until.  Since my decision I have had anxiety over a number of items that I don’t need to purchase this year (2012) but if I did, what would I do?  I dropped my iphone the other day and as I saw it heading for the concrete my dilemma flashed before my eyes, “What would I do?”.  If I had to replace my smartphone I’d be stuck.  I could buy it locally, with no problem; Apple, Verizon, Walmart, Radio Shack, etc.  But, a smartphone made in America, no way.  Even assembled in America?  In our dreams.  It’s the sad part about the American job situation that the things we don’t need at all, but want the most (think ipads, smartphones, fashion forward headphones, etc.) are not made in America.  So I have anxiety over a few things that if forced to replace I’d have to compromise or wait.  If the HDTV goes, I do have an option as I heard the CEO of Vizio on one of the BCS Bowl Games talking about how his televisions are made in the USA.  Whew.  (I’ve actually been hearing advertisers talk more about what is made in America than ever before.  It could be because I am listening, but I think if advertisers are taking expensive and precious seconds to make the point, then I am not alone out here making a decision difference with my wallet).  That brings me to arguments.  Patti hasn’t bought into the program yet.  She appreciates what I want to do but the brunt of it does fall on her because she purchases more than I do.  That said, we are arguing (in a good way) over the significance of buying local and homemade.  But, it’s the little things that get you.  For example, we just had our master bathroom repainted (it needed it) with I might add Benjamin Moore paint (that is manufactured and distributed from their plants  in New Jersey):

In 2007/2008 the political rhetoric was about “Main Street”.  What I liked about this was that it put an emphasis on why America’s businesses were important and particularly why our small and medium sized businesses were critical to our economy. For the past three years we still talk about “Main Street” but even in the affluent part of the country that I live in, our Main Street has been hit with empty storefronts and lost jobs.  It dawned on me earlier this year, as I bragged about the HDTV that I had bought off of Amazon for a $1000 less than I could find it in a store, and I didn’t pay any sales tax or shipping (because I am an Amazon Prime customer), that I was part of the problem, not the solution.  I have always tried to be a person who “puts his money where his mouth is” (and humbly admit that I am fortunate to be able to do this), but here I was, espousing the need for America to return to a time when it made things and one could know their retailers and the people from whom they bought, and I was doing just the opposite.  So, in the quest to be honest and authentic, I am starting a journey, an experiment, a learning.  For one full year (Jan 1, 2012 - December 30, 2012) I am committed (I am still working on Patti, my wife to make the same commitment) to only buying our durables (anything that is not perishable or consumable) from a brick and mortar retailer within 50 miles of our home and items that are made in America. Will this be hard?  It shouldn’t be, but we will see.  What I learn, I will post here and we can learn together.  Thanks for going on this journey with me and your comments and thoughts are much appreciated.