Thread: A Year Without 'Made In China'

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A Year Without 'Made In China'

By Sara Bongiorni
The Christian Science Monitor
12-21-5



BATON ROUGE, LA. - Last year, two days after Christmas, we kicked China out of the house. Not the country obviously, but bits of plastic, metal, and wood stamped with the words "Made in China." We kept what we already had, but stopped bringing any more in.

The banishment was no fault of China's. It had coated our lives with a cheerful veneer of toys, gadgets, and $10 children's shoes. Sometimes I worried about jobs sent overseas or nasty reports about human rights abuses, but price trumped virtue at our house. We couldn't resist what China was selling.

But on that dark Monday last year, a creeping unease washed over me as I sat on the sofa and surveyed the gloomy wreckage of the holiday. It wasn't until then that I noticed an irrefutable fact: China was taking over the place.

It stared back at me from the empty screen of the television. I spied it in the pile of tennis shoes by the door. It glowed in the lights on the Christmas tree and watched me in the eyes of a doll splayed on the floor. I slipped off the couch and did a quick inventory, sorting gifts into two stacks: China and non-China. The count came to China, 25, the world, 14. Christmas, I realized, had become a holiday made by the Chinese. Suddenly I'd had enough. I wanted China out.

Through tricks and persuasion I got my husband on board, and on Jan. 1 we launched a yearlong household embargo on Chinese imports. The idea wasn't to punish China, which would never feel the pinprick of our protest. And we didn't fool ourselves into thinking we'd bring back a single job to unplugged company towns in Ohio and Georgia. We pushed China out of our lives because we wanted to measure how far it had pushed in. We wanted to know what it would take in time, money, and aggravation to kick our China habit.

We hit the first rut in the road when I discovered our son's toes pressing against the ends of his tennis shoes. I wore myself out hunting for new ones. After two weeks I broke down and spent $60 on sneakers from Italy. I felt sick over the money; it seemed decadent for a pair of children's shoes. I got used to the feeling. Weeks later I shelled out $60 for Texas-made shoes for our toddler daughter.

We got hung up on lots of little things. I drove to half a dozen grocery stores in search of candles for my husband's birthday cake, eventually settling on a box of dusty leftovers I found in the kitchen. The junk drawer has been stuck shut since January. My husband found the part to fix it at Home Depot but left it on the shelf when he spotted the telltale "Made in China."

Mini crises erupted when our blender and television broke down. The television sputtered back to life without intervention, but it was a long, hot summer without smoothies. We killed four mice with old-fashioned snapping traps because the catch-and-release ones we prefer are made in China. Last summer at the beach my husband wore a pair of mismatched flip-flops my mother found in her garage. He'd run out of options at the drug store.

Navigating the toy aisle has been a wilting affair. In the spring, our 4-year-old son launched a countercampaign in support of "China things." He's been a good sport, but he's weary of Danish-made Legos, the only sure bet for birthday gifts for his friends. One morning in October he fell apart during a trip to Target when he developed a sudden lust for an electric purple pumpkin.

"It's too long without China," he wailed. He kept at me all day.

The next morning I drove him back so he could use his birthday money to buy the pumpkin for himself. I kept my fingers off the bills as he passed them to the checker.

My husband bemoans the Christmas gifts he can't buy because they were made in China. He plans to sew sleeping bags for the children himself. He can build wooden boats and guitars, but I fear he will meet his match with thread and needle.

"How hard can it be?" he scoffed.

The funny thing about China's ascent is that we, as a nation, could shut the whole thing down in a week. Jump-start a "Just Say No to Chinese Products Week," and the empire will collapse amid the chaos of overloaded cargo ships in Long Beach harbor. I doubt we could pull it off. Americans may be famously patriotic, but look closely, and you'll see who makes the flag magnets on their car bumpers. These days China delivers every major holiday, Fourth of July included.

I don't know what we will do after Dec. 31 when our family's embargo comes to its official end. China-free living has been a hassle. I have discovered for myself that China doesn't control every aspect of our daily lives, but if you take a close look at the underside of boxes in the toy department, I promise it will give you pause.

Our son knows where he stands on the matter. In the bathtub one evening he told me how happy he was that "the China season" was coming soon.

"When we can buy China things again, let's never stop," he said.

After a year without China, I can tell you this: You can still live without it, but it's getting trickier and costlier by the day. And a decade from now I may not be brave enough to try it again.

· Sara Bongiorni is a freelance writer and is working on a book about her family's yearlong adventure in the global economy.

went for 2months with holes in my socks. Thought it would be a hassle to buy online. One day I'm in Kmart (rarely go) and look at hanes socks. Made in USA. There are some books but a good comprhensive american dirctectory of Made in USA and Made with USA employee content is still needed

What a well-written and outstanding article! It really hits home, doesn't it?

I, too, boycott Chinese products whenever I can. Actually I boycott all foreign made products as much as I can as an act of silent protest for the jobs lost overseas because factory owners moved the factories to get cheap labor.

If I have a choice between only Chinese and Mexican, I choose Mexican because I figure that maybe it will keep one more Mexican employed in Mexico and stop one illegal from becoming so disillusioned with his/her own land that he/she dreams of wandering northward.

But is definitely is difficult. I tried to find a new pair or shoes within this past week. Do you realize that Thom McCan and Dr. Scholl's are BOTH made in China these days? I used to buy Dr. Scholl's shoes in Egypt BECAUSE they were made in the USA! When I was fresh out of high school, I worked in a shoe factory for a summer as an inspector. The shoes were A.S. Beck, EnnaJettick, and ThomMcCan and other well known, high quality shoes. Even Naturalizer isn't made in the US anymore! I used to buy Converse sneakers exclusively because they were the only ones made here. Not any more!

And there is definitely a difference in the quality of the products. They get cheaper and cheaper made but the prices don't seem to go down all that much. Yes, there is an abuncance of really cheap substandard junk but those products have never carried well known names. Now even the junk has a Gucci label.

Every day it is an education to see just how many American products are coming from somewhere else. All those towels and sheets I faithfully bought because they were made in NC (I love NC first and foremost above all other states) are now coming from India. And they aren't anywhere near the quality even though they carry labels like Canon, Martex, Wamsutta, etc.

I do a lot of crochet work. It gets harder and harder to find yarn made in the USA and I have a feeling that what I'm getting now, since the colors are so limited, are the last of what's left that was made here.

Fortunately, I have most of the do-dads I will ever need in a lifetime so I won't be buying many items like you would need to set up housekeeping for a new family. But I will say that I've started to take better care of what I do have to make absolutely certain I don't have to replace anything with something made in China.

This topic scares me even more than illegal immigration but they go hand in hand.......export jobs and import people.....a recipe for disaster?

GM slashing 30,000 jobs and Ford will cut maybe even more in January? Why? The American consumer wants a Nissan and a Toyota and a Mercedes Benz. I know, Toyota has plants here now and their workers make less than the employees of GM.......

I try to boycott Chinese goods if I can. I bought a pair of pajamas from El Salvador the other day instead of China. There were none from the USA.......

The world is going and has gone global....and I have no trouble buying goods from countries where the people live well....like in Germany....but China and some of these other third world countries?

Our politicians don't seem to care as long as the corporations can close factories and send jobs overseas and increase their stock maargins........the DEMOCRATS TALK about the loss of US jobs but then SLICK WILLIE Clinton signs copies of his book at a Wal-mart in Arkansas....

I will continue to buy American when I can but it is to the point where I don't care anymore.....it is all market driven so buy what you want where you want....it is your money but when they are fewer and fewer good paying jobs left then don't cry to me.......you know the IT people cry for their computer jobs going to INDIA but when the steel plants shut down in the 80's who cared? My apple juice may be from China or Argentina and cheaper and who cares about Yakima, Washington right? Buy Dominican sugar instead of Colorado beet sugar.....Colombian roses instead of California roses....all cheaper........it just goes on and on....Lou Dobbs gets it!

Bravo!!!!

Any ideas how to spread the word about buying American?

I fear too few people care but we must try.

I posted awhile back about my two-year search for a toaster Made in the USA. No luck so I just do without.

Every time I walk down an aisle looking at the bottom for the product source I mutter aloud for others to hear about my disgust at only finding foreign-made goods and my refusal to buy them.

I'll do my part, small as it may be.

The sage of old proclaimed the world would not with a bang but with a whimper.

Wonder if that applies to the Founders Great Experiment?

That was a TERRIFIC ARTICLE! I LOVE the lady's GRIT! I can just PICTURE her husband SEWING SLEEPING BAGS!! And, can't you just imagine those kids who DON'T UNDERSTAND why every toy OUT THERE is made somewhere else???

I too TRY to buy American products if at all possible but there are just times that you NEED something and your only choices are made in China. I had the problem with a MR. COFFEE back several months ago. It SAID it was made by SUNBEAM but it was made in China. Well, I SHOULD SAY ALL THREE of the ones I got were made in China. The first one poured water all over the counter when I tried to fill the damn thing. So, I called the company. I wasn't gonna let them off the hook by taking it back to Wal-Mart. The person I spoke with said NOBODY ELSE had reported that problem! They sent me ANOTHER one. Guess what? That one leaked too!! And, so does the third one. I have called Mr. Coffee and raised immortal but they contend this is happening ONLY TO ME!!! It will NOT IMPROVE until we start to speak out directly to the SOURCE. If everyone called the manufacturer every time they bought a defective product, EVENTUALLY it would sink in that it was costing them more to REPLACE the junk than it would to have it made in the US by people who actually CARE about the product they produce.

I will NEVER buy another Mr. Coffee and I tell all of my friends to steer clear of what USED to be a really good product.

Yes, complain. I have written to companies that used to have US factories to tell them that I won't be buying any more until they start making things in the USA again.

I discovered something the other day though. I don't know if I read it on these boards or somewhere else but someone said that K-Mart still sells things made in the USA. It is true! We went in there for lightbulbs the other night because it was easier than running all over town. while we were there, I picked up a few things and discovered that about a third of what I picked up was made in the USA.

My husband thinks it is because they buy up what they can get for the best price they can get and since K-Mart had so many problems they may still have stock left from when things were still made in the USA. He may be right and I suspect he is. Nevertheless, I'll be buying the things I need like socks, undeclothes and the like from K-Mart for as long as those "Made in USA" labels are still on the stuff. Then I'll start shopping around again.

All I know is that even the cheap Chinese junk isn't cheap anymore and neither is the food. I about swallowed my tongue when I went into the grocery store Friday and found canned vegetables have risen to over a dollar a can for the store brands!

I have a feeling I'll be growing and canning my own vegetables if things don't change!

My daughter-in-law was just telling me that, when she went to the grocery store the other day, she picked up some GARLIC and IT was made in CHINA!!!

Good grief! I grow garlic in my flower beds to keep the bugs away. I'm glad I do. I'd really get steamed if I bought garlic and found it was grown in China and sent here. Espeically now that garlic that used to be darn near free costs about a buck a clove!

I know--I was FLABBERGASTED! No WONDER it's a dollar a clove!