You Can Buy American

[kevin_standlee]

My thanks to gridlore for pointing at this article:

Can the 'All American Store' Reverse Our Nation's Walmartization

There are a couple of big-box stores here in Fernley: Wal-Mart and Lowe's. I don't shop at Wal-Mart. I'm stuck with Lowe's, because the nearest alternatives are 25-30 miles away, and it doesn't always make sense to make those drives.

Note that what Lisa and I really want is for the USA to require that imported goods meet the same environmental standards (or better) than US-made equivalents. If making it would be illegal in the USA, it should be illegal to sell it here, too. Thus most Canadian and European-made stuff would be fine, since they're apt to have the same or higher standards.

I hope this store gets some success and that they decide to try and franchise it. If there was one here in Fernley, we'd shop there, even if it cost more. What's the point of buying cheap junk if it just breaks on you. The article itself says:

Selling low-quality goods at low prices, a big-box retailer can assume products it sells will break with some regularity. Perversely, this creates repeat business, as consumers file back into the store to buy replacements. Lather, rinse, and repeat!

Comments

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Quite. We're obsessed with first cost over lifetime cost. Lisa and I are facing this with the replacement of the Furnace of Death. Do we spend $$ to patch-and-mend the existing system or $$$ for a new furnace, or $$$$ for a high-quality, long-lasting heat pump system that will be more efficient and save money on operating costs over the long term.

I read something not too long ago that suggested that a lot of our decisions overall these days are being driven by the general aging of the population, as people on the whole don't seem to think it matters to buy something that lasts or to invest in anything with a long-term payback (like infrastructure projects like High Speed Rail) because they personally don't expect to live long enough to reap any reward from it. The author called it "A going-out-of-business sale for the Baby Boom."