OT Do you care were the products you buy are made

DavidG · #1 January 14th, 2004, 02:33 AM

Just wondering if anyone else reads the "Made in ..." labels before they buy stuff. Personally I always try to buy the made in Canada stuff. Of course usually the only place I can do this is the gorcery store.

Do any of you Canadians know were the frozen fish you buy comes from? Read the label. Product of China! Half the east coast fisheries closed down and we are buying fish from China?? I can almost understand why every single pLastic item is made in China but fish??

Also maybe someone can explain this. In Canada I'd estimate that 95% or more of all toys available are made in China!! How did they manage this? I can understand why they use cheap 3rd world labour but why no other countries.

[ January 14, 2004, 02:29: Message edited by: DavidG ]

Fyron · #2 January 14th, 2004, 02:38 AM

There is a lot of cheap stuff made in Taiwan, Korea and Japan sold in the US (at least around southern California). Not as much comes from China that I have noticed though. Although, I could really care less where stuff was made (as long as it works well, and is not shoddy

).

Captain Kwok · #3 January 14th, 2004, 02:49 AM

To some degree I try and support Canadian-made products when possible.

I'm a bit more proactive when it comes to choosing stores to shop at. For example, I try and avoid Wal-Mart as much as possible because I do not care for the way they handle their employees and their supplier practices. I believe they drive down wages and have contributed to significant loss of revenue to suppliers that are necessary for growth etc.

Kamog · #4 January 14th, 2004, 02:53 AM

The quality and price is more important to me than where it is manufactured.

Narrew · #5 January 14th, 2004, 03:29 AM

Like Fyron said, as long as it works and is not shoddy, I don't worry about it, I would think twice if was French made, but I don't drink wine and thats all I can think of that they sell that I would buy (yes, my reason is political, but thats just me).

As far as everything from China *sigh*, thats the way it seems, I notice alot of JOBs going to India, nothing against India or any other country, but I wonder how long companis will do that till they smarten up and pull those jobs back here?

Fyron · #6 January 14th, 2004, 03:33 AM

The companies are being smart as it is by moving their employment to foreign nations where they can pay employees less money (far less in some cases). They don't care about helping Americans or anything silly like that, they just want to make profit. Lower operating costs (paying employees, for example) lead to greater profit.

Narrew · #7 January 14th, 2004, 03:51 AM

true for the short run, but some jobs are customer service where we Americans will get to the point of not putting up with talking to people they can not understand or has such a low knowledge of what they are talking about, people will go elsewhere.

A subsidary of BristolMyer made orthopedic implants, they move machinery to Costa Rica for the lower cost for workers, BUT they did not have the ability to run the computer controlled machines so it was a year or so later that all the machines came back.

Bean counters only see the bottom line yet seem not to see things that tie into the business over all, so they make a change that in the end costs more.

Fyron · #8 January 14th, 2004, 03:53 AM

If you wish to stereotype businessmen, then sure.

Phoenix-D · #9 January 14th, 2004, 04:34 AM

Your fisheries might have closed down because they were exhausted (too few fish), not because there was a lack of demand, DavidG.

DavidG · #10 January 14th, 2004, 04:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Narrew:
true for the short run, but some jobs are customer service where we Americans will get to the point of not putting up with talking to people they can not understand or has such a low knowledge of what they are talking about, people will go elsewhere.

A subsidary of BristolMyer made orthopedic implants, they move machinery to Costa Rica for the lower cost for workers, BUT they did not have the ability to run the computer controlled machines so it was a year or so later that all the machines came back.

Of course you are talking about high tech companies selling specialized equipment to other professionals. It probably doesn't apply so much to the Chinese Co making pLastic dog crap

I wonder if people even think about where something is made when they find it is crap. ie I've had 2 fairly new HP printers crap out on me lately. I never really thought about were they were made till now. I just looked on the bottom. - made in China. Hmm my busted scanner is made in China too. Of course all that means is there are pLastic parts in it. Around here if it's got any pLastic in it chances are it's made in China