Two hundred dollars for a kitchen floor mat – for something made in China? Really. How much profit do you think that is for the retailer and marketer? I’d call them a manufacturer, but that overstates things. One hundred fifty, one hundred seventy-five dollars split fifty-fifty? Thirty dollars for a bamboo drawer sorter? Even with a coupon, it’s still overpriced.
Swearing off Chinese has been easier than I thought. It’s been a lesson in delayed gratification, and lower credit card bills.
I made it about forty-five days before some new Chinese goods made their way into the house. My husband bought a new sweater at the Gap. So, technically, I guess I didn’t buy it. Nevertheless, here it is in my closet assuring the continuance of free trade – or as it’s known by its colloquial name – slave labor.
My self-imposed mandate to swear off Chinese goods was an interesting experiment. First, it made me well aware of how many other low-wage countries we’re buying stuff from: Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, El Salvador, Vietnam, Mexico. The list of developing countries with bottom of the barrel wages and few work rules is long. Second, it helped me realize, with a little time and a lot of research, it’s possible to buy things made elsewhere – or learn to live without them.
My New Shopping Style
My toddler son loves blocks. I decided to buy him one of the things I loved in my childhood, Legos. Then the online research began. I discovered a lot. First, Lego isn’t even an American company but a Danish one. Luckily, they haven’t descended into the very cheap labor the way many American companies have done. Some items are made in Denmark, Hungary, Mexico and the Czech Republic. Yes, if you dig a further, some special plastic bits for the most elaborate sets are made in China. Still, I bought the twenty-dollar box of blocks and left the store feeling a little less guilty.
Next, I thought I needed a surge protector. For some reason, my decades-old one was, well, surging. I looked online. No matter if they cost six dollars or sixty, they were all made in China. For a few hours I puttered around the house trying to determine if I really needed a surge protector. Turns out, I couldn’t justify it. Was my flat screen TV really going to be subject to an unexpected power surge? Was that just another bill of goods we’d been sold? I don’t live in India or a country with uneven power. Can I not count on an unsurging grid? I opted out of that purchase and, instead, pulled an extension cord out of the basement. Problem solved. No Chinese workers were injured in the decision.
The End of a Personal Era
In my bid to eliminate toxic chemicals from my life, wherever they may be found, I’d decided months, if not years, ago to eliminate plastic food storage. I’d gone from years of Tupperware storage in my youth to whatever they sold at the Container Store in my Tupperware Party-free life, to whatever they sell at the supermarket in the somewhat disposable plastic category. Pyrex dishes with fitted lids seemed to be the perfect solution. Lo and behold, I was lucky to discover that Pyrex still was made in the U.S. of A in Charleroi, PA. Unfortunately, the good, high quality thermal resistant glass is only manufactured for the European market. At least what we have is made here.
Purses and shoes were out. No matter the advertised quality or price, all were made in China. But what woman needs another accessory? Dear husband actually asked me the other day why I would need another purse. He’s probably right about the needing, but I still like to refresh my closet from time to time.
As a writer who’s not yet one hundred percent welded to the digital age, I like to see a rough draft of my writing in print. Printing a three-hundred-page manuscript last week used all the toner in my laser printer cartridge. A good laser printer only costs a few bucks these days because the companies make all their profits on the cartridges. What used to cost about forty dollars now is over seventy-five. Rather than getting a cartridge that sat on a boat that had slogged across the Pacific, I opted to have one refilled. So far no problems. No new Chinese products, and an extra fifty bucks in my pocket.
My baby, now a sturdy growing toddler, long has outgrown those cute hooded baby towels I received as gifts when I was pregnant. The last time I bathed him, the towel barely covered his butt, leaving his legs dripping all over the bathroom. He loves the little animal hoods. So I did a little shopping looking for a replacement. My favorite upscale store had the cutest little ducks, frogs and bears. But bear in mind all were made in China. With their website now allowing reviews, I was learning that all their products—the manufacturing of which has moved offshore in the last ten years—had suffered a decline in quality. Their forty-dollar pricetag offered nothing more than their twelve-dollar cousins from the local discount store. I assume they probably are manufactured in the same place, sewing in the appropriate brand name label where necessary. Eventually, I decided to repurpose some Turkish guest towels. I don’t have many guests these days, nor a guest room any longer with the baby. He loves the bath so much he doesn’t even seem to miss the animal hood.
And the holidays, I have them covered. My made-in-America catalogues arrived today.
In the end, I think I saved a few hundred dollars with all the purchases I didn’t make. My life isn’t any worse for it. Buying online with one click is a little more difficult. “Imported” covers a whole host of sins. In today’s post- free trade world, it is not at all descriptive. Still, if everyone I knew would cut out only a small percentage of these products, maybe we could make the world a little less polluted and exploitive.
I won’t hold my breath – Black Friday is just around the corner.
Jessica Gadsden has been controversial since the day she discovered her inner soapbox. She excoriated the cheerleaders on the editorial page of her high school paper, transferred from a co-educational university to a women's college to protest the gender-biased curfew policy, published a newspaper in law school that raked the dean over the coals with (among other things) the headline, “Law School Supports Drug Use”—and that was before she got serious about speaking out. Progressive doesn't begin to define her political views. A reformed lawyer, she is a fulltime novelist who writes under a pseudonym, of course. A Brooklyn native, she divided her college years between Hampton University and Smith.
Ms. Gadsden’s essays appear every other Tuesday. She may be contacted at www.pennermag.com
