we all shoot ours selves for buying cheapest now 90% is made in China. I work in an auto parts store and a lot of our vendors are having inventory issues with the computers. At first I thought ok I can see one or two having that issue but now if it is in our system we have figure out if it another store, hub, distribution center or manufacture and who can get it to us the fastest. It does no good when we have to turn a customer away all we can do it order it and tell you when it tells us it will arrive. Sorry for the long story but since the covid thing it has gotten worse. The new administration has not helped matters.
Not to get political, but the current administration hasn't been in power long enough to have asserted much influence on this, they're too busy cleaning up the mess left behind by the previous one who seemed to delight in picking fights with 'most every other country.
The roots of "made in the Orient" products go back a long way, to electronics in the 60s, autos in the 70s, and just continuing to snowball. It doesn't help that American workers have priced themselves out of a job.
Isn't a big part of the problem bottlenecks at a couple of west coast ports where the longshoremen seem to be having some sort of a snit?
Amazon has an advantage in that they and their resellers can buy in huge bulk when it's available and store it in warehouses. Unfortunately when they do this it often cuts out the local brick and mortar. For me, when I can, I'd rather give my $$ to the local guy. That's not to say I don't buy from Amazon because I do. But I try to do so when what I need isn't carried locally. I'm of the age that I remember small town businesses situated all around the town square. Those are largely gone now and I wish it weren't so.
Yeah, but that started waay before Amazon even existed. Malls and box stores killed off Main St. & many mom & pop merchants, if for no reason other than they were open longer, more convenient hours. Maybe being open 8-5 M-F and 8-1 on Saturday was good enough for our parents' generation, but that ain't gonna cut it today.
Not only do Amazon, Walmart, etc. have bulk pricing advantages, they also are big enough customers to get priority with suppliers. Again, this is nothing new, just a bit more extreme today.
There’s so little “Made in America” products to buy. Such a sad state of affairs. We give up production of almost everything to a country that is a menace to the rest of the world.
Part of the reason is that, at least back in the 70s there was this perception that if something was imported it was somehow better. Also, as noted above price is a huge factor in making a purchase, and unfortunately our production costs are much higher than in the orient.
You wanna see the "enemy"? Look in the mirror. I recall a conversation with a neighbor maybe 20 years ago, he was upset that his job had just been offshored. When I pointed out the shiny new camry in his driveway his response was something to the effect that "that's different". Sorry dude, you're part of the problem.
We could still be a great country, but we literally chose not to. We desperately need smart, effective leadership.
We still are a great country, despite many taking it for granted. I'd be hard pressed to name a country I'd rather live in.
If you were in charge, what would you do differently? Any damfool can back seat drive, let's hear some solutions.