Will Obama bolster 'Made in the USA'?
One of Barack Obama's battle cries has been to encourage businesses to produce more in the good ol' U S of A.
That will be a good thing for shoppers like me who have been frustrated that hardly anything is made here anymore.
Whenever possible I try to buy U.S. made goods, and I've written in the past about trying to go totally domestic, but failing miserably.
Lately I've renewed my efforts because of all the scary product news coming out of China.
It hasn't been easy.
I've given up on finding an American-made shower curtain. They all seem to be made in China these days.
Shower curtains don't worry me as much as products my kids might eat or put into their mouths, like dental floss.
Yes folks, those plastic, disposable floss-holders in the shape of superheroes and princesses are now mostly made in China. I figured this out a while back when shopping at Target. After that I searched all the drug stores in town and found that there was nothing but Chinese-made flossers on offer.
After reading all the tainted milk stories from China I decided to go on to the Internet and find out if anyone made these floss holders in the United States, and eureka -- I found E-Z Floss in Palm Springs, Calif.
The company makes dental health products and one of their top sellers is "Mr. Flossman."
Not only are they made in a plant in nearby Ontario, Calif., owned by Microdyne Plastics Inc., these holders are also non-disposable. So I ordered a bunch at $2.50 a pop and sent some to my nieces and nephews. I had to contact the company directly because even though it has a Web site it doesn't have a shopping cart function.
It got me thinking why this tiny company was still paying premium prices to make this product in the United States.
So I called Dennis Naber, a partner at the 40-year-old business, and he told me the company never seriously considered having Mr. Floss made anywhere but in the U.S.
"The company never felt a need to do that," he said, adding that the mold to make Mr. Floss is very expensive and heavy, and the company likes being able to drive 70 miles to get to the plant that makes the flossers.
"It's about quality and patriotism," he said. "I would prefer to have it done it the States. It's better for our economy."
I can't help but feel Naber is a dying breed, so I figured I'd give props periodically to U.S. firms that make at least some of their products domestically.
So tell me if you own a company or know of one that still has products made here.
