Snap on tools, which are the gold standard of tools for mechanics, are made here, some craftsmen tools are (though with Stanley buying them, I suspect most will end up in China, where Stanley makes most of its tools, though I did buy a tape measure the other day made here). Lodge cast iron cookware is made here (not the enamaled stuff). Grado audio products (headphones and phono cartridges) are made in Brooklyn, where they have been made for some ridiculous number of years.
With cars, be very careful, what constitutes a foreign car isn’t what people think. The “US” car could have been made in Mexico with 80% of its parts made there, or from other countries. I have a toyota camry made in Kentucky, where its content is 80% domestic, Subaru makes the cars in Indiana and the bulk of the parts are sourced here (it makes sense to do so, you don’t get hit by currency fluctuations and the like), that big three car might well have been made in Mexico or overseas, it is worth checking on.
Even things made in the usa are likely not totally made here, the Stanley tape measure I bought was assembled here but the parts were made in China.
I only wish I could find American made hardware, Chinese made hardware you routinely find sucks (I usually as a fallback buy hardware made in Germany, Home Depot carries Spax which are decent).
Honda small engine products are made here, at least in part (the engines are made here).
Bose used to make some of their stuff here, but these days it is all overseas.
Besides Canada and Mexico, major oil suppliers include the KSA (generally thought of as not nice by both left and right leaning people, despite being an ally of convenience), Venezuela (unfriendly), and Nigeria. Also, increased oil demand that drives up oil prices enriches the government treasuries of various other foreign policy problem countries and entities like Daesh who make some money by oil smuggling.
Funny part is, we import around 9.4 Millions of barrels a day, but export 4.7 million, kind of weird…actually, we could produce most of our oil domestically, but the problem is with oil at 50 bucks a barrel it isn’t economically viable to do so. One of the things I laughed at during the Bush administration (george II, not I), was the ads saying drugs paid for terrorism, oil imported from the middle east makes up about 31% of our imports, and a lot of that is going to fund terrorism and Islamic radicalism (not to mention, of course, the W’Habi extremism the Saudi’s export all over the world,that turns into terrorism). The world banking authorities have done audits on petro dollars, money paying for oil, showed that they could trace the final destination of the money in about 70% of the time…so where is that other 30% going to?
Even if the US went totally independent, it would’t matter, because oil is a global commodity, and likely if the US fulfilled all its needs China and other industrial countries would fill in for the US…
Personally, I can recommend Lodge cookware as a user. And if you treat their cast iron well, you’ll only have to buy it once and you can pass it down to your younger generations. http://www.lodgemfg.com
LL Bean’s Bean Boots, in addition to the totes already mentioned are made here, in addition to a few other products.
“While L.L.Bean is a global company, “Made in the USA” has been a part of our heritage for 100 years. We’re one of the last multi-channel U.S. merchants to still own and operate a U.S. manufacturing facility. We employ 450 people at our Brunswick, Maine, factory, where we continue to make iconic products such as the Maine Hunting Shoe, L.L.Bean Boots, Boat and Tote Bags, dog bed liners and small leather goods. (Our talented craftsmen and women manufacture approximately 1,300 pairs of L.L.Bean Boots per day; we shipped over 300,000 pairs in 2011.)”
There are a lot of chocolatiers where the quality is better than Hershey’s and made in the USA, although the cocao beans most likely aren’t (small amount from Hawaii).
In addition to many of the small chocolatiers, there is See’s and much of the Lindt chocolate, including those Lindor balls, are made here in the USA.
Hershey’s chocolate is aweful IMO, and the other chocolates they make (Cadbury’s) here in the US is aweful as well, to save money on cocoa butter they use a ton of sugar. There are all kinds of craft chocolate made here that is really well made, you can find them at places like whole foods and even some at the supermarket.
Even if your chocolate is made in the USA it isn’t a 100% US product. Most commercial cacao is grown outside the US, many of it picked by child labor.
AG Jeans are made in the US. Though I think they import the fabric.
Isn’t American Apparel going out of business?
Gibson guitars* are all made in Nashville. However, they’re not cheap…especially the Les Paul models and some of the woods are sourced from overseas and they were embroiled in a scandal a few years related to it.
Incidentally, I own a Gibson model and if I had not bought it used(Paid less than half of retail because musician needed money for rent), it would have retailed for $1500 whereas its imported more budget-friendly Epiphone counterpart retails for ~$400-500.
I also have the Epiphone counterpart to that Gibson I also picked up used for less than half retail though the previous owner upgraded many key parts such as bridges, tuners, pickups, wiring, input jack to the point it’s almost a Gibson with the exception of the wood body and neck.
Also, while they’ve recently released more budget friendly Gibson “Melody Maker” models with one pickup, the build quality**/finish leaves much to be desired even compared with the higher-end imported Epiphone counterparts. Not very good bang for one’s buck there.
Any American Fender Model is made in California. However, one must be more careful to check whether it’s an American model as Fender also uses its name for several lines of imported guitars.
Be aware of fakes made from overseas. Gibson also markets more budget friendly import versions of their popular models under the Epiphone label.
** Some friends have had some serious tuning issues with those models and ended up returning them.
My thought was to open up a store near our WalMart and KMart. I’ll call it USmart. Every item will be 100% US-made unlike their products. Might even use the same layouts as theirs so shoppers will know where our products are.
Marketing campaign will focus on U SMART…play on words. “You are smart for buying our products”. Store will have big signs with photos of workers in US plants who made the products. Post our price vs their price so consumers have the choice of which product to buy.
I know I’d study the photos of workers in a US plant and consider paying an extra few dollars to support those US workers. Feel free to run with this idea since I am retired.
