There is a bit of a 'weep & gnash" campaign going at the moment with a number of our big retailers bemoaning the fact that people are buying stuff on-line rather than through their stores.
How could we be so unpatriotic?
These same retailers where the first to gallop overseas to buy cheap Chinese goods, at the expense of local jobs, and to then sell them at inflated prices.
Now that we can go straight to the cheap Chinese merchants and buy direct, they are crying 'foul'.
Tough.
◊◊◊
This morning I was in a local department store and saw a rack of kids t-shirts with the slogan "Fair dinkum! True Aussie" and a picture of a cartoon koala.
The label at the neck of the garments did not give a country of origin. Neither of the two tags hanging from the garment gave a country of origin. Inside the garment, hidden away, a third of the way up the side seam I found a tag.
"Made in China".
...
Sounds very familiar, what with the "Buy American" noise I get here at home. It makes me wonder how many people can really look at what they are buying and see past the glare of "LOW LOW PRICE!"
ReplyDeleteBusiness Spectator had some interesting stats on this eg only 1 billion a year is spent online vs 250 billion per year overall.
ReplyDeleteArrgghhhh!!!
ReplyDeleteSome souvenirs stuffs I bought from Sydney airport became laughing stuffs from my kids as they found the "made in china" label on them!
ReplyDeleteIt's been very hard to take them seriously...
ReplyDeleteHi Lee, long time no see!
ReplyDeleteHere's a challenge for you...
Try going on a trip to the local Kmart or equivalent and search something that DOESN'T have a "Made in China" label on it. Soon you will see the extent of the issue...
Who do we have to blame, but ourselves. We buy cheap. Cheap comes from China. Local producers go to the wall. Price of "Cheap" stuff goes up. It's a simple Capitalistic equation.
I saw a "made in Vietnam" shirt today. Could Vietnam be the next Taiwan as I don't see many made in Taiwan these days.
ReplyDeleteThe BIG stores shouldn't be crying; it's their sites where one can shop online. It's the mom-n-pop store that can't compete with online unless they are really wired into ebay. Then they can sell their hand-made soap or whatever all over the world. It is true that retailing is becoming a different animal though.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid it was "Made in Hong Kong".
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping presidents Barack Obama & Hu Jintao are talking sensibly about yuans and dollars.