Along the way in life I became a small business owner after my husband's retirement.  I learned a great deal about manufacturing, production, packaging, advertising, supply & demand, marketing, competition & innovation.  I also better understood the environment in which I operated - our economy and so I discovered additional reasons to purchase only US made. 

My respect for the American worker deepened, and I developed a greater appreciation & respect for American small business owners.  Moreover, I was now in a position to absolutely treasure those wonderful consumers who chose to do business with me. 

Considering all the US made products I've purchased over the past 30 years I can't recall a single instance where I've been disappointed - not one and my budget is intact.  In fact I'm now realizing that I've saved a bundle.

I see now that my spending habits prudently filled my home with US made products which delivered a payoff, a dividend and I hadn’t before viewed my ordinary spending as an investment.

Those purchases saved me the aggravation of returning things to the store.  They eliminated the expense of repairmen.  They had eliminated the trouble and expense of replacing things and they saved my stomach from churning when the word "recall" is spoken. 

The washable thick plush rug in my bathroom that I bought years ago still looks great and spares me the chill of the tile floor.  The thick snuggly oversized towels I bought with the rug, still quickly dries and warms me after a shower.

My mother's US made Ekco egg beater, still beats eggs quickly and smoothly unlike the "toy" ones Ekco now manufactures abroad.  And I can tell that I'll be handing down my Doughmaker's pans to my son not unlike a cherished heirloom.

Goodness, I’ve seen US built furniture sell at auction for more than the owner paid for it 20 years earlier; what does that say for my own furniture? 

Looking around my home I find myself content.  It is filled with US made products and I’m pleased and proud of what I own. 

Whoever it was that made my vacuum and my parents vacuum, thank you.  Whoever made my beautiful warm bedspread, thank you and whoever made my leather purse, know that it shows no sign of wear after 10 years and I thank you.

At first I thought only that I was contributing to your employment.  Now I realize how much I received in return.  You made my life much easier, happier, less stressful and less expensive.

As a determined consumer of US made goods, you have no idea what the words “Made in the USA” mean to me.  They are often the reward in a quest lasting months.  It is after all an official certification, a standard which I absolutely demand & deserve.

While researching manufacturers for this site, I routinely checked their “About Us” page in addition to their products.  I was struck repeatedly by the number of family owned businesses which are 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, even 8^th generation in continued operation, some even exporting their wares.  These are companies who demonstrated their mettle to my grandparents. 

If you recall, our large corporate businesses cited “competitiveness” as their excuse to manufacture abroad.  Let’s contrast their behavior with our own American manufacturers.  They are a resilient lot.  They’ve been busy producing & refining their products in an ever changing environment.  They evolve, adapt, innovate & compete.  They embrace new technology, production & marketing methods.  They’ve been busy doing everything right for decades, even a century or more and they offer no excuses, only a track record of success.  So I’m also going to thank American manufacturers because they reminded me who we are as a people and stirred my sense of pride.  Our own family business is now 3^rd generation and we can learn much from those American manufacturers. 

As for those foreign manufacturers - the ones who cut tail and ran, well; I suspect greed outweighed sound business practices.  They now lack the benefit of the most productive workers in the world - American workers.  They’re also stuck with foreign trading partners that can’t be trusted to adhere to any of their product specifications.  Moreover, their customer base has come to realize that those companies will readily sacrifice quality and the well being of their patrons by offering shoddy and unsafe products.  As an American manufacturer I'm wondering how those incautious foreign manufacturers - supposedly overstressed by competition, can ever compete now in my market...

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Shame on Them!