Going to the local Cafe from my house, my boyfriend picked up a July 2009 issue of Road & Track magazine and found an interesting article in it called “What Matters To You?“. On page 58, Founder David MacNeil of MacNeil Automotive Products Limited, speaks about the importance of America bringing back jobs and manufacturing to the country.
The majority of products now found in the local hardware stores are made overseas just to save some change on the price of the product. How many of you know of a company that have outsourced jobs and manufacturing to save some dough?
“To these ruthless buyers, it is all about the money. Rarely are product quality, the political system, human rights, animal rights and environmental costs to the planet considered, not to mention the cost to our society of exporting not only jobs, but an entire factory!”
In 2007, his company manufactured back in the US because they weren’t happy about the quality of their products. They have gone on to be the most “efficient tool and mold making operation in the world”. The company is well known for their car mats and molds. Everything from their CNC mills are made in Oxnard, CA; thermoforming machinery is made in Illinois, aluminum billets and raw steel are from Fontana, CA; and the all-weather floor mats, mud flaps, floor liners, cargo liners are from Ohio, Texas, Kansas and Tennessee.
To prove their point more they are “proactive in controlling waste and recycling all of the unused raw materials from the manufacture of our tooling…” The jobs linked by the machinery, parts, services, etc. includes a family of over “300,000 million people from all over America.”
I am glad to hear of companies and magazines in other industries writing about the importance of keeping things local, especially during America’s economic recession. Can you think of a better solution that would help bring back jobs, our strength in the economy and abroad as well as help the environment than making things in America?
With our June Store this past month we found people to be incredibly price conscious because people were out of work or were scared of losing work. The days of impulse buying are over. People are taking longer to think about what purchases they really need.
It is in this economy that it is very important that we each do our part to teach one another how much better it is to buy something that might cost a little bit more because it goes back into our communities in America and is probably the actual price and cost of how much these items are worth.
People forget that the reason a shirt can cost $50 bucks is because we are trying to pay a local person at least minimum wages/hour that it took to make the shirt and the true cost of materials. Take that calculated cost and double it if you want to make a profit for the person selling it and who made it.
I can tell you I will be looking into buying from this company because of this article. I hope to hear about more and more companies that are keeping things made in America and local.
If you know of any articles or companies I would love to hear from you.
Thanks!
To Read the full article click Here!
July 12th, 2009 at 5:52 PM
Excellent article and unfortunately so very late in the game.