Made in the USA – Holiday Shopping

It’s that time again – the Holiday season! I personally hate fighting holiday traffic and other shoppers so I do my shopping throughout the year while traveling and online. When I travel, I prefer to buy unique gifts that are made locally. I buy a lot of gifts from street vendors and local artists. This past summer I bought a ring for my cousin that was made right in front of me.

When I am in the US, buying locally and online is a little bit harder. Recently, I was shopping online on a popular “marketplace” website that I thought sold locally made products. I found a great gift for my sister so I ordered it. It wasn’t until I got the shipping information that I realized that the product was Made in China.

Is it possible to buy Made in the USA products online? Absolutely, but it will take a little research. A good first stop would be to check out Walmart.com where they specifically identify goods Made in the USA. If you have been following our blogs then you know that Walmart has been actively adding Made in the USA products to their stores and online for the last three years. 

I need toys for my nieces so I went to Walmart.com and searched for “toys made in the USA” and got several pages of toys that are made in the USA.

I tried the same thing on the Target.com website and I got mostly books on the USA and a Toy Story t-shirt that says Made in the 90s. Cute, but not quite what I was looking for.

I wasn’t too surprised because Target hasn’t been as active as Walmart in supporting local products and manufacturing. It’s still disappointing, though.

Looking for more American Made toys or other gifts? Google it! I typed the same criteria into Google and found several sites that have Made in the USA toys including Amazon.

When buying products from retailers like Walmart, Target and Amazon you may still want to ensure that the product is really made in the USA. I would recommend visiting the manufacturer’s website. For example, I found this really cool building set on Amazon that I thought would be a lot of fun for one of my nieces (ok really…it would be fun for me to help my niece build) but I couldn’t tell by the description if it was really made in the US so I Googled it. I went to the K’Nex website and found that they are committed to American Made products.

Is buying products Made in the USA worth the extra time researching? Absolutely! It takes less time to do the research than it does to drive to a mall, park, shop and wait in line to check out. The prices are reasonable, the quality is higher and you helped the local economy. Shop locally, even online as much as possible.

Daisie Hobson
Director of Research and Member of the Board