We’ve all seen the bumper stickers that say, “Out of a Job Yet? Keep Buying Foreign” with a patriotic American flag backdrop. It sure is a decent sentiment to encourage buying American-made products, but is it really possible?

A while back, my microwave stopped working and I decided to buy a new one. It was the perfect opportunity. I would buy a microwave made proudly right here in the good old USA. I did not need anything too fancy, just a regular microwave that was made by the greatest work force in the world. I had even decided that I would gladly pay a little more for my new American-made appliance, as it would most likely cost me a little more than its Chinese counterpart.

That evening I headed out to the store. I figured I would start at Menards. They usually have decent prices and often proudly advertise their “Made in America” sales. When I got there, they only had one brand, and it was made in China. I began to think that this might be a little harder than I anticipated.

My next stop was Best Buy. They had roughly six brands with various models to choose from, but each and every one of them was made in China. I should mention that it was not that easy to find out where the microwave was made. The display tags do not say, so you usually have to pull the box off the shelf and flip it over to see. In many cases, it only said “Hecho en China,” which my high school Spanish taught me means “Made in China.”

I wasn’t giving up. Now I was on a mission to find one single American-made microwave. I wondered if Target sold microwaves. They do — all of them made in China.

I left Target and decided to try again the next day, but then I saw Walmart. I did not hold out much hope since Walmart is notorious for selling Chinese-made products, but I stopped and went inside anyway. Before I even looked at prices, sizes, power levels and all of the other options available, I just started pulling boxes off of the shelf, flipping them over and hoping to find that precious “Made in America” stamp.

Then I found one! A microwave that was not made in China! Unfortunately, my enthusiasm was short-lived. It was made in Malaysia. Not exactly what I was hoping for. I left discouraged and thought about having a beer. At least Budweiser is still brewed here in Ohio.

That night I mentioned to a friend how much trouble I was having trying to find a microwave made in America. She said, “You should make your own. I’d buy it.” I thought about this for a minute, but then remembered something that I had recently seen on TV. A guy in England decided to make his own toaster from scratch. He even tried to smelt his own metal in his mother’s microwave, which was most likely made in China. As you can imagine, things did not turn out well with his toaster, so I decided against trying to make my own microwave.

The next day I started at Meijer. Once again, there were no microwaves that were not made in Asia. I was seriously starting to run out of stores in Toledo that sold microwaves. I decided to try Lowe’s, but ended up at Home Depot instead. I was again disappointed to find nothing made in the USA. However, they were having a good sale, and I did find by far the best deal I had seen on a microwave that fit my needs. I gave up. I bought a microwave that was made in China. I went home discouraged, but knowing that I had tried.

I still see those bumper stickers from time to time. I still appreciate the sentiment, but I have a little bit of a different viewpoint on the subject now. Who knows, maybe Sears had the American microwave I was looking for all along. I will stop and look sometime just for curiosity’s sake. I will also continue to try to be a conscientious consumer, but I will always know that it is a lot easier said than done.

Email columnist Matt Opperman at letters@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Best Buy, Matt Opperman, Meijer, Menards, Pursuit of Truth, Sears, Target, Walmart

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 4:10 pm and is filed under Opinion, Pursuit of Truth.
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At the risk of sounding on the verge of shouting at kids to get offa my lawn, this year’s Black Friday hype made me nostalgic for the old days.

By the old days, I mean a time when just about everything was closed on Thanksgiving Day and the day-after sales meant an optional trip to the mall, not a federally mandated competition involving fists, knife fights and Ndamukong Suh-style chest stomping.

I remember Toledo Thanksgivings and Christmases when just about everything was closed so people could spend the day with their families. If you had not stocked up on groceries and gas by Wednesday night, you waited until Friday.  It was a suspension of commerce that is unthinkable today.

Just about anything you could desire was available Thanksgiving Day last week, as many if not most stores stayed open and got a jump on the Black Friday sales.

“Black Friday,” which has been used historically to label everything from financial disasters to fires to massacres to bombings to an 1881 tragedy in which nearly 200 fishermen died. Our modern Black Friday, which since 2005 has reportedly been the busiest shopping day of the year, increasingly seems like a speeding train headed for a derailment. It was interesting to see the news footage of people camped out at Best Buy and Toys ‘R’ Us, juxtaposed with images of protestors at various “Occupy” locations. We could have saved a lot of time and effort by employing the Occupy 99 percenters to hold spots in line for the 1 percenters who were lined up for Blu-ray players and laptop computers to give as presents to their servants.

This was a particularly ugly Black Friday in many parts of the country. In Los Angeles, a woman blasted fellow shoppers with pepper spray so she could step over them to get an Xbox. According to a CBS News report, “The woman got away in the confusion, but it was not immediately clear whether she got an Xbox.” In South Charleston, W.Va., a man collapsed at a Target and people kept shopping, several of them stepping over him to get their goodies. The man later died, but it was not reported if disgust was a factor. There were also reports of people in Black Friday lines being shot, but that seems to happen almost anywhere people gather these days.

My family spent this Thanksgiving with relatives in South Florida. It has been part of our tradition to sneak out at the ungodly (but warm) hours before dawn with a shopping list for Black Friday deals. But the experience has become a lot less fun as crowds have grown.

Now that we have young children, our list has changed from toys for us (me) to toys for the boys.

This year, most of the South Florida retailers were open for the day or started Black Friday sales by 9 or 10 p.m. Thanksgiving Day. We narrowed our agenda to two stops; one store had nice pajama sets for the kids at less than $4 a pair and one store had buy-one-get-one-free software for the LeapFrog learning tablet Santa is bringing.

Our first view of the Walmart in Hallandale Beach should have been a signal for us to turn around and go home. Police cruisers lined the parking lot, which was so full of circling cars it looked like an overcrowded shark tank at feeding time.

We parked just inside the county line, walked through the parking lot like “Frogger” players and entered. The store was packed and stacked with people; yellow police tape forced a flow of traffic through clothing areas back to electronics, where many people were waiting and where we had no desire to go.

As we searched for the boxes of pajamas, which were strewn about and tossed on every surface, we heard a commotion across the aisle in electronics. Police officers moved in, but the crowd, scores of people deep, was rushing toward something we couldn’t see, shouting and yelling. Suddenly, a medium-size box flew up in the air like a bride’s bouquet at a wedding reception, and people began jumping for it like they had a chance to spike a winning point in an Olympic volleyball game. We could not see the employee who was serving up what turned out to be computer printers, but he must have decided the best course for survival would be to move the crowd back, so he began tossing boxed printers in the air, away from himself, which caused a rush of people in whichever direction the boxes flew.

I have seen crowds in riot situations a number of times (I once saw a spring break crowd weary of rain start tossing furniture out of hotel windows, which culminated in people lighting fire to rolls of toilet paper and throwing them at thatched cabana roofs) but the sight never loses its power. We found the sets of pajamas, which suddenly seemed like a trivial reason to be exposed to the Walmart production of “Lord of the Flies,” and headed for the checkout line … which wound, Cedar Point-style, through several lanes.

As people grew impatient with waiting, the cursing, yelling and restlessness became unnerving. There’s a tipping point for time investment, and we had not quite reached it when we finally got to the front of the line … to see that someone ahead of us had urinated right on the floor in the aisle.

When we finally got back to our car, having found our items but having had no fun at all, we pulled back onto the road, toward the scores of big-box stores that were open and offering bargains and deals. We drove past them all, choosing to go back home, get some sleep and wait for the less-crazed and less-crowded deals of Cyber Monday.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Best Buy, Black Friday, Lighting The Fuse, Michael S. Miller, Ndamukong Suh, Target, Walmart

This entry was posted on Friday, December 2nd, 2011 at 12:00 am and is filed under Lighting The Fuse, Opinion.
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Back-to-school shopping symbolizes the end of summer vacation, but it also means kids can count on stores offering the latest trends from healthy snacks to stylish jeans.

U.S. consumers are expected to spend $39 billion on back-to-school shopping this year, up from $37.9 billion in 2010, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC).

This translates to more foot traffic at local stores.

“I noticed we have very early guest traffic,” said Katja Classic, an assistant manager at Target, 817 W. Alexis Road. She added that customers have been shopping for basics like scissors, pens and glue, “very, very hard.”

Target spokeswoman Kristy Welker recommended using these basics to show some flair. “Backpacks and stationery are the best ways to show off a little personality this school year,” she said in email, citing backpacks, messenger bags and lunchboxes in bright colors or animal prints.

Not so basic items like Smartphones and laptops also are selling well this season, said David Peterson, Meijer spokesperson. “I’ve noticed an uptick in that.”

Electronic sales are estimated to account for $5.5 billion of back-to-school sales, up from $5.4 billion from last year, according to the ICSC. From 2009 to 2010, back-to-school electronic sales jumped 19.2 percent.

Customers are also for searching for clothing essentials at stores like Target and The Andersons. Back-to-school clothing projections are at $21.7 billion from $20.9 in 2010, according to the ICSC.

Many shoppers are purchasing school uniforms and “durable types of items” from brands like Dickies, said John Hoover, director of marketing for The Andersons.

Fashion items also prevail this season. Peterson and Laura Good, a sales manager at the Westfield Franklin Park Mall Dillard’s, both said they noticed lots of jeans with heavy embellishments or stitching on the pockets. Flared jeans also made a comeback, although Good noted, “You’ll still have skinnies.”

Allover denim is trendy at Kohl’s this season. “Denim is breaking out of its ‘bottoms-only’ role, with head-to-toe denim as the must-try trend for back-to-school,” said David Hacker, vice president of trend and color for Kohl’s, in a press release.

Hacker also recommended playing with proportions this fall by pairing long skirts with “skimmer tees” or shorter tops. “Back-to-school fashion plays with layers, length and volume to create a new silhouette,” he said in the release.

Good said looser tops that create a boxy silhouette are in this season. Dillard’s also presents teenage girls with a selection of shirts and blouses with ethnic prints, ruffles and lace, Good said, while colored denim is popular for teenage boys.

Fashion boots that girls can tuck skinny jeans into will be another fall staple for Meijer and Dillard’s. The Council expects back-to-school shoes to make $7.1 billion, compared to $6.9 billion last year, according to its projections. Popular shoes include UGG Sparkles and “Sperry Topsiders are just booming,” Good said.

Local team sports apparel is also fashionable, Peterson said. Trends for the younger siblings of teens include items featuring superheroes like Green Lantern or Captain America. Shirts with “Angry Birds,” the popular game for iPhones, are also very popular among boys, Peterson said.

Another character, “Hello Kitty,” is in style this season. Target has a large selection of items such as lunchboxes, purses and pencils with the Japanese cat on them this year, Classic said.

“It’s very exciting to our clientele,” she added.

“Hello Kitty” also makes appearances on graphic tees and notebooks at Walmart, according to a July 19 press release.

In addition, Walmart stocks “Super Mario Brothers” notebooks and folders, along with items featuring characters from the Nickelodeon show, “Victorious.”

Snacks for lunch and after school also line the shelves of local stores. Stores like Meijer offer programs such as NuVal, a nutritional scoring system on food items, to make buying healthy foods easier, Peterson said.

“We look at ourselves [as parents] and say, ‘What would help us?’” he said. “We’re really pushing easy meals for healthy kids.”

This includes handing out recipe cards at stores and demonstrating recipes for snacks like vanilla-berry smoothies.

Meijer will also have a “healthy living adviser” on its Facebook page every Thursday from 10-11 a.m. in August and September.

“I don’t see how it (healthy snacking) can’t be a trend,” said Elizabeth M. Ward, author and nutrition consultant for Sargento. “We need to teach them (children) that snacking is healthy,” she said.

One of Sargento’s newer products is the Fridge Pack, a cheese snack designed to stand up in the refrigerator because kids are more inclined to eat better “if something healthy is visible,” Ward said.

Snacks with protein like the Fridge Pack, which comes in light string cheese, mild cheddar and Colby jack, keep children fuller longer, Ward said, adding, “My kids really like them for that.”

Tags: Angry Birds, Captain America, Dickies, Dillard's, Green Lantern, Hello Kitty, iPhones, Kohl's, Meijer, Sargento, Super mario brothers, Target, The Andersons, Walmart

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 6th, 2011 at 2:29 pm and is filed under Back To School, Community, Education.
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