[Vision2020] Tools, clothing and other shopping - and our foreign relationships

[Jeff Harkins]

Some disparaging remarks have been made about foreign products on 
this site.  To the many foreign visitors in our region, it is 
important to note that not all Moscow area citizens feel that way 
about foreign products.  Many of us have great respect for your 
business efforts and appreciate the value and quality of many of the 
products imported here from around the world.  Many of us enjoy the 
opportunity to broaden our exchange horizons and share a marketplace.

On the point of choice, shopping and value, I was out boosting the 
local economy for the holidays and noted that:
    * Carhartt has domestic and foreign plants - not all their goods 
are made in the US.
    * Dickies produces many of their goods in Belize - a wonderful, 
english speaking, US currency country (with excellent diving and 
nature tourism opportunities.  The jacket was beautifully tailored 
with a two-year warranty (at Moscow Building).
    * Wranglers, at several stores, including WalMart) are made 
offshore and are a good value in jeans
    * The most desired trucks by consumers (according to Edmunds) are 
Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Titan.
    * The most desired sedans (each in separate price category) are 
Honda C-RV, Honda Pilot, Volkswagen Tourareg, Porsche Cayenne.
    * The most desired van is Honda Odyssey.
    * The "most highly rated brands" according to Wood Magazine are 
to be found at the following vendors: Bosch, Makita, Hitachi, Jet, 
Ryobi, Porter-Cable, DeWalt (owned by Black and Decker, but produced 
offshore), Delta (owned by Porter Cable) and Milwaukee.  All of these 
produce some or all of their lines offshore - yes, even Milwaukee.
    * It is pretty hard to find any video or audio products not 
produced offshore
    * and so on and so on ................
Oh - much of our locally grown wheat and peas are sold to foreign 
markets.  And a substantial portion of our student population 
(especially at the grad level) is foreign national - given the 
current trends in enrollment for UI, we are fortunate to have them here.

In fact, if you want to make absolutely sure that your goods are 
American made, you probably should make them yourself!  ;-))
The markets in Moscow are appropriately diverse - providing us (the 
locals) with reasonable consumer choices.

It might be prudent to not generalize about foreign imports; 
globalization has been good for Moscow. 
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