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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.<br><br>
On the point of choice, shopping and value, I was out boosting the local
economy for the holidays and noted that:
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<li>Carhartt has domestic and foreign plants - not all their goods are
made in the US.
<li>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).
<li>Wranglers, at several stores, including WalMart) are made offshore
and are a good value in jeans
<li>The most desired trucks by consumers (according to Edmunds) are
Toyota Tacoma and Nissan Titan.
<li>The most desired sedans (each in separate price category) are Honda
C-RV, Honda Pilot, Volkswagen Tourareg, Porsche Cayenne.
<li>The most desired van is Honda Odyssey.
<li>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.
<li>It is pretty hard to find any video or audio products not produced
offshore
<li>and so on and so on ................
</ul>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.
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In fact, if you want to make absolutely sure that your goods are American
made, you probably should make them yourself! ;-)) <br>
The markets in Moscow are appropriately diverse - providing us (the
locals) with reasonable consumer choices.<br><br>
It might be prudent to not generalize about foreign imports;
globalization has been good for Moscow.</body>
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