Photo: Bruce Forsyth.
May 2020
While we likely will never stop trading with China, I think we seriously need to question why we rely on them so much for a lot of the merchandise in our stores, and other needed items like medical supplies and pharmaceuticals.
Now, I do understand why so many of the things for sale in our stores are made in China; because they are cheap.
I also understand one very obvious reason why we are all so attracted to the cheap stuff we find in stores. Certainly getting a good deal on anything you buy is the primary goal of any smart shopper, it doesn’t negate the reality that sometimes buying the cheap merchandise is the only way for consumers to keep their household finances in the black.
With the cost of everything we consume, both goods and services, rising higher and higher every year, with household incomes not even coming close to keeping up, buying cheap Chinese made products is a necessity.
I’m a frequent shopper at the Dollar Store, like a lot of people out there, a shopping concept that is actually not a new one. Those of a certain age will remember the Five and Dime stores, and other discount stores of days gone by that once dotted the cities and towns across North America. The big difference today is that we have out-sourced the manufacturing of many products to countries like China and Mexico.
With no disrespect meant to the Dollar stores/Five and Dime, maybe we’ll have to get used to paying a little more for domestic-produced products.
