Last month, I had to go to Arizona for a conference. I made a decision (alright maybe my wife and I decided) that we would drive from Northern California to Arizona. And then from Arizona, maybe go to Las Vegas for a couple of days and then return home. However, these plans were nearly nipped in the bud when I discovered that Arizona was trying to pass a very crazy law, one that that legally discriminated against gays based on religious convictions. Luckily, the pragmatic Governor, knowing how bad businesses would suffer, vetoed this radical legislation. Therefore, I went, but with reservations (at the Hotel San Carlos).
Road Trip
Picture from “Vacation”
Looking for Made in USA items on a road trip is much like the premise of Josh Miller’s movie “Made in the USA: The 30 Day Journey“. I enjoyed that movie, but towards the end of the movie, Josh seemed to stop looking for things Made in the USA, and instead interviewed people who manufactured in the USA. So, on this road trip (since it was a one day road trip-going one way), I was looking mostly at gasoline stations with their little mini-marts, since time was slim. In examining the mini-marts, the mini-marts have very little for sale in regards to automobile products, maybe a total of 12 cans of motor oil to select from (by the way most motor oils come from imported crude [but refined in the USA] except for Brad Penn from Pennsylvania crude). But these little mini-marts have several heaping aisles of chips, sodas and junk food that would give any supermarket a run for its money. I had noted that most of the food is still made in the USA, although sometimes you can’t tell because the product labeling says “distributed” by their company in the USA. I know Hersheys products are all made in Mexico (and not in Hershey Pennsylvania), but I can’t tell about where Frito-Lays are made. Regarding health and beauty aids, such as toothpaste, by law, they do not have to say where they are made, so you don’t know where they are made for certain (unless you write to the company). But clothing does have to be labelled. The clothing found in these gasoline mini-marts are usually t-shirts, maybe some hoodies, baseball caps, occasionally socks and flip-flops. The selection is poor. And the clothing made in USA is close to zero. So, my advice, if you are looking for clothing Made in the USA, avoid the gasoline-mini-marts. (Not that you had to be told that).
The Road Trip Starts
As one drives down Central California to Southern California via I-5, which is the most boring piece of freeway ever built, one can not but reflect that all of this land, as far as the eye can see, is just plain desert. Yet, there is plenty of vegetables, grapes, fruit trees, Almond trees, etc. It is amazing how one can irrigate a desert with water from hundreds of miles away. And it is an amazing piece of engineering that one can send water all the way from Yosemite mountains all the way to Los Angeles. (Doesn’t it have to go uphill somewhere? Maybe it happens because it is going down on the map?) Another thing I find amazing is that in times of drought, it is the producers of the water (Northern California) that have to undergo drought restrictions while the southern part of the state can use as much as it wants. Simply amazing.
Desert Driving
Road Trip Story
As we are driving through Southern California on Interstate 10, we had passed the city of Indio (the last city of the Palm Springs metropolis), and also the last sign of civilization until the border of California and Arizona. I felt I had plenty of gas, because my gas tank should get me 350 miles per tankful and I was at 200, having reset my travel odometer after filling up with gas (the pump stopped, and then I filled a second more and it clicked again, all set right?) As we had passed Indio a ways back, all of a sudden I noticed my fuel light was on. How is that possible? But the indicator did show I had very little gas, maybe one gallon maybe a little more. And the distance, well, it was about 5 miles before I saw a sign that said Blythe 32 miles. Doing the calculations, my SUV can get 20 MPH per gallon, and I have one gallon if I am lucky maybe a little more to travel 37 miles. So, panic mode has now set in, we get out the maps and the GPS, it says nothing is around (that is when we actually got a rare signal, at this time, Siri would have said (if I had an iPhone): “Services, You must be kidding me, right?”). We passed a few freeway exits which had no services, and when you have no gas, you inspect each exit intensely as you pass by, but, no, there were definitely no services. Therefore, to conserve gas, I slowed down to 55 MPH, trying to draft behind some semi-trucks when I could, all the while searching for any gas stations. This made for a very long, white knuckle trip. As we continued to travel, we noticed there was nary a hint of civilization, so, if we ran out of gas and pulled off the road, then what? We could call AAA, that is if and a very big if, we could get phone service. Another choice is to find a police officer. Great, none around. What happened to all of those guys in uniform radar gunning me every mile of the way out here? So, we continued to drive in silence (the radio was on very low, not sure if this saves much gas but why take the chance?) in our gasoline-free SUV. At that time, I noticed that there were call boxes along the side of the freeway. They were situated about one mile from each other. Maybe, if we run out of gas, we can only hope that it is not too far from one of them. And lucky for us, the weather that day was temperate, and unlike how it usually is in that hellacious desert which normally would be in the high 90s or 100s. So, if we had to walk, the walk shouldn’t be life threatening (from the heat anyway). Somehow magically, we had enough gasoline to find a station that was open that happened to be located several miles outside of Blythe. We pulled in, filled up, then wiped the sweat from my brow and didn’t complain once even when the fuel pump said that I put in more gasoline than my fuel tank can hold. After a bathroom break and going through the tremendous smorgasbord of junk food, off we went, into the non-irrigated desert on the Arizona side.
Arizona
When we arrived in Arizona, it was fairly late. The only shops open were the hotel gift shops. We found one gift shop that had several “Made in USA” shirts. One T-shirt I found was made by the Real Dirt shirt company.. At first, I thought it said Red Dirt Shirt. Red Dirt Shirts are made in Hawaii, and they used to be “Made in USA”, but now they are only dyed in the USA. So, I was surprised when I found this one. And it wasn’t until I photographed the shirt did I realize it was a “Real Dirt” shirt and not Red Dirt. At least this one was “Made in the USA”.
Real Dirt Shirt
Not to be confused with Red Dirt
The next day of shopping, we went to the Premium Outlets in Chandler, AZ. Now it says “Premium”, but the only stores that make it premium were Off 5th Avenue, Coach and Armani. The rest are run of the mill outlets stores. We had made a purchase at the Off 5th Avenue and carried the clothes in the Saks bag. In the next store, my wife bought a blouse and while at the register she said that she could just put that purchase into the Saks bag, because, in our Northern California city, we recycle our bags. This absolutely boggled the mind of the salesclerk. “You mean you recycle your bags?! You also recycle bottles and cans?” “And paper, plastic and tin cans” – I added. The astonished salesclerk continued: “I don’t see why you have to pay the government to recycle? Here let me put this in this made in China ultra-thin plastic bag that will never disintegrate. And let me add some unneeded tissue paper and a bunch of these styrofoam peanuts.” The attitude of Arizona shoppers seems to be different than California shoppers. California is considered the home of the “green movement”, which is about protecting the environment, global responsibility, recycling and decreasing greenhouse gases. In California, solar energy is big. There are numerous places with solar panels: covering school parking lots; and on the roofs of private homes and government buildings. In the Midwest, solar might not be practical but in Arizona it is sunny 360 days per year, however, I didn’t see a single solar panel there. Arizona would be considered a “Brown” state. Although, Arizona does advertise about saving water (it better, it is in the middle of a desert), it does not recycle, it doesn’t care about preserving the environment (unless it is The Grand Canyon) but it does advocate driving three- and four-wheelers all around the desert while putting bullet holes in Saguaro Cacti which are a hundred years old. As far as buying “Made in USA”, in Arizona, there is very little movement there. Different state, different attitude. Sorry, if I offended the Arizona citizens that buy Made in USA. My apologies to both of you.
Saguaro Cactus with bullet holes
Cracker Barrel
After our visit to the “Premium” outlets, we visited a Cracker Barrel restaurant, known for its country cooking. Cracker Barrels are located mainly in the Midwest, starting out in Tennessee but they have spread out to almost everywhere. I think the name Cracker Barrel is kind of funny, because “cracker” is a derogatory term for “white people” in some cultures, like haole is in Hawaii. “More fun than a barrel of crackers”. I mention Cracker Barrel, because two years ago, in one of their gift shops, I lamented about their shirts that had images of the US Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and the American Flag yet were made in China, Bangladesh and Haiti; a USA hat made in China; a USA sweatshirt made in Pakistan; USA pillow made in India; ’76 hat made in China; and “Army” and “Marines” hats made in China. Well, all of those are still there except – the “Army” hats, which are now made in the USA by Eagle Crest, and another hat made in the USA by Top of the World (I think that is the exception rather than the rule as far as Made in USA and Top of the World). There were several blouses made in the USA made by French Bazaar, Max & K, Studio Gen Q, SML sport and Bayside. There also were cups, coasters and a few other nicknacks made in the USA. So, there is some improvement.
Conclusion
The Made in USA movement is growing, but slowly and unevenly. We need faster growth. The question we have to ask ourselves, where are the new jobs going to come from if we do not support our own manufacturing? Service jobs do not beget more jobs whereas manufacturing jobs do. And many service jobs are much more easily outsourced than manufacturing jobs. Buy American, you will be buying better quality and you will supporting your neighbor, your community, your state and your country.
I leave you with some travel music from the movie “Vacation”, the song “Holiday Road” by Lindsay Buckingham.