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What a Texas showerhead salesman discovered about 'Made in the USA' labels [1]
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Date: 2025-05-20
For all his bluster about bringing manufacturing back to the US, he’s again, way off the mark. NPR provided this story showing how an online experiment does not help his disastrous tariff wars.
Ramon van Meer sells showerheads made in China and Vietnam. When President Trump imposed steep tariffs on Asian imports this spring, van Meer decided to find out if it made business sense for his company to shift production to the United States. "I wanted to see how many people would actually pay for the more expensive, 'Made in the USA' version," van Meer said. So, he set up an online experiment. On his website, where customers can already choose from a variety of finishes — chrome, nickel or black — for their showerheads, van Meer offered two options: The imported showerhead for $129 and a domestic version costing about $100 more. www.npr.org/...
It takes more than just one company to provide all the necessary parts for manufacturing anything. This story highlights how showerheads are made from a combination of parts that are manufactured overseas just to make a finished product like a showerhead.
What’s more, we used to have the ability to make more things here, but the costs involved just are too high. Ramon van Meer shows how he came to this conclusion.
How he came up with the price The higher price for the domestic option was based on what it would cost van Meer to stitch together a supply chain from scratch — one company to handle the plastic molding, another to do the metal plating and a third to supply the special filter that removes chlorine and heavy metals. No single company is making a product like that in the U.S. today, and if van Meer wanted to start, he figured he'd have to charge about 85% more than he currently does for the imported version. What he found from his experiment could pour cold water on Trump's effort to encourage more domestic manufacturing. The results were not even close. Of the more than 25,000 people who visited the website during the two-week trial, about 600 ordered the imported showerhead. Not a single person clicked on the more expensive, "Made in the USA" model. www.npr.org/...
Just goes to show that the current POTUS has absolutely no idea how production actually works, and for all his yelling about buying American, if you look at the labels in his own merchandise, it says “Made in China.” So he’s not only ignoring his own mantra, he’s lying to Americans.
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