Fabriqué en Chine or: I’d Buy That For $1

Salutations™!!

Yesterday, The BCPF and I were at the local Dollar Tree to buy some gifts for her work thing. I really dislike the Dollar Tree. It’s like being at Wal-Mart’s clearance section and I hate being at Wal-Mart. At least Wal-Mart has stuff that I’m interested in, with name brand merch.

The “Dollar” stores are always in disarray, stuff scattered everywhere, the no-name detergents spilled up and down aisles, stuff broken, it goes on and on. But, there was something that I thought about.

I was interested in a little experiment. Not so much an experiment but research. I looked on the back of  20 different items in various locations in the store. 18 of the 20 items had the same thing on the back of the item: “fabriqué en Chine,” which is French for Made in China. I’m sure if I kept walking through the store and looking at items, I’d find that 90% of that store is fabriqué en Chine.

I do not want to stereotype the people that shop at Dollar Tree, because, hey, I was there, The BCPF was there, I’m pretty sure my sister and mother shop there, but I would say that 75% of the shoppers at this store would have voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election and probably would in 2020, if he makes it that far. And, you know what, that’s great for them. We should all vote for who we want.

But, this isn’t a political post, I’m not trying to ruffle feathers and I’m not trying to start trouble. So, don’t make it into such. What this post is about is what will happen to stores like Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Dollar General when these tariffs start kicking in in 2019? What will its denizens do when they are completely understocked or worse, have to close because they can’t get to the off-brand “fabriqué en Chine” merchandise that they’re used to at these stores?

Again, not to be political but if my guess is right and nearly 3/4 of the stores’ shoppers are Trump supporters, how are they going to react that their “guy” is the cause of the loss? I don’t know that it will mater. I’m okay with whatever the answer is. It wasn’t meant to stir anything. I genuinely am interested in what would happen if these stores can’t get their extra cheap merch and the people who are used to getting this merch can’t. It’s simply an observation and a curious one at that.

I’m actually hoping that the tariffs get waylayed and we don’t have to worry about. We, of course, is a collective “we” as I’m not really concerned with what happens to the Dollar Tree. But, for the sake of everything we get that is fabriqué en Chine, whether we know it or not.

Until tomorrow, same blog channel…
Scorp out!

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“Just about everything I own was made in China. Just about everything you own was made in China, too.” – Timothy Noah