Mall To Mall Travels in America

January 14, 2009

We’ve returned from the road trip from Ontario to PEI. Bill says we should just put a fifth wheel on the roof of the minivan and drag a semi trailer. Throw on a CB antenna, and we can converse with the big rigs. If the monster purple suitcase flies off the roof and hits a truck, it will knock it off the road. Then the big rigs will be mad at us.

We crossed into the US at Buffalo, stayed a night in Albany, NY, a night in Portland , ME, and a night in Freeport, ME , getting to Charlottetown on the 4^th day. It sure was a better drive than Northern Quebec. If it storms, I’ll take Albany over Riviere-du-Loup anyday.

The whole family together for 4 days in a little van. Dunkin Donuts, chips, fries, what’s next ? My hair flipped up and I’m headed to NASCAR. I found it interesting how overheated my body felt for that 3 weeks of eating so much or so badly, like my personal global warming bioassay. Do you suppose pollution makes our individual furnaces run hotter, just like the planet’s? Eating that way also creates a disturbing amount of garbage.

If there’s a recession, someone should tell the Americans. Malls were as full as ever. The lineup at the checkouts was long. Can a recession can be prevented just by the collective power of millions of people not believing in it? Or is the reality just beginning to settle in? Maybe all those people were not buying, or maybe they won’t be buying now. I think we’re a little insulated from the situation in Canada.

We’re walking through L.L. Bean. Bill saw an item of clothing he liked but refused to buy because it was made in China. He had noticed the same thing about the Lexus cars parked in the center isle of a mall the day before. The sticker in the window said “% Canadian or American content, zero”.

He noticed where an item was made within 15 seconds. Put me in front of those cars or clothes for a full minute and I bet I couldn’t tell you where they were manufactured. That information doesn’t jump out at me.

I see that Canada and the US can trade “fairly” because a dollar is worth a dollar and the wages and standard of living are the same.

I can understand that there can be no such thing as fair trade with a country like Mexico or China where people work for $5 a day while we work for $15 an hour. Companies are sending all the manufacturing there but they want all the consumption to stay here. It can’t happen. If we don’t buy our own stuff, nobody here will have money to spend on anything, regardless of where it’s made.

But the spirit of America is stronger than ever. We want to make the right purchasing choice. It just needs to be more obvious. Put a big US flag or a picture of Obama right on the front of American-made items and I bet more people would add that consideration to decide their action.

If I had $20 left at the end of the week and Made in the USA or Made in Canada or Made in China was more obvious, I’d be swayed by that. I may not always like or choose what America makes but it would pressure North America to make what its citizens want.

Have you watched Mr. Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth? No person over the age of 10 should miss it. It will change your life. Hopefully, it will change all of our lives. In it, he explains that emission standards for cars made in the US are so low that they could not be driven in China. If that is still true, then US automakers don’t deserve to have their vehicles bought. The technology is in place. This is a political low point. Consumers do, and should, use more information than where something is made when they decide what to buy because some issues are bigger than all of us.

For many products, this just needs to be easier. Every consumer demographic should be able, within 15 seconds, to say where a product is made to factor it into a buy decision. It would be easy to say that consumers should be more conscious of the issue and actively find the information like Bill does. I don’t think that’s realistic. I’ll be too distracted by all the other things I’m noticing. We want to do well but we’re lazy. I’m lazy.

Imagine if Sephora had all the animal-tested stuff on one wall and the cruelty-free products on the opposite wall, clearly marked. I bet the tested products would be gone in a year. We’re strongly driven to spend our last $20 on what we want but we have enough conscience to support the right side more often than we do if we don’t have to go out of our way too much.

It will be interesting to see how retail does in the next 4 months. Mobil is putting its gas grades R to L, unlike the conventional L for cheapest and R for costliest. Someone not paying attention will select the most expensive. Maybe they’ve always done that, but now, we’re noticing and resenting. Diesel costs more and it’s a by-product of gas. Gas in Canada costs much more than in the US. … and the gas companies are not screwing us?

Some will go under. Some will try to sting us a little deeper.

Thanks to Sandra for the link to Sundance Catalog. There are some beautiful things here, “Cleverly Cute Shoes” , “Ultra Cool Boots”, items for the home, jewelry (Circle Of Friends earrings, be still my heart!), and clothing. The Outlet, always my second stop at a new website (after About Us), is there. The prices are entirely competitive. From the About Us page, everything appears to have been crafted by artists across the US.

Posted by Christine Scaman | Filed Under Money

Comments

3 Responses to “Mall To Mall Travels in America”

Sonja on January 15th, 2009 11:03 am

The same is true of food. If you buy strawberries imported from God knows where in January, you are contributing to pollution because it takes a lot of fuel to get them to you. If you buy produce imported from another community, you put your local farmers out of work. At my grocery store, I can buy apples from New Zealand if I want to, but I prefer to support the local economy and I look for the made in BC tag, which is usually clearly marked. Buying in season is key, perhaps we don’t need raspberries year round?
Gail on January 25th, 2009 10:23 pm

Hi Christine,

I quite enjoy your blogs, but felt the need to respond to a few things you commented on.
As a former flt. attendant for many years, I did many trips into China, & you could have fooled me that there were any emission standards whatsoever in mainland China!
Also, can’t say I’m much of an Al Gore fan, & would have much preferred to see Irena Sendler receive the Nobel peace prize for 2007. There is an interesting article on her at snopes.com/politics/war/sendler.asp . For anyone reading this, I have no religious connections or agenda, and, yes, I also sincerely believe we all need to take more responsibility for our environment & the state of our planet.

Regards,
Gail
Christine Scaman on January 26th, 2009 6:18 pm

Hi, Gail,

I agree, I was amazed. How could it be possible? And yet, I spoke with a few people who knew more about the history of the automotive industry than I do, and not one was surprised. In fact, a few were already aware of it through different channels.

Mr. Gore’s message is important, but he has an agenda too. The real truth, as always, lies along the middle road. But surely, given how many times he has given this speech and publicized it so widely, if the data regarding US vehicle emissions were false, he would have had to change/retract what he says. Would you agree or not?

Irena Sendler’s was desperately powerful and sad. I had not heard of her. The humanity and strength that some people draw on in inhuman times is truly inspiring.