Nov 28, 2007 9:39 am US/Central
Mantra For Holiday Gift Shopping: Buy American
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) ―
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Orders at BuyAmerican.com, the leading site for U.S.-made products, are up more than 25 percent in just the past four months.
CBS
This month I've shown you several toy stores here in the Twin Cities selling Minnesota-made or American-made toys. Now several new Web sites are popping up to help you sort through the toys, too.
The big one is
BuyAmerican.com. It's the leading site for U.S.-made products. Orders to the site are up more than 25 percent in just the past four months. And for toy makers, production is happening at a speedy pace.
"With all the recalls on toys that are unsafe, people are looking for more and more American- made products," said Laura Hultberg, with BuyAmerican.com.
You'll find a lot more than toys for sale on that site. They have furniture, clothes, gadgets, all kinds of stuff.
If you're shopping on the high-end of things you might not expect your designer label to also say "Made in China." But as we've seen with all the recent recalls, more and more American and European products are being made in China. And it turns out some companies aren't hiding it.
A small but growing number of high-priced designers are turning to factories in China to make their goods. But many are still mixed on how mass producing items overseas can be resolved with the rich history of items typically hand-crafted in Europe.
"Because of the very nature of the Italian craftsmanship, it's what the luxury consumer expects. It's where you get the finest quality," said Stacey Cartwright, CEO of Burberry's.
"I don't think they even care. As far as they're concerned, it's a cute bag," said Rafe Totengco, a designer in New York.
The designers aren't hiding where their handbags are made, but you do have to dig a little to find the label that shows where it is made.
The WCCO Morning Show has profiled a number of Twin Cities stores in the last month, like Peapods and Beka in St. Paul and Fairy Finery in Golden Valley.
Many of you e-mailed in some great places to find safe, natural toys. We'll check them out Thursday morning.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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