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The Tip is 'Don't procrastinate' For years I've been buying ink jet cartridges from a big box office supply store. These cartridges were made overseas and labeled with the well-known brand of a large American printer company. One I remembered a local store that advertised quality cartridges. I had traveled by this local store hundreds of times but never stopped. This time I stopped at the local store. To my surprise I discovered that they carried the cartridge I needed and it was a Made in USA cartridge. Made in Chicago, to be precise, and it was half the price of the imported ones I had been buying for years. The quality is exceptional and they last longer too. Who knew? After that experience, I make a point to stop at every store I can. By doing so, I've been finding more and more Made in America products. Occasionally the clerks don't know the country of origin; this can be discouraging but finding the origin information yourself isn't difficult I've come to realize. Believe it not, there are actually a number of computers made in the US including laptops made in the USA. When the label is not visibly displayed I use the other Made in America buying tips to help me find Made in US. If the store doesn't carry what you are looking for, use Made in America Secrets to find it and tell the manager about your experience at their store. If enough people are asking for Made in America products stores will begin to carry them. Buying Tip Continued - Read more on Made in America Products by North Meadow In the late 1980's Paris Manufacturing, a well known century old manufacturer of wood sleds and toboggans, decided they needed a line of products to sell in their off season. Croquet seemed like the perfect item and the Cumberland Croquet Set was born! True to their reputation for quality and craftsmanship the Paris Mfg. company had much success with this croquet set and it didn't take long for that set to evolve into several different models. All of these models have the same inherent quality that Paris Mfg. was known for. For several years the Paris Co. continued to produce these high quality croquet sets for many of the major retailers including Land's End, Lee Valley, L.L. Bean, Orvis, Plow & Hearth and Pottery Barn. While receiving favorable reviews from the Wall Street Journal on more than one occasion, the pressure from offshore manufacturing began to erode away at the Paris market share. The imported sets were less expensive, less durable and generally inferior in quality when compared to these domestically manufactured croquet sets. Some of the major retailers opted for the imported sets and the Paris Co. began to falter. Fast forward a few more years and due to the offshore pressure, the manufacturing of the wood sleds and toboggans along with the Paris name was sold to a Canadian company. However, the croquet line was retained by the parent corporation and marketed under the name of Forest Industries, Inc., a Maine manufacturing company that had been furnishing the wood turnings for these croquet sets. It was about this time that Pierce Point Laser entered the picture when they created the personalized croquet set market. It wasn't long before Pierce Point was purchasing about one in four of the sets they were producing. It was a natural progression that with their capability to personalize and engrave corporate logos on these sets that Pierce Point Laser acquire this line of croquet sets. In March of 2008 this happened and The North Meadow Croquet Co. was formed. With Pierce Point Laser's guiding principles of quality, craftsmanship and customer service the future bodes well for North Meadow Croquet. |
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