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We're on email and get catalogs from MidwayUSA, Cabela's and Bass Pro. All are pushing their clothing and sown goods. Our daughter-in-law is a purchasing executive for a large international company and says the markup on clothing produced in Pacific Asian rim countries is shocking. That $200 pair of boots marked down to $150 they are still making $120 on. See the folding knife with Winchester brand for $5 at Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart probably paid .75 cents. The Winchester name on the package cost more than the knife.

It's those evil big companies and that evil China.

And Cabela's is printing money as profits, right? Oh, they aren't?

These kinds of generalizations about mark up on foreign made goods reek of lack of specific knowledge of the subject and result in wild misinformation becoming received truth. I'm including your idiotic comment too Jaegermeister.

The fault lies not with the brand, or the retailer. The fault lies with the consumer and the choices he/she makes every day in the marketplace. I say this as a result of a 35 year career in consumer products, specifically footwear, clothing and sporting goods hardware, during the time frame when offshore production became a thing.

Bibbyman, consider this....if the name Winchester is worth more than the actual product, whose fault is that? Walmart isn't stupid, neither is the company who licensed the Winchester name to use on knives or the company with the Winchester name rights. They all know the value it carries in the marketplace, where consumers spend the money on a well known branded product rather than the superior item with a name not recognized.

And your example of boots is just flat out wrong. In a very simplistic way, and anyone with manufacturing experience will understand this, there is the unit cost of production, there is the capital costs associated with design and development, there are the capital costs associated with creating molds and production lines and these have to be amortized over the life of the product, something that gets shorter all the time, thanks to the short attention span of consumers, then there is transportation, centralized or regional distribution, packaging, the costs associated with maintaining an inventory and end of run mark down costs. And all that is before it gets to the retailer.

Your $200 boots....they cost the retailer around $100 to get onto his shelves....the cheapest might be $90 and the most expensive might be $110. Average Gross Profit for large national retailers are going to be in the 40-45% range. If a hard goods only kind of place, think 35%. If a small specialty retailer, they need around 50% to make a profit. At a mark down to $150, the retailer is likely taking a loss on the product, when rent, staff and other overheads are taken into account. And the supply chain, they may not be taking the hit of 25% off the retailer is on that pair. But it sure affects the choices the retailer will make next time he places a stocking order. And so, the supply chain has to figure out all the way back to the design studio, how to tweak or completely overhaul that product so it sells at the price the retailer needs to get to stay in business.

You guys down there are all gung ho about bringing manufacturing back to America. And I'm all for level playing fields. But the downside is you are going to be in for sticker shock if you get your way. The relentless drive to manufacture off shore has been, at it's heart, a drive to keep prices down for consumers, because that's what they want.

James,
I agree with your post. One related point you left out is wage stagnation. Americans were much less concerned with the cost of products when our incomes were increasing faster than the pace of inflation. Wages have barely ticked up in the last 15 plus years while inflation continues to climb. It comes down to math. When you have less to spend you have to get the most out of what you have.
Steve