Buy Charmin toilet paper.
It is superior toilet paper. It's made by Procter & Gamble in Mehoopany, Pennsylvania
American consumers can apply economic sanctions of our own.
Maybe Americans are ready to pay attention to who makes things they buy, and where they are made. If we did, maybe China would refuse to help Russia. It wouldn't be government sanctions that worried them. It would be consumers exercising their power in a capitalist marketplace. If Americans started demanding Made in U.S.A labels on products, businesses would adjust their supply chains. I can imagine American customers preferring I-phones clearly marked as being assembled in San Antonio or Cleveland to ones built in China. War changes attitudes. Patriotic feelings are aroused. People want to do something. We can. What was impossible two months ago might be possible now.
There are choices we can make domestically, too. I am a fan of Charmin toilet paper. In the ads, a blue cartoon mama bear describes Charmin's features--softness, strength. A toddler bear shakes his butt at us. We get it. A bear. The woods.
Charmin is a little more expensive than competitor brands, but it a better product, and it isn't made by the Koch Brothers. I don't buy Koch Brothers' products when I can identify them. They own Georgia Pacific, and it makes a competitor brand, Angel Soft and Quilted Northern. The Koch Brothers put hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigns of candidates who support and enable Trump in his effort to overthrow the 2020 election. Koch Brothers don't buy my melons or buy ads on my blog. I don't owe them my business. Besides Charmin is soft and strong, like their ads say, and it is made in Pennsylvania by a company I am comfortable with, Procter & Gamble.
I have an alternative to Koch paper towels, too. I buy Bounty. Not Brawny. Brawny is the Koch one. The names are similar and easy to confuse. Imagine the brawny guy on the Brawny package to be a Koch Brothers congressman cheering the insurrection on January 6. He is the bad guy. Bounty is the good guy.
Kimberly-Clark's Kleenex suite of products used to be another alternative to Koch. I have owned stock in Kimberly-Clark for a decade. Although Charmin is the superior product, I have been tempted to support my investment "home team." Kimberly-Clark makes Huggies diapers, Kleenex for nose blowing, and Cottonelle toilet paper.
Kimberly-Clark is off my shopping list. They are one of the companies that announced they are continuing to stay in Russia and do business. They made their choice. They thought American consumers wouldn't notice or care. I noticed and care.
I will also sell my Kimberly-Clark stock. My selling doesn't change the balance of ownership. My tiny power is as a consumer, although I will write Kimberly-Clark and tell them I am disappointed in them. Someone in marketing there will notice and tally my letter. They will be alert to see if I am alone or part of a groundswell.
The brand names have come quickly, so let's review the "good guys," at least in my view. Charmin
Bounty
Puffs
I have evolved in my thinking about global trade. I thought the efficiencies would make a tide that would raise all ships. Global trade turns out to help some and hurt some. It raised a half billion Chinese peasants out of poverty, a good thing. It also bred a sense of hopelessness and frustration in the minds of workers here in the developed world, as value-added manufacturing moved offshore. Their distress is threatening our democracy. College-educated owners and managers in America were doing just fine in a globalized economy so they thought the system was working. They didn't notice or care what was happening to the people in America who were being displaced. The frustration of lower-skilled, lower-paid workers created an ethno-nationalistic populist revolt.
The war in Ukraine may have a positive purpose, if we survive it. Americans who want to "do something" may start shopping their values and their patriotism. Government can help here, with tariffs and with labeling laws that require prominent display of U.S. content of the things people buy.
Maybe consumers in America will start buying American. Indeed, maybe they will insist on it. That would change history.
10 comments:
Good information, Peter. I will definitely boycott companies that continue to do business in Russia.
And you are right about Charmin. It’s highly superior. When I was teaching in person, the stuff they had in the restrooms was definitely not Charmin. It felt like you could get splinters from it.
In the 70s I went to work for an electric utility based in Oregon. Budgeting and purchasing supplies, tools, equipment, vehicles and services came with a request to buy local if possible and for essential items “only buy American made goods”. Most senior managers served in WWII, and had visceral reactions to Japanese and German made goods. Further, where possible when buying local Buy Union Made goods and service. The IBEW was strong and would mock cheap foreign goods. As the old guard retired, new management asked the question: Why pay so much more for domestic products? Cost cutting became a thing. So the old guidelines, written on top of every purchase request form, disappeared. Local businesses that had catered to our needs were more expensive by a few dollars. So the savings of a few dollars rolled the entire company into foreign purchasing of goods and some services. Look for the Union label disappeared as well. Lost was the community feel employees felt working for the company. Lost too was community support. I’m sure the old guard are smiling in their graves as we all realized how vulnerable we are now to disruptions is foreign trade caused by hostilities that threaten peace in the world. Be strong. We did it before and we can do it again. Perhaps this could become a political movement as well. It’s early in the Russia - Ukraine war but the nations of the world see clearly the real menace to global peace and cooperation.
While I agree with the sentiment, we also need to protect the planet.
For years I've been using sustainable paper products, and haven't noticed a difference between those and the corporate brands.
I encourage people to consult the NRDC's scorecard. Some of the products can be found at cheap prices at the Grocery Outlet.
https://www.nrdc.org/resources/issue-tissue-how-americans-are-flushing-forests-down-toilet
It's a bit more complicated these days, especially for tech products. What does "Made in USA" actually mean.
For several decades, I helped run an Oregon tech company, and had responsibly for design, sourcing components, manufacturing, and supporting products used by consumers and professionals using Mac and Windows computers.
You'd find our products in the Apple and Microsoft Stores, Best Buy, B&H Photo, Costco, and in many, many other places both online and at brick and mortar stores, worldwide.
We assembled these products in Hillsboro and just outside Paris, France, mostly. In later years some were made at contract manufacturers in Europe and Asia, including China.
What labels did we put on those products manufactured in France and the US?
Here at Hillsboro, the label stated "Assembled in the USA from Domestic and Foreign Components". Quite the mouthful!
Related, people in the Arab world actually use computers with components made in Israel, Europe, and Asia, despite their political leaning.
Intel has fabs in the US and Israel. Those computer chips are used by people all over the world. TMSC makes processors and support chips for Intel and Apple, and those chips are used in products purchased and used by businesses and consumers in China as well as the rest of the world.
Those products may also get eventually assembled in different countries around the world.
So... "Made in USA" is rather difficult, just as Made in France, and Made in China, and many, many other parts of the world.
I think "Assembled in ________" is the most appropriate,indicating where final assembly takes place.
One thing I'm pretty sure of, though, is that it's quite hard for consumers and businesses to purchase products made exclusely of US components, it's quite rare to find products without Chinese components, and it's extremely rare to find products with Russian components.
So..what's a consumer or business to do?
All very complicated. Here’s my two cents. I favor buying American products, to some extent. But if we were truly able to do so, wouldn’t we bankrupt all the third world companies that barely get by already? I certainly don’t feel like attacking countries in some sanctions war, if they’ve done nothing to deserve it. Consider Mexico. Guatemala, Peru, panamá, Chile, Bolivia, and so forth.
Under current conditions, we get cheaper (and often better made) products, and poverty stricken locals get a hand up
Re unions, I love unions, but not when they do weird things. For example, I was in the Dallas, Texas Carpenters union in 1966. You may not believe this, but it’s true. In order to provide MORE WORK for union members, we were not allowed to use power saws, power drills, power planers, nail guns, etc. Amazingly, we were also not allowed to use TAPE MEASURES!!
Any of y’all old enough to remember six foot long folding wooden rulers? To take a measurement, you’d pull out your rule, unfold it, take your measurement, and refold it. SLOW!
ThInk about measuring between two walls that were parallel, and 3-4 feet apart. I won’t tell you, but try to figure it out.
Another challenge: with modern tape measures, it takes only moments to measure the length of a 25’ beam, or a 20’ room, with accuracy within 1/16”. Try this with a six foot long ruler. It can be-and was-done all the time, but I assure you that the accuracy was often lost.
It’s kind of like the backhoe operator getting lambasted by the union rep. Rep says, “you’re taking the jobs away from 10-15 men with shovels, god damn you!”
The hoe operator shut off his machine, and pondered the idea. In a couple of minutes, he agreed with the rep. “In fact”, he said, “Instead of using my hoe, we could have 10-15 THOUSAND men all digging with tea spoons!”
The only benefit to prohibiting power tools was that I became extremely strong :)
Maybe the best thing we could do for the cause is quit whining about the price of gas. I know it's irresistible with midterms approaching, but there are countless other issues we could blame on Biden that are equally inane.
I recently made the switch from Charmin to bamboo sourced toilet paper. It's not as soft, but it gets the job done, comes in recycled paper packaging, and is reasonably priced. Ine small step.
Peter, I encourage you and everyone to try one of the sustainable brands.
I doubt you'll notice a difference.
How about a bidet?
My son and his wife love their attach to the toilet bidet. I’m planning to get one. Screw toilet paper.
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