The idea behind Good American Kids -- to support what's left of quality manufacturing in America -- began when I read an article chronicling the demise of the American furniture manufacturing industry. The article said that 10 years ago, more than 90% of the furniture purchased by Americans was made in the U.S., but that today -- just 10 years later -- more than 90% of the furniture bought by Americans is made in Asia. This rapid shift and the fact that thousands of furniture manufacturing jobs had disappeared in the U.S. along with it, made me wonder what happened to all those people. Did they find new jobs in the furniture industry? Are they working at Wal-Mart? I decided to go to High Point to find out.

High Point, North Carolina, is (or was) the epicenter of this country's furniture manufacturing industry, a small, southern town surrounded by the manufacturing headquarters of stalwart American furniture brands -- Bernhardt, Broyhill, Drexel Heritage, Henredon, Hickory Chair, Lane, Thomasville -- you name it and they have (or had) enormous production facilities employing thousands of people in the area. Out of this centralized manufacturing region grew the nation's oldest and largest furniture & home decor tradeshow, High Point Market, to which some 85,000 furniture buyers from all over the country flock twice a year. It's a big deal.

I went to High Point last fall hoping to discover the fate of the area's furniture makers, and I ended up getting an unexpected earful from surprising sources: whispered conversations about a recent round of lay-offs with grey-haired showroom receptionists; enlightenment about China's knock-off expertise from a sales rep behind a wall of display rugs in a major manufacturer's showroom; and debate about whether the U.S. really used tax-payer money to send U.S. business consultants to China in the 1970's to woo U.S. businesses to that country, from a random woman sitting next to me at the bar for lunch. Intense.

After a few days of pounding the pavement, my sense was that most of the Americans still working in the trenches of the furniture industry were on some level mortified at the turn of events. They felt embarrassed that most of the big "American" name-brand furniture manufacturers are selling furniture made in Vietnam or China to the public who hasn't yet noticed. They seemed appalled that nearly all of the local production facilities have been turned into nothing more than distribution centers for goods unloaded from containers -- the craftspeople laid-off, the manufacturing equipment auctioned-off, the townspeople ticked-off. 

Sure, high-end luxury furniture is still being made in the southeast to serve the luxury market here and abroad, but it seems nearly everything in the middle is gone. "What can I do?" the head of an outdoor furniture company asked me. "Over here I have to deal with safety regulation, environmental regulation, employment taxes, benefits and healthcare. Over there I have state of the art equipment in a corrugated shed standing in a field next to a river surrounded by workers who earn a couple of dollars a week. What can I do?"

Argh.  I think that we as consumers can make a choice. We can choose to buy products not made in sweat shops or by child laborers. We can choose to hold companies responsible for the environmental damage they do in other countries, and we can seek out the bright spots and support them. I met one man in High Point who had decided to buck the trend and buy a casegoods (wood products) manufacturing business. He told me that the first day he posted job openings he had more than 900 applicants.

Good American Kids. Great gifts for babies and kids -- all made in the USA.

More to come.
- Julie Ankenbrandt