# 90% of the stuff in Walmart is made in the USA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 16, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729 "2007-11-16T18:17:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Level3Navigator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Level3Navigator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Level3Navigator)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/1 "2007-11-16T18:17:22Z")
So I was listening to a broadcast that included my local congressman, and he claimed that 90% of all the goods in Walmart are made in the good ol’ USA. To which I raise a skeptical eyebrow. Furthermore, he claimed that Walmart, themselves, were the provider of this statistic. So I come to the great minds on the board and ask: is this true? Or was someone blowing a bunch of political smoke? ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/2 "2007-11-16T18:24:46Z")
According to [this](http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/stores3.html) PBS article, 85% of their stuff is made overseas, the reamining 15% made in American sweatshops. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/3 "2007-11-16T18:41:19Z")
From my experience, the following items sold at Wal-Mart are made in the US: - Some socks - Most groceries, toiletries, pharmaceuticals, and so on - Most flora at the garden center - Some very basic molded plastic items (trashcans, one-piece outdoor chairs, Rubbermaid containers, etc.) - Some garden hoses - Some incandescent lightbulbs (the bulk I’ve seen at W\*M are made in Hungary, for some reason; fluorescents are all made in China.) - Ammunition (of course; would you put a magazine of Joyful Lucky Golden Panda 9mm rounds in your Glock?) - The bulk of prerecorded compact discs - Some greeting cards and books If they count each individual item in the inventory, including each CD title and book as a separate item, I could imagine that they’d come up with a number stating that more than half of the items they sell are made in the US. Most durable goods, white goods, clothing, and electronics – the staple of Wal-Mart’s business – are made overseas. Target really isn’t much better. ---
**Author:** ![Level3Navigator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Level3Navigator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Level3Navigator)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/4 "2007-11-16T18:53:31Z")
Thanks for the cite, Wee Bairn. And great items, elmwood, thank you. And I am not picking on just Walmart here, that is just the company the congressman used. The discussion I was listening to was regarding foreign debt and import / export, so it seemed the congressman was just pulling something out of a dark and unsanitary place to try to support his position of inaction. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/5 "2007-11-16T19:13:56Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] From my experience, the following items sold at Wal-Mart are made in the US: - Some socks - Most **groceries** , toiletries, pharmaceuticals, and so on - Most flora at the garden center - Some very basic molded plastic items (trashcans, one-piece outdoor chairs, Rubbermaid containers, etc.) - Some garden hoses - Some incandescent lightbulbs (the bulk I’ve seen at W\*M are made in Hungary, for some reason; fluorescents are all made in China.) - Ammunition (of course; would you put a magazine of Joyful Lucky Golden Panda 9mm rounds in your Glock?) - The bulk of prerecorded compact discs - Some greeting cards and books If they count each individual item in the inventory, including each CD title and book as a separate item, I could imagine that they’d come up with a number stating that more than half of the items they sell are made in the US. Most durable goods, white goods, clothing, and electronics – the staple of Wal-Mart’s business – are made overseas. Target really isn’t much better. [/QUOTE] My bold. Groceries might be the key, coupled with the method of counting. W-M sells a lot of groceries – it’s the biggest grocer in the US (according to my marketing textbook). If you count the number of things sitting on the shelves at any one time, there’s probably a majority of things from other countries. But if you count the sales volume, you’re counting a lot of cans of vegetables and packages of hamburger. Groceries are going to move a lot faster than household goods and clothing. If you’re only counting units, so a can of Midwestern corn = a Chinese table, W-M could well sell more units of American-made products than foreign-made ones. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/6 "2007-11-16T19:32:50Z")
For those things “made in the USA” (especially clothing and textiles), does that include goods made in Saipan (which is a US trust territory and thus entitled to put “Made in USA” tags on its goods, despite the fact that there are no labor protection laws whatsoever)? Because if so, the remark about the “American sweatshops” made by **Wee Bairn** is more true than he probably knows. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/7 "2007-11-16T19:51:34Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] From my experience, the following items sold at Wal-Mart are made in the US: - Ammunition (of course; would you put a magazine of Joyful Lucky Golden Panda 9mm rounds in your Glock?) [/QUOTE] Hey, if it’s good enough for the Peoples Army it’s good enough for me! ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/8 "2007-11-16T20:45:58Z")
[QUOTE=GaryM] Hey, if it’s good enough for the Peoples Army it’s good enough for me! [/QUOTE] According to a story I heard while in the U.S. Army, a special forces team infiltrated a North Vietnamese ammo dump and booby-trapped many of the Chinese-made mortar rounds with zero-delay fuses. The booby-trapped mortar rounds would detonate before they left the launching tube. The North Vietnamese never figured out that they had a problem with sabotage, they just assumed that it was typical Chinese quality control. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/9 "2007-11-17T02:37:57Z")
[QUOTE=GaryM] Hey, if it’s good enough for the Peoples Army it’s good enough for me! [/QUOTE] But…but…but…what if they have LEAD in them??? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/10 "2007-11-17T02:45:07Z")
Wasn’t ther a manufacturing town in Korea named Usa? ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/11 "2007-11-17T02:55:15Z")
Thats Japan as far as I know. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/12 "2007-11-17T02:58:17Z")
[Usa](http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/usa.asp) ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/13 "2007-11-17T03:04:47Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] [Usa](http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/usa.asp) [/QUOTE] Damn Johnny you beat me by mere minutes. I was going to quote my own prior post and make some snarky comment then provide the snopes link I just found. Blast you. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/14 "2007-11-17T06:38:11Z")
[QUOTE=Bayard] My bold. Groceries might be the key, coupled with the method of counting. W-M sells a lot of groceries – it’s the biggest grocer in the US (according to my marketing textbook). If you count the number of things sitting on the shelves at any one time, there’s probably a majority of things from other countries. But if you count the sales volume, you’re counting a lot of cans of vegetables and packages of hamburger. Groceries are going to move a lot faster than household goods and clothing. If you’re only counting units, so a can of Midwestern corn = a Chinese table, W-M could well sell more units of American-made products than foreign-made ones. [/QUOTE] Or maybe it’s 90% by weight…Like a 40 lb bag of potting soil made in the U.S. = 40 lbs. of Chinese-made shirts… Hell, I’d believe anything of WalMart. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/15 "2007-11-17T13:32:54Z")
[Quote=elmwood] From my experience, the following items sold at Wal-Mart are made in the US: - Ammunition (of course; would you put a magazine of Joyful Lucky Golden Panda 9mm rounds in your Glock?) [/quote] Using Norinco ammunition (or reloaded ammunition) will void the warranty in your Glock, and that’s without getting into the quality issues of Chinese ammunition- which ranks up there with Pakistani Ordnance Factory ammo as stuff that you really don’t want to be loading in your gun if you can help it. ---
**Author:** ![ASAKMOTSD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@ASAKMOTSD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASAKMOTSD)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/16 "2007-11-17T14:11:03Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] …a magazine of Joyful Lucky Golden Panda 9mm rounds… [/QUOTE] That is about the ONLY place lead content is acceptable… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/17 "2007-11-17T14:22:17Z")
I wonder what percent of items sold at Penneys, Sears, Target, KMart (Insert retailer name here) are made in USA vs China. I knit and lately much of the cheap yarn is Made in China; five years ago none was. Seems to be a trend. Someone tried to buy a coffeemaker not made in China and failed. (sorry, no cite) I wonder what could reverse this trend… I wonder why everyone hates Walmart. Is it just that the big guy makes a big target (no pun intended)? ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/18 "2007-11-17T15:55:55Z")
[QUOTE=kayT] I wonder why everyone hates Walmart. Is it just that the big guy makes a big target (no pun intended)? [/QUOTE] Start [here](http://walmartwatch.com/) at [WalMartWatch.com](http://WalMartWatch.com). ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2007, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/19 "2007-11-17T16:11:42Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] would you put a magazine of Joyful Lucky Golden Panda 9mm rounds in your Glock? [/QUOTE] I tried this with [mine](http://www.glock.com/english/glock39.htm). Bad idea :smack: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729/20 "2007-11-19T14:23:06Z")
[QUOTE=kayT] Someone tried to buy a coffeemaker not made in China and failed. (sorry, no cite) [/QUOTE] Slight hijack: Bunn coffeemakers, both the consumer and industrial-strength models, are made in the US. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/90-of-the-stuff-in-walmart-is-made-in-the-usa/426729.md?page=2)