Europe has at least two distinct markets: the best, and the bargain. German has both, eastern Europe tends to go for the cheap, but things are changing slowly.
Not all of us eat baked beans. I loathe them. I think of them as cheap fill 'em up canteen food. Never had the US version, which might make me change my mind, but I prefer to home-cook my beans.
One odd contender for good quality: Kitchenaid. Mrs Ded thinks its wonderful.
Another surprise item: a lot of outdoor clothing and equipment. Of course, it may not actually be manufactured in the USA, but in the past I stocked up at REI.
Some people list spirits as an example of quality. But that is true of any country that has aspirations to make something better than firewater that makes you blind.
I suppose US software could be listed, but its popularity is more due to marketing and a monopoly situation. Hello Micro$oft.
Cars: too big, too thirsty, too ordinary. If I want cheap and nasty I’ll buy a Lada (Russian). There is a very small cult following for Jeeps and muscle cars.
Trucks: you don’t see them much outside the USA, Never in Europe.
Pickups: a few farmers buy them, but not huge land barges such as the Dodge Ram. Except for the occasional fanboy who thinks he is in Texas.
White goods: there are US brands here, but where are they actually made?
US beer: c’mon, are you joking? The big ones like Anheuser-Busch own several European breweries anyway.
Not sure about agricultural equipment. Some US stuff, certainly, but probably made locally and to suit smaller farms.
Food: lots of US fast food and snack food here, but usually reformuilated in each country to suit local tastes.
That’s what I came to say. In the early 1990’s while I was in the US Army in Germany, lots of guys would get non-smokers ration cards and sell Marlboros to Germans. They had cigarette machines on street corners in those days, but they were German Marlboros (19 to a pack, not 20, for some reason). “Hergestellt en Deustchland” meant “Avoid” apparently. They did taste like shit though.
Cars can be problematic because even American-made cars involve parts contents that are usually a minimum of 25% foreign parts…and with final assembly points in Mexico, Canada, China, etc…it’s become hard to define “American” for cars.
Not to mention that American cars that are sold here are usually not sold in the European market. Cars sold here domestically are orders of magnitude nicer and more reliable in every way than any Russian made car.
I doubt the US version would change your mind. ![]()
Speaking of American cars, while they may not be big in Europe, supposedly Buick is very highly regarded in China. One of the explanations I’ve heard for this is that the Chinese consider it to be an iconic American car, and one that they believe is very prestigious in America (even though that hasn’t actually been true for decades). I’ve heard the only reason GM keeps the Buick brand around is because they’re very popular in China.
Could you elaborate a little–I have no clue about military life in the 90s, so I can’t see the link between a “non-smokers” ration card and having Marlboros to sell. It sounds like such a card wouldn’t allow access to Marlboros to begin with.
Here in Saudi Arabia lots of food products are labeled “Made int he USA.” There are not labels for “Made in Italy” and so on. I suppose it is a selling point.
I assume it means that smokers would ask for, and receive, non-smokers ration cards, get the cigarettes and then sell them.
Now it makes sense. They would ask for their non-smoking buddy’s ration card, presumably in exchange for something else.
One data point - my last job had a ton of visitors from Asia. It was so common for them to ask to go to the Samsonite/American Tourister luggage store at the outlet mall and buy luggage, that it became a standard agenda item to take a trip there for each group of visitors.
Resonator guitar, maybe, but “lap steel guitar” is usually credited as Hawaiian, circa 1890s, so arguably not American…
A moment of silence for the Ross rifle, manufactured for the Canadian army in WW I, very accurate, but with an unfortunate tendency for the bayonet to fall off, particularly problematic because the rifle also had a tendency to jam.
And in WW II, Canada manufactured the British Bren gun. See Ronnie the Bren Gun Girl, Canada’s real life version of Rosie the Riveter.
In the days before tobacco was universally despised and condemned, the American product would have been the example the OP is looking for. In postwar Germany, American smokes were like the gold standard on the black market.
These are not exactly consumer products, but pharmaceuticals and medical equipment are among the USA’s biggest exports.