Buying 100% Made in America Is Really, Really Hard. These People Are Trying.

Crawling inside fridges and scouring Reddit, these die-hard shoppers look for truly American products—but make some exceptions

By Natasha Khan and Rachel Louise Ensign of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Almost half of new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2024 were assembled outside the country" 

 "nearly all of the smartphones sold in the U.S. are made overseas.'

"Companies often try to tout their American-made bona fides, even if they make only a small share of their goods in the U.S."

"Manufacturers moved production overseas where labor costs were much lower, spurred in part by free-trade agreements. Many people who are interested in buying American-made goods don’t—or can’t—because products made in the U.S. are often more expensive. In a May Morning Consult survey of about 1,000 U.S. adults, more than half said they intentionally bought domestically produced goods at least sometimes, but only 11% of those who were willing to pay more for U.S. goods could stomach a price increase greater than 15%."