This Christmas, which I spent back in France with our growing family, was filled with authentic gourmet food and an abundance of gifts, and was thought provoking…

But first, we, Stephan & Fred, at Savorique hope you all had a joyful Christmas with family and friends. Family gathering, great gourmet food and gift giving are strongly anchored into the Christmas spirit. So we trust you celebrated with your Dearests. We are also very thankfull for those who chose Savorique.com to shop for quality gourmet gifts.

Aren’t you proud that most of the products you bought on Savorique.com were made in America? Take for example Colorado’s Askinosie’s rare bean-to-bar confections, Chokoja’j artisan chocolates using locally sourced ingredients in Long Island, Gnosis super healthy raw chocolate bars made in Brooklyn, Patric’s unique small-batch chocolate bars, and the list goes on… These US made gourmet confections have two strong common points: they are of high quality and they benefit the local economy.

Can we say the same about the toys we bought for our young folks, children, nieces, nefews this Christmas? I took the time to look at where the toys I bought online were made and the result is astounding: Princess outfit for my niece made in China, Bontempi kid’s guitar made in China, rocking horse for my nefew made in China, race car track made in China, fire truck made in China, and -ha!- wooden string puppet made in France. I’m in shock, are you? I admit it is the first time I buy everything online where hardly any information on manufacturing country was available. Had I known everything was from China, I would have bought a few quality wooden toys instead, even if my choice involved a smaller amount of rather pricey toys.

What do these toys have in common?

By purchasing US made products, we encourage local businesses and employment in Colorado, in Brooklyn, in Long Island… Whereas by purchasing large quantities of items made in China or India, we cannot expect local businesses and employment market to be healthy and we rather encourage child labor abroad, low quality standards (remember the toxic paint on Toy’ R’ Us toys made in China last year), unfair labor and trade practices (underpaid workers, under valued currency,…) and primitive human rights…

Such globalization has not improved our living standards in Western countries (America and Europe).  On average, imported product quality is low (take toys, clothings, cheap electronics…) , unemployment is at its highest, for many it feels like purchasing power has reached the ceiling years ago, taxes follow an upward trend to allow overly sollicited government to subsidies and help our struggling local businesses (small businesses unable to compete with foreign competition, farmers,…). Globalization has not increased corporate markets shares, the shares won abroad were lost in domestic markets to the benefit of cheaper foreign toys, clothings, even cars (GM may be in China but is in a downward trend in its own domestic market). I favor quality over quantity so I don’t settle either on globalization-induced low pricing.

Buy things local (US made) if you want a sustainable local economy and long lasting quality products, and if you don’t want your sister, or your kid, your friend or your neighbor to tell you tomorrow they lost their job because their employer now wants to manufacture from China. It’s about time we made some thoughtful New Year’s resolutions. Thank you for buying local when shopping on Savorique.com.