What?! You mean to tell me you chuckle at people who would rather spend money on a known, reputable brand instead of chinese made crap?
That is not at all what I said or believe. I said....
I chuckle at folks that will not buy brand "x" because they feel it is inferior and/or foreign made but they will pay a huge sum for brand "x" because it is superior and/or made in America.
I will give you some real life examples.
1. Do you all remember when Stihl was selling the plastic handled axes? They were made by Fiskars but carried the Stihl name. They were the same axe but to buy one at a Stihl dealer carrying the Stihl name was significantly higher price. Same item, same quality, higher price. Folks are buying and paying more for a reputable name not an origin.
2. How about Stihl zero turn mowers? Has anyone noticed them popping up at all the box stores? Most be high quality
STIHL stuff eh? What a joke, they are made by Simplicity which is still a very good product but the gullible public sees "Stihl" and opens their wallet wider than buying from a servicing Simplicity dealer. The sad thing is in that case Stihl is forcing Simplicity to not produce zero turn mowers under the Simplicity name, thus starving dealers. Folks are buying and paying more for a reputable name not an origin.
3. For how many decades did we see folks buy a GMC truck over a Chevy and pay more because it had a different trim package. How about Ford and Mercury? Folks paid more for the vehicle based on a name not quality. For any of you that have been in a car/truck plant you know as they come down the line thy are mixed among brands. Do any of you have a 2000-2015 a Chevy/GMC SUV such as a Yukon, Denali or Suburban? Did you custom order it? Did you go to the plant to watch it be built? General Motors operated a large GM SUV assembly plant in Janesville Wisconsin for almost 100 years. It built all types of trucks. In the end prior to closing, it was building the SUV's such as the Yukon and Denali. My wife and I went through the plant in probably 2002 or so. While there the gentleman leading us through shared many stories of his 40 plus year career with GM. He said recently they had many folks that special ordered trucks and were given an assembly date. The folks would come to the plant and want to see their new truck being assembled. Sadly he or another representative would have to dash their hopes. Yes their truck was indeed being assembled that day but it was being assembled about 2500 miles south in Mexico. They were pissed because they bought based on brand and did not research the origin.
4. Here is an example in a staple of life, food. I doubt there is anyone that is not familiar with Heinz. Most know them for their Ketchup. How many know them for soup. For years they were #2 in the USA behind Campbells. They are currently #3 worldwide and Campbells is #5. Go to your local supermarket and try to find a can of Heinz soup, I bet you cannot. You ask "well then how in the heck can they be #2 in the soup market and I have never seen a can" The reason is you are too caught up on a label and not the product origin. Heinz markets their soups under a long list of private labels......some call "generic" or inferior which they are not. My father spent 35 years there in management. I worked there in college. The soup was all the same. It was cooked the same, put in the same cans, and came down the same line can after can. The difference was when it hit the labeler. At that point it could be labeled under any of probably 15 brands. In those days we had three competing local supermarket chains. There was Aldi, Nash Finch, and Hy-Vee. Each one had there own private label soup but it was all the same, produced together and just had a different label. Folks were gullible enough to go pay 10% more at Hy-Vee over Nash-Finch for the same soup. Do not even say Aldi soup as that was only fit for a dog according to some. What a joke.
5. Back on machinery, I worked in a lift truck plant that had a strong USA name that many may not have heard of, Raymond. They are based in New York but are owned by Toyota. In the plant they produce both Raymond and Toyota trucks. There is zero difference between the two other than paint color and stickers, that is it, period. I was a weld inspector in the final weld department. Every assembly was the same and welded the same no matter what brand it was. The only issue was we had a time period where the guys were getting a bit heavy fisted on the 12ft forks when grinding. They were leaving a bit too many swirls. The Raymond's were fine as they got painted black and it covered but the swirls were showing through the Toyota's which got painted orange. I had to keep track on the product codes and have the guys use a DA on the Toyota's. The point is there was zero difference in quality between the Raymond and Toyota but the customer sure paid a difference in price. They looked at the brand and not the origin.
In general folks look at a label and not at the origin of the products and the material that go into it. So
@Loony661 to answer your question I chuckle at the folks that buy based on brand, not quality, and origin.
