Deliberately Paying More. "Imported" still has panache for some Americans. Perhaps not in cheap textiles and gadgets, nor in the host of manufactured goods that are flooding this country from places like China and destroying our economy, but in some luxury goods and even a few low-brow things like beer. I once saw a literally dirty bum lying on his side on a Manhattan sidewalk, one elbow pushing up from the ground to hold up his head, the other holding a Heineken! That's right, a youngish homeless man spent some of the money he had panhandled, to buy imported beer!
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I thought at the time that a Heineken advertising executive should have seen that scene and considered whether that was a good thing or bad thing for people to observe. On the one hand, Heineken could argue that the difference in quality is worth the extra price, no matter how little you make. On the other hand, does Heineken really want dirty bums lounging on the sidewalk drinking Heineken? Is that their target audience? The image they want to cultivate? I wish everybody in the world had taken in that little street scene.
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As far as I'm concerned, buying imported goods when domestic are comparable in quality and actually lower in price is subversive, given our astronomical trade deficit and the harm it is doing us long-term. I regard it as casual treason. We may not make TV sets here anymore, or affordable clothing or hosts of other things, but we sure as hell make beer.
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I have had Heineken. I have had Corona. I just can't see any difference worth paying extra for. Especially do I not understand why anyone would pay a premium price for a beer that probably sells in Mexico for the equivalent of 15 cents!
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"Buy American" doesn't seem to work very well in weaning consumers from Gucci this and Hermes that. But beer?? How about "Drink American"? U.S. wines have come up strong in the world market, and few households at any income level today are embarrassed to buy American wine. Why not American beer? 'Relax. Unwind with American hops and grain. The buzz starts here.'
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 1,996.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 4:35 AM