About Amazon’s “House Brand”
Most of us are familiar with “house brands”. These are private label brands that retailers sell next to name-brand products. They used to be known as “generic brands”, as the retailers would outsource the products to the cheapest manufacturer, and the quality was usually terrible. The retailers would make money mostly because consumers would get confused.
Retailers did something smart—they invested in elevating their private label brands to ones that are comparable in quality to name brands, while still maintaining a cheaper price. Costco has Kirkland, Walmart has Great Value, Target has Good & Gather, CVS has Gold Emblem, and so on.
As the largest online retailer, Amazon of course wanted to get into the action. And so they introduced a few “house brands”, including Solimo (kitchen and home goods), 365 by Whole Foods Market (natural food, which came with their acquisition of the supermarket chain), Presto (paper products), Happy Belly (packaged foods), Mama Bear (baby products), and hundreds more.
AmazonBasics is their overall leader of private label brands. I remember when Amazon Basics launched in 2009, every single product they sold was made in China. Just as Apple and Foxconn had ensured that supply chains for smartphones would be monopolized by China, now Amazon was ensuring that supply chains for everything else would be too. I avoided Amazon Basics products like the plague.
A lot has changed, of course. Tariffs helped force manufacturing to finally leave China—brands who were all-in on China to save money all of a sudden started to see their margins disappearing or had to raise prices to levels above things made outside of China.
Best Amazon Basics Products Not Made in China – Quick Ranking
For this list, I consulted Amazon’s own list of best-sellers as of April 2026. I find that this list doesn’t change dramatically from month to month, but every now and again I’ll revisit this post to update it with the latest.
1. Amazon Basics Multipurpose Copy Paper
This is made in the USA. It’s pretty standard, bright white copy paper.
It has a whopping 218,543 reviews with an average rating of 4.8. At under $7 a ream, it’s certainly cheaper than alternatives, although generally speaking with copier paper you’re more likely to find them made in the USA vs. other product categories.
2. Amazon Basics 2-Ply Soft Toilet Paper
This are 2-ply toilet paper. As of this writing it has 97,595 reviews with an average rating of 4.4. The reason for the slightly lower rating are reviewers who are expecting thick Charmin-like toilet paper, but the paper is much closer to something thinner like Scotts that won’t clog up septic systems.
Multiple users report it as Made in the USA with imported and domestic materials, and that’s corroborated on the packaging. Yes, it’s possible that some materials are imported from China, but as always, the fact that a substantial portion of manufacturing happened in the USA is a plus.
3. Amazon Basics Everyday Disposable Paper Plates
These are disposable paper plates; they’re thick, microwave-safe, and soak-proof and have a nice abstract design. These aren’t your typical thin, flimsy paper plates, but ones that are reinforced to handle a bit of weight and fluids.
There are 53,495 reviews as of this writing with an average 4.7 rating. They’re made in the USA, according to the product label.
4. Amazon Basics Cotton Swabs
Like copy paper, this is one I’m loathe to include because Q-Tips are by far the best you can buy, and those are made in Jefferson City, Missouri (with additional operations in Puerto Rico).
That said, these are made in the USA as well and the price is definitely lower. It has an average rating of 4.7 across 74,085 reviews. If you’re looking to save a few dollars, they’re not a bad alternative.
4. Amazon Basics Resealable Sandwich Bags
Here’s one that rated a 4.8 over 42,910 reviews. It’s a generic version of Ziploc and Glad sandwich bags.
They formerly were sold under the “Solimo” brand, but Amazon seems to be consolidating (makes sense—why force a weird name on a consumer when they know “Amazon” like the back of their hand?).
These appear to be made in Thailand (same place regular Ziplock sandwich bags are made).
5. Amazon Basics Disinfecting Wipes
These have the old “Assembled in the USA” label, which of course means the chemicals come from somewhere else. But that’s not too different from Clorox Wipes, which says “Made in the USA of Global Ingredients”.
I’d still give the edge to Clorox for their superior formulation and proven track record, but these aren’t bad either.
6. Amazon Basics Hypoallergenic Cotton Rounds
Not only is this one made in the USA, it has the “Seal of Cotton” logo that signifies that it contains 100% cotton.
The “Made in USA” without any qualifiers like “global materials” is a good sign that the cotton comes from the USA, and not from prison camp workers in Xinjiang.
7. Amazon Basics Gentle & Mild Clear Liquid Hand Soap Refill
This was a weird one, in that I couldn’t find any mention of country of origin on the packaging. But the product page says it’s “made in the USA with US and foreign components”. With an average rating of 4.6 across 53,180 reviews it seems like a pretty good alternative to other liquid hand soaps. Don’t expect Method or Mrs. Meyers-quality scents or feel, but if you just want clean hands it seems like a decent solution.
8. Amazon Basics Adult Wet Wipes
When our daughter was a baby we had a never-ending collection of baby wipes. Even after she grew up, we continue to get them, as they were just handy to have around the house.
This is the “grown up” version which contains pretty much the same ingredients. Interestingly, the name-brand Pampers wipes actually cost less than these if you calculate the cost on a per-wipe basis, but Amazon has managed to sell enough that it can jack up the price of its store brand and people will still buy it.
9. Amazon Basics CR2032 3V Lithium Coin Batteries
I used to have to get these every few years to replace the batteries in my car key fob, but today I find myself constantly buying these because of AirTags.
I made the mistake years ago of getting cheap, China-made ones. They cost pennies on the dollar, but I soon found that I was lucky if one lasted more than 3 months—when they were supposed to last a year.
I was happy to see that these Amazon ones are priced competitively (less than $1 a battery when buying the 10 count using coupons and Amazon Prime discounts when available).
It looks like while older stock is from Indonesia, they did make them in China at one point. If you get one from China, make use of their free 30-day return policy (you’re getting an old batch anyway).
10. Amazon Basics Gallon Food Storage Bags
These bags are the spitting image of Ziploc Food Storage bags. They have a rating of 4.6 across 25,256 ratings. There are some complaints about difficulty in closing the zipper, feeling too thin, or the white part where you write on rubbing off, but most of the reviews are positive and report durability and no problems sealing.
Interestingly, these are made in the USA while their sandwich bags are made in Thailand. While I prefer anything made in the USA, as long as it’s not China it’s a good buy.
Past Entries
As old entries on this list get bumped by newer ones, I’ll archive previous products here, as long as I can confirm that they’re still being sold and still being made outside of China
1. Amazon Basics Paper Towels
These paper towels are also “Made in the USA, with foreign and domestic materials”. They have 2 ply and flex-sheets. They’re pleated. Don’t expect performance like Bounty, but reviews are still decent with an average rating of 4.1 over 69,509 reviews.
2. Amazon Basics HDMI Cable
Here’s one of those products that everyone eventually needs, whether it’s connecting a gaming console, a laptop, a speaker, a DVR, a streaming box, or a Blu-Ray player to a TV. These are very affordably priced HDMI cables, and they’ve received an average 4.7 rating over 563,769 reviews. The Amazon listing says that they’re made either in Vietnam or the Philippines.
YMMV
There are some Amazon Basics products that show up on their best-seller list where they split the manufacturing across multiple countries, including China.
- Amazon Basics AA Batteries – Around 2017 these were universally manufactured in Indonesia by the FDK Corporation, using Japanese technology. It seems that they’ve since moved at least some manufacturing to China. Their AI still insists that they’re made in Indonesia, but recent product images show Made in China on the battery label. My suggest is you buy them, and if they’re made in Indonesia or Vietnam, keep them. If they’re made in China, send them back. These have an average rating of 4.7 over 935,137 reviews, but bear in mind that most of the stellar reviews came in during the period they were made by FDK.
Avoid
Here are Amazon Basics products that show up on their best-seller list but which I’ve confirmed are totally or completely made in China. I’ve included recommendations for alternatives to Amazon Basics that aren’t made in China.
- Amazon Basics 6-Sheet Cross-Cut Paper Shredder – Unfortunately, virtually all consumer grade scanners are made in China. I believe Kobra scanners are made in Italy.
- Amazon Basics Clothes Hangers – These are made in China. For a better alternative, check out Neaties hangers, made in the USA.
- Amazon Basics Leak-Proof Dog and Puppy Training Pee Pads – These in the top 5 of best sellers among Amazon Basics products, and a clear rip-off of the original Wee Wee Pads (which make some of their products in China, but some in the USA and Cambodia as well). For a completely made in the USA solution, try Honey Care Puppy Training Pads.
- Amazon Basics Dog Poop Leak Proof Bags – Amazon’s product copy insists that these are made in Cambodia now, but I’ll believe it when I see it—all of the product images from customers continue to say “Made in China”. If and when I see positive confirmation that their China stock is depleted and they’re only sending Cambodia-made products (and won’t revert if the pressure from tariffs eases), I’ll move them up to the “recommended” list. Until then, you can find NMIC options on this thread on the forum.
Conclusion
So, it turns out there is a substantial number of Amazon Basics products not made in China. This wasn’t the case a few years ago, but we can thanks tariffs for leveling the playing field, as well name brand manufacturers who kept manufacturing in the US, allowing Amazon Basics manufacturers to tap into their supply chains.
The products that Amazon Basics does and doesn’t make outside of China is pretty predictable. Things like paper products and cleaning supplies haven’t been taken over by China because consumers made the right choices—if you’ve ever tried an imitation Q-Tip, wipe, or plastic bag from China you know that they’re of much inferior quality. In this case, consumers could easily see the difference in quality.
On the other hand, I noticed that China continues to dominate products like electronics and appliances. This is thanks to American brands that did sell out, closing factories in the US and funding China to build factories there. It’s shocking to look at categories like paper shredders and realize that there are virtually no options for consumer-grade shredders. If someone wanted to build a plant in a country outside of China, they’d still need to deal with China for access to its supply chains, from blades to screws.
- Tags:
- waffle irons
- waffle makers
