UPDATE 7/14/22 – Thanks to all who visited during these last two days–we actually hit an all-time high in traffic. It’s heartening to know that so many of you are just as fed up as me at Amazon. More and more of us are waking up to the fact that regardless of low the prices we pay, there are costs that we need to consider.

I had a really good Prime Day myself. I ended up getting a silicone bottle brush from Korea, a smart plug from Vietnam, a chemistry set from Germany, a blood pressure monitor from Vietnam, and a USB-C cable from Taiwan. All stuff that were on my “must get” list.

There were a few items that eluded me. I needed light-up sneakers, a set of kid’s golf clubs, a baseball glove for my daughter. The country of origin wasn’t listed on any of these, and all indications are that things that his aren’t made anywhere else but China. But I was pleased that for so many other things on my list, I was successful not just in finding an alternative made elsewhere, but an alternative with clearly superior quality than the shlock coming out of low-bid China manufacturers. Another thing that I was proud of–there were a number of items, including new Echo Dots, the new Amazon air quality system, rechargeable batteries. and a few more things that just a few years ago I would jumped on. Maybe you could all it the wisdom that comes with age, but this year I was perfectly happy to save my money and not get the latest thing regardless of how “good a deal” it was if it came out of China. I hope you had just as much luck finding what you wanted.

See you again on Black Friday 🙂 Or, if you can’t wait until then, check out the “Deals” board on our forum, which I try to keep updated with my latest “finds” of great deals on stuff not made in China.

Original post follows:

So, I’m going to try something interesting–at least for those of you in the US who are Amazon Prime customers (or are thinking of signing up for Prime)

Amazon Prime Day this year is July 12 and 13, 2022. For those who aren’t aware, Amazon Prime Day was Amazon’s rather brilliant idea a few years ago of creating their own “holiday” to rival Black Friday. The difference is, on Black Friday every retailer competes with each other, while Amazon has all of Prime Day to itself.

Sadly, Amazon Prime Day is also a boon to China manufacturers. Amazon is one of those companies that has almost single-handedly fueled the rise of the government of China by shifting American consumer behavior since the 1990s. The first step was giving China manufacturers and brands credibility and higher prominence in listings to the point where consumers couldn’t tell the difference between a US or European brand manufactured domestically and a nonsense China brand made in China (propped up using stolen IP AND a government that encourages them to become the “low bidder” through cheating and selective disregard to human rights). Adding insult to insult, Amazon chose China to manufacture all of its electronics, like Echo, Fire Tablets, Luna, Blink Cameras, and everything else. Despite the “deals” you see on those, avoid them until Amazon wakes up. There are always alternatives.

The easiest thing for me to say would be “Boycott Amazon”, but that would be like saying “don’t breathe air”. Amazon is a part of our lives. What we must do as consumers is understand HOW we’re being manipulated by Amazon and fight it by modifying our behavior. If Amazon sees consumers going out of our way to find products not made in China (despite their efforts to obfuscate country of origin to keep us in the dark), they will hopefully get the message that American consumers DO care that 40% of their money is going to fund our biggest geopolitical enemy (and yes, I’m speaking of the CCP, not the people of China who are as much victims as anyone).

So this page is my little attempt to encourage this behavior. I’ll be monitoring the “Deals” on Prime Day and will update it as I see highly rated stuff not made in China going on sale. If you see good deals of your own, leave them in the comments–I’ll be monitoring them as time permits and I’ll update this list with what you find as well over these next two days.

So without further adieu, let’s go to the deals!

Kitchen

1. Vitamix Professional Series 750 Blender – $399.95 (down from $629.95). Made in the USA.
2. Zojirushi Stainless Steel Mug (Blue) – $21.99 (down from $29.99). Made in Thailand. Also available in gold, lavender, black.
3. Rubbermaid 28-Piece Brilliance Food Storage Containers – $67.99 (down from $86.44). Made in the USA.
4. AeroPress Coffee Maker – $29.97 (down from $44.95). Made in the USA.
5. Techivorm Moccamaster Coffee Marker – $244.99 (down from $349). Made in the Netherlands.
6. SodaStream Terra Sparkling Water Maker – $99.99 (down from $159.95). Made in the USA.
7. McCormick Sea Salt Grinder – $1.50. Salt from the French Mediterranean.

Electronics

1. LG OLED C1 Series 83” Alexa Built-in 4k Smart TV – $3996.99 (down from $5999.99). Made in Mexico.
2. Sony A80J 77 inch TV. $2,399.99 (down from $3,499.99). 65 inch model is $1,399.99. Made in Mexico. Sony X90J 54 inch TV had also need available at a great deal, but that appears to have gone out of stock quickly.
3. Sony WF-1000XM4 Noise-Cancelling Wireless Earbuds – $198 (down from $279.99). Made in Malaysia.
4. Belkin Accessories such as this 24W USB Charger ($14.99), this MagSafe Charger ($39.99), and this Smart Speaker ($89.99), among others. Surprisingly, all made in Vietnam.
5. Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 – $99.99 (down from $149.99). Made in Vietnam.
6. Arlo Essential Spotlight Camera 2 Pack – $169.99 (down from $259.99). Made in Vietnam.
7. Sony WH-1000XM4 Noise Cancelling Headphones – $228.00 (down from $349.99). Made in Malaysia
8. Kasa Smart Plug Mini with Energy Monitoring – $3.49 if you have an Amazon Echo and say “Alexa, order Kasa Smart Plug Mini”. Made in Vietnam
9. SEKC 128GB microSDXC Memory Card – $13.29 (down from $18.99). Made in Taiwan. Another Taiwanese manufacturer Amplim has a 64GB for $12.98. Also check out PNY SD Cards and Flash Drives, many on sale and made in Taiwan.
10. Samsung Galaxy S22 Cell Phone – $839.99 (down from $1,199.99). Made in Vietnam. Likely my next cell phone if Apple continues to stubbornly pour all of its iPhone manufacturing into China.
11. Garmin Instinct Solar Smartwatch. $199.99, down from $349.99. Made in Taiwan. The higher end Fenix 6X Sapphire is going for $399.99 (also Made in Taiwan).
12. Motorola MB8611 DOCSIS 3.1 Multi-Gig Cable Modem. $143.98 (down from $199.99). Made in Vietnam.

Health

1. N95 Masks from 3M ($0.84 a piece), Honeywell ($0.68 a piece), . All made in the USA or Mexico.
2. Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Toothbrush – $159.95 (down from $269.96). Made in Indonesia.
3. Panasonic Arc4 Electric Razor for Men – $79.99 (down from $119.99). Made in Japan. The Arc5 is also on sale for $99.99.
4. Braun Electric Razor for Men, Series 7. $139.94 (down from $199.99). Made in Germany.

Educational

1. Thames and Kosmos C1000 Chemistry Set ($38.99, made in Germany), Kid’s First Chemistry Set ($29.99, made in Germany), Ooze Labs Color Crystal Kit ($18.99, made in Taiwan), and much more.

Home

1. Samsonite WInfield 2 Hardside Expandable Luggage ($80.35, down from $319.99). Made in Thailand.
2. Seiko Men’s Japanese Mechanical Automatic Watch (189.99, down from $275). Made in Japan.
3. Casper Sleep Element Mattress, Queen ($556.00, down from $695). Made in the USA.

Toys

1. Green Toys Tractor, Dump Truck, Tugboat, and more, ranging in price from $7 to $14. Made in the USA.
2. HABA Basic Building Blocks. $74.99, down from $100.00. Made in Germany.
3. Skyjo Card Game. $14.95, down from $19.95. Made in Germany.

There were a few things that pleasantly surprised me as I go through this. First, that it wasn’t really hard to find highly rated stuff not made in China–there’s good reason to believe that this is largely thanks to the 2018 Tariffs on China–if you’re an American citizen, send a message to the Biden Administration however you can to tell them to KEEP those in place.

And second, I was pleasantly shocked that most of the products on Amazon actually had a Country of Origin label. If Amazon is starting to enforce the rule on their own without being forced by legislation, good for them. As you’ve seen from other posts on this blog, I don’t begrudge Amazon selling stuff from China on its site–what I object to is them looking the other way (or even helping) the Chinese government and Chinese sellers tip the scales to fool consumers. But if they give transparency and let consumers make their own choices, good for them.