Buying Local (Portland, Bend, Pendleton: live in, costs, vs)

[PeacePlease]

We moved to the Portland area about a year ago. Since then we've been trying to buy things that are locally made. Local can mean Portland, or Oregon or the PNW in general. Anyone ran into a website that tracks local products? or can improve my list below?

Here's our list so far:

1. Workout/running shoes from Nike
2. Cheese from Tillamook
3. Wine (either the Willamette Valley or Washington's)
4. Salmon (pacific based)
5. Beer (I like Porter and it comes from a brewery in Bend)
6. Coats and some clothes from Columbia Sportswear
7. Apples (Washington's mostly)
8. Produce from the local farmers market when we can
9. Tires, and winter chains from Les Schwab
10. We make it to U-Pick farms in Hood River when we can for all sort of produce like Cherries..

What else did I miss? Stumptown coffee?

[Silverfall]

We have many local jams, cranberries. Bandon also makes cheese, they have a lot of specialty cheeses.

Marjorie's dairy is local so you can pretty much buy any dairy product. Kettle is local and makes great chips and things.

Pendleton makes wool products such as sweaters, blankets, etc. You can head to the made in Oregon store for all sorts of local products.

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by Silverfall

Pendleton makes wool products such as sweaters, blankets, etc. You can head to the made in Oregon store for all sorts of local products.

95% of Pendleton's stuff is made in Mexico now - many companies make things overseas (the OP referenced Nike, for instance) but what irritates me about Pendleton is the "rah-rah USA" stuff from a company that makes most everything overseas.

[Silverfall]

Originally Posted by PNW-type-gal

95% of Pendleton's stuff is made in Mexico now - many companies make things overseas (the OP referenced Nike, for instance) but what irritates me about Pendleton is the "rah-rah USA" stuff from a company that makes most everything overseas.

That's just not right to make it in Mexico and call it an Oregon product...Thanks for the heads up, I didn't realize they had outsourced it to Mexico.

[Minervah]

I wonder then, is everything in the Made in Oregon stores really made in Oregon? I guess if they sell Pendleton products it isn't.
I would imagine the food they sell is still local though. I would be strung up if I didn't bring marrionberry jam to my family and friends when I visit out state. And I don't think you can get that anywhere else. And chocolate covered filberts. Yum.

[davefr]

#1 and #6 are manufactured wherever overseas labor is the cheapest.

Try some Dungenous Crab, buy a PC with the i7 Intel CPU, buy a real XMAS tree vs a fake tree, eat Hazelnuts and plant your lawn with Oregon grass seed.

[PeacePlease]

Originally Posted by davefr

#1 and #6 are manufactured wherever overseas labor is the cheapest.

Try some Dungenous Crab, buy a PC with the i7 Intel CPU, buy a real XMAS tree vs a fake tree, eat Hazelnuts and plant your lawn with Oregon grass seed.

I didn't know the i7 Intel CPU is made here. Good to know. Yeah, I noticed that my Nike shoes and my Columbia jacket are both made overseas. Sigh...

[PNW-type-gal]

Originally Posted by Minervah

I wonder then, is everything in the Made in Oregon stores really made in Oregon? I guess if they sell Pendleton products it isn't.
I would imagine the food they sell is still local though. I would be strung up if I didn't bring marrionberry jam to my family and friends when I visit out state. And I don't think you can get that anywhere else. And chocolate covered filberts. Yum.

Pendleton blankets are still made in the US (full disclosure: I own 4 Pendleton blankets) - it's their clothing that isn't.

The Trappist Abbey fudge is pretty amazing, too.

[Steve97415]

Originally Posted by PeacePlease

We moved to the Portland area about a year ago. Since then we've been trying to buy things that are locally made. Local can mean Portland, or Oregon or the PNW in general. Anyone ran into a website that tracks local products? or can improve my list below?

Here's our list so far:

1. Workout/running shoes from Nike
2. Cheese from Tillamook
3. Wine (either the Willamette Valley or Washington's)
4. Salmon (pacific based)
5. Beer (I like Porter and it comes from a brewery in Bend)
6. Coats and some clothes from Columbia Sportswear
7. Apples (Washington's mostly)
8. Produce from the local farmers market when we can
9. Tires, and winter chains from Les Schwab
10. We make it to U-Pick farms in Hood River when we can for all sort of produce like Cherries..

What else did I miss? Stumptown coffee?

There are differences between something that is made in Oregon, something that is merchandised out of Oregon, and products made by multi-national corporations that are merely headquartered in Oregon.

Nike shoes are made in Indonesia and China. New Balance in the only manufacturer of athletic shoes that makes a significant percent of its shoes in the U.S. Likewise, Columbia is a merchandiser. They commission offshore manufacturers in Asia to make sportswear with their label on it. Les Schwab sells tires, but only Cooper and Goodyear are made in the U.S. Most of the rest are made in Korea.

We live in a global economy and it is difficult to know what comes from where. Often times the manufacturing process is componentized and a number of different countries are involved in the manufacturing stream . Even lumber that comes out of an Oregon mill may have been cut from trees grown in Canada. Coffee, for example, may be roasted in Oregon, but the beans are imported from Latin America, Africa and Asia. Is that locally produced?

[John Shaft]

I don't like how some manufacturers hide behind the "locally-made" marketing phrase and charge higher prices and/or deliver inferior quality. I guess the demand fuels it, but it really annoys me here. For instance, a couple of years ago I learned that hazelnuts that were sold here for >$10/lb are also shipped to Asia and sold for far less than that. In other words, the growers can still make enough profit overseas (AFTER shipping costs etc.) when charging LESS than shipping the hazelnuts up the road to the local suckers...I mean, consumers.

Similarly, local fruit. It's cheaper to buy, for instance, strawberries grown in California and shipped all the way up here via middlemen than it is to buy local strawberries from a nearby farmer who brings his produce in to the farmer's market. I thought the whole idea behind farmer's markets was giving a greater share to the farmer, AND cutting costs by reducing transportation and cutting out all the middlemen. So why is it still four times as expensive?

I will buy local when I am convinced that it is a superior product, a better value, etc. (Ex: Tillamook ice cream, Deschutes beer, Dutch Bros). But not if it's being used as an excuse and/or guilt trip.