Bought in Yellowstone – Made In China
Look at me in my new green cowboy hat! I bought it in West Yellowstone on Tuesday. We took a break from Yellowstone Park and went shopping. Shopping is one of the joys of travel because I can find so many things that I wouldn’t be able to find at home. We looked at chainsaw bears, smelly candles and homemade soap. I finally decided on this lime green hat.
This hat just might be my new token. I’ll be the girl in the green cowboy hat. If I have to live in Utah, I might as well look a little like a cowboy, right?
One thing I noticed about my new cowboy hat, though…
It was made in China…
Whenever you shop in little shops, make sure you check where the products were made. A lot of times, the leather key chain that looks so western was actually made in China, India, or Korea. What’s the point of buying a souvenir that looks exactly like the souvenir from your hometown? I was checking, so my cowboy hat from China wasn’t a surprise. Neither was my lip balm from Vermont and my Native American Style flute from Utah. I drove all the way to West Yellowstone, Montana to buy a flute from Utah.
At least the huckleberries are from Montana… right?
These are cheap trinkets, not local artifacts. Why do a racist post on China in a travel blog?
Comment by lonniebhodge — May 3, 2007 @ 5:48 pm
Lonnie Hodge,
I don’t have anything against China or Chinese products, actually. When you’re buying a souvenir of the area, you probably want a souvenir of the area. Not an artifact, mind you, just a souvenir that has more to do with the place you’re visiting than a name printed on it.
It’s not a racist post. It’s a post reminding people to buy local, even when they’re not local.
Laura Moncur
Comment by Laura Moncur — May 3, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
Ha! The post was HARDLY “racist” – A perfectly valid point was made, an alleged indigenous artifact that was cheaply made in a sweatshop in China is not exactly representative of the American West. I simply avoid, to the best of my abilities, anything made it China. If it were say, SWEDEN or CANADA and not CHINA, would anyone cry Racism? No.
I remember going to a hardware store and while waiting in line picked up a plastic little “Support Our Troop” US flag and looked underneath it to see MADE IN CHINA. I thought that was absurdly hilarious!
Comment by eric cooley — September 9, 2008 @ 11:33 am