Buy American this Holiday Season

Happy Holidays from us at M&M Box Partitions here in the heart of Chi-town. For us, it’s a time to recap a year that saw its ups and downs and statistical loop-de-loops. We came into this year as a nation determined to aright itself out of a big economic slump; determined to compete better on the global market with other countries that have strong manufacturing and shipping industries. While no-one’s claiming it’s been an easy year for just about anybody in America, things have quietly been picking up steam this year, if not paying off just yet. Jobs across the nation are on the rise. Consumer confidence is back on track. Most interestingly (for us at least), manufacturing has led the comeback all year long. While other sectors of the economy wobble, America’s machinists and warehouse workers have been recovering in good form. You’ve probably seen some of the statistics out there – we won’t repeat them here for you.

But here’s a statistic that may actually surprise you: this December, if everyone in America were to purchase $64 worth of holiday gifts that have actually been “made in America,” that would create up to 200,000 new American jobs. Sure, a lot of them would be retail or shipping-related – jobs to handle to Christmas rush and the excess volume of gifts and packaging – and would therefore be temporary. But there would be other jobs in the mix that would end up becoming permanent.

American manufacturing ingenuity has led this country out of some of its most desperate and dire moments. Manufacturing came roaring back to turn the tide against both the Great Depression and the Axis Powers during World War Two. Before that time, manufacturing helped us claim victory in World War One, and did its part in turning around several great economic recessions in the 19th century. Let’s not forget either the key role that manufacturing played – particularly in the defense sector – in helping the nation stage a comeback from the downturn of the late 70s.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: we’re a Chicago-born, all-American company. We come from a town whose factories, mills, furnaces, and stockyards were – and remain – a source of pride for our nation and the world. We’re doing fine here ourselves as a company. But we’re not talking just about ourselves right now. We think America could be reaching for more than it is right now – and that we as citizens, producers, and consumers have the ways and means of making it all happen. Here’s to buying American-made brands and products this Christmas season. It’s been a rough year for a lot of good people, but we still have a lot to be grateful for – as well as make better.

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