Interesting new COO labeling on Shop-Vac brand vacs -PICS-

I was at my local Lowe's today and they had totally revamped the Shop-Vac section. They used to have blue and grey vacs sold only at Lowe's, but those have been replaced with black and red units that look quite good.
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All the Shop-Vac units I've looked at in the past had a label saying something like "made in the USA with US and global components." Most of these vacs included that statement.
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But some had another label, indicating they had 80% US content.
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I did a little googling and it turns out they partnered with a an auditing firm called Made in USA Certified.

The Nation's leading 3rd party certification source that conducts a supply chain audit for USA - Country of Origin claims.

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Here's a post on the Made in USA Certified group's website about it:
http://madeinusa.net/blog/2014/04/2...ave-become-a-client-of-made-in-usa-certified/

Made in USA Certified is pleased to announce that Shop-Vac® has completed audits and has become a client of Made In USA Certified. They are committed to keeping manufacturing here in the United States, and are still the only large facility developing such a product here in the United States.

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I'm not sure exactly how they calculate it, but 80% US content is still a lot more than I expected.

It makes me wonder how much US content is in the vacs with only the "made in the US with global and US materials" label?

that's still misleading....it's either Made in USA or it's not....if it's made with parts from Bangladesh...well, that's not USA now is it.

80% is still better than nothing.

Well, the COO labeling rules allow qualified made in the USA claims, so they technically aren't violating any rules.

At least they're trying. It's hard to get to 100% US sourcing when so much of our steel industry and infrastructure has been shut down and offshored.

-HF

Mohawk Dave said:

that's still misleading....it's either Made in USA or it's not....if it's made with parts from Bangladesh...well, that's not USA now is it.

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Sorry but I do not agree. If a American workers in a plant in the US assemble a bunch of parts (80% of which were also made in the US) then that's close enough IMO to be considered Made in the USA.

Sure, 100% US made components would be preferable but these days its damn near impossible to make any electric or electronic item using 100% US made components while still keeping that item competitively priced.

To be honest, I've always been more concerned about Quality and Value over COO. Let's be honest here, being made in the US doesn't allows = high quality. Case in point, "Shop Vac" tools have never been what I would call a high quality product. Don't get me wrong, they are decent and generally get the job done but there are better options available from Europe (at a much higher price lever).

That said, I have a lot of respect for a US company that is trying hard to keep their products made in the US without cutting too many corners and still keeping their products affordable. That's not an easy thing to do these days and my hat is off to them.

SMKS said:

I'm not sure exactly how they calculate it, but 80% US content is still a lot more than I expected.

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I'm also curious how "content" is determined.

Is it:
- % of number of piece parts
- % of volume or weight
- % of parts cost
- Other??

Davefr said:

I'm also curious how "content" is determined.

Is it:
- % of number of piece parts
- % of volume or weight
- % of parts cost
- Other??

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This seems to indicate that it's based on cost percentage.
http://madeinusa.net/certification/how-it-works

Made in USA Certified, Inc. (USA-C™) sends Vendor/Supply Chain Forms to client to fill out supplier names of every component/ingredient, and cost value % of component to entire product, and contact information for all suppliers.

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