'Made In America' Store Makes Buying Patriotic

Outsourcing is a cruel mistress—but for Mark Andol, it also provided a business idea that looks to be taking off. Andol owns the Made in America store in a small New York town on the way to Niagara Falls, and as its name suggests, all 3,000 products are strictly produced in the good ‘ole USA, NPR reports. Andol got the idea when his welding business nearly went bust because of foreign competition. Store managers spend hours of their days hunting products and making sure they are all-USA, because even packaging or glue made overseas is a no-go.

"If, for some reason, something were to slip through the cracks, we take the product out of the store, burn it, or whatever we do to it, because they lied to us," a manager says. The store's standards to qualify for an American label are stricter than the FTC's. Sales have doubled in the last year, largely in part to tourists and other out-of-town visitors. One downside: The store carries virtually no electronic goods. (More outsourcing stories.)