{"id":79,"date":"2010-12-02T09:03:15","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T14:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nycnyne.net\/blog\/?p=79"},"modified":"2012-11-14T22:49:23","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T03:49:23","slug":"shopping-american-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/shopping-american-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Shopping, American Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you have known me for a while, you will know that I am no Bible thumping tea bagger when it comes to my views on America and the fact that I was born in this country. But, I do prefer to live in the US than any other country I have visited (OK, maybe some regions of Canada hold a certain allure for me), even with all the shite that has been going on for, oh, the past decade or so.<\/p>\n

Also, if you have known me for a while, you will know that I am not a fan of our current trade relationship with China. I do not shop in dollar stores and I try to avoid buying Chinese-made goods when possible.<\/p>\n

This morning while I was ironing (yes, I was ironing in the morning), I saw that a pair of my newer khaki pants had a massive stain on them, rendering them unfit for wearing to work. I hated those pants any way. I bought them online via Urban Outfitters. I was really disappointed to discover that they were sized for starving 23yo Asian hipsters living in Brooklyn. Wicked tight. Not just in the ass, but in the legs and even the freaking ankles! And they were made in some other place; Qatar or something like that. Allow me to take a second to vent. I will never forgive The Gap for screwing with their Classic Khaki line of pants. It is right there in the name: Classic. That means “Has been this way forever and will always be this way.” Nope, they started screwing with them. First, they moved manufacturing from the Philippines to somewhere in Asia. This lead to the use of a completely different fabric being used. It was less thick, less soft and less comfortable. They also started screwing with the cut of the legs, making them skinnier. Some people might see this as just a shift in style, but I see it for what it is. A tighter fit requires less fabric being used which increases the profit potential on the pants. Don’t tell me it is Style. It is pure Economics. Then The Gap moved from Asia to somewhere in the Middle East; UAE, I think. Here, the fabric changed again and the pants became even skinnier. At this point, I was done. The fabric had become so obviously awful that you couldn’t even use it as a rag when the pants inevitably wore out from being washed about a dozen times. $50 pants should not be made this crappily. So, good job The Gap. You suck. Classic Khakis, my ass.<\/p>\n

OK, vent over. I have issues, I know. But those were MY pants and they screwed them up. OK. OK. Back on point…<\/p>\n

With the death of these awful pants this morning, I started looking for Made in USA pants that might fit the bill. I quickly found Bill’s Khakis<\/a>, but starting at $115 and going up from there, I just don’t see that in my budget. Hell, $50 for my old, good Gap khakis was a bit tough on my psyche! So, I kept looking. Thanks to the Tea Baggers, there is no end to the amount of sites with lists of USA-made stuff out there. Sadly, most of those lists reflect what Tea Baggers like to wear, which is quite a bit different from what I like to wear. WTF is a “trucker tee”, any way?<\/p>\n

Well, here is the list<\/a> that I am going to start with. I should make a tag for this or something. Looking at the All American Clothing Store<\/a> first. Hey! I am an American, that means I start at the top of the list and work my way down! I am not in love with what I see, but they look decent, are affordable and the money stays in the US, as far as I can tell. I’ll let you know how they work out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you have known me for a while, you will know that I am no Bible thumping tea bagger when it comes to my views on America and the fact that I was born in this country. But, I do … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[95,161],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-clothes","tag-rant"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NxlE-1h","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":624,"url":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/haiku-for-a-mid-novemeber-morning\/","url_meta":{"origin":79,"position":0},"title":"Haiku for a Mid-November Morning","author":"matthannan","date":"18 November 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Sky grey, morning clouds. Earth still wet from last night's storm. Wind-dancing oak leaves.","rel":"","context":"In "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":893,"url":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/draddy\/","url_meta":{"origin":79,"position":1},"title":"Draddy","author":"matthannan","date":"30 November 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning the Draddy clan were restless. John Draddy is one of my maternal 3x great-grandfathers.He was born in County Cork, Ireland around 1835 and died in an freak explosion at a construction site in Manhattan in 1880. 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Annual clean-out of the Earth Machine bin that I use as a second stage was well worth the sweat. Loads of happy worms in that #compost.","author":"matthannan","date":"19 July 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"via Instagram","rel":"","context":"In "Photography"","block_context":{"text":"Photography","link":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/category\/photography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/10553990_774528072597739_1012802631_n.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/10553990_774528072597739_1012802631_n.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthannan.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/10553990_774528072597739_1012802631_n.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1082,"url":"https:\/\/matthannan.net\/blog\/names-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":79,"position":3},"title":"Names Change","author":"matthannan","date":"30 April 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In an effort to clear my desk fo at least one piece of paper, I am going to write this blog post about my mother's, mother's father, David T. 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