[By Guancha Observer Network, Ruan Jiaqi]
With the same quality, if the price doubles, will consumers choose "Made in USA" or "Made in China"? The results of the test where American citizens "vote with their feet" have left small business owners shocked.
According to a report by Canada's The Globe and Mail on the 29th, while US President Trump is heavily imposing tariffs and boasting about the return of manufacturing, Ramon van Meer, the owner of the US showerhead brand Afina, designed an experiment on his own online store to try to uncover whether Americans are willing to pay more for expensive "Made in USA" products.
He set two prices for the same product: one was the price for the product made in China, and the other was the high-priced option for the fully American-made product, almost doubling the price, leaving the choice entirely up to the consumers.
After multiple repeated tests, Van Meer got the same result every time: for "Made in USA", zero purchases.
Van Meer publicly disclosed the results of this experiment on social media X.
According to Canadian media reports, Van Meer was born in the Netherlands. He founded the showerhead brand Afina, which has its headquarters in Austin, Texas. The showerheads under this brand are produced by a company in the Pearl River Delta region of China.
After Trump announced new tariffs on April 2nd, Van Meer's first reaction was to cancel all new production orders.
Then he designed this experiment. He found a supplier based in the US to produce the same type of filtered showerhead. Due to production costs being nearly three times higher than when manufactured in China, they had to increase the price of this American-made product to $239 to maintain profit margins. This was almost double the price of the "Asian-made" version.
He also added a note on the product page stating, "Due to new tariffs, we are collaborating with a small manufacturer in the US to produce this product," while promising that the quality of both versions was identical.
The advertising campaign was simple and direct — "Same design. Two choices. You decide: Made in USA or Made in Asia." Van Meer thought it would be interesting to know if people were really willing to vote with their wallets.
Despite Van Meer's low expectations, the moment the results came out, they still surprised him greatly — ultimately, no one bought the "Made in USA" version. No Americans were willing to pay extra for non-Chinese-made products.
According to his statistics, during the trial period, approximately 25,000 American consumers viewed the purchase page, of which 3,560 added the "Asian-made" version to their shopping cart, and 584 completed the purchase; whereas the "Made in USA" version only had 24 add-to-cart actions, but not a single order was placed.
"The gap is too large. We didn't sell even one (American-made) unit," Van Meer exclaimed, "It's zero sales. We checked it several times."
He told The Globe and Mail that when the team first saw the experimental results, they thought there might be a data error. But after multiple retests, the results remained consistent.
"The conclusion is that what people say and claim to do is vastly different from what they actually do when they spend money."
Van Meer added, "This is not a failed marketing campaign, but a referendum on price."
When posting the results of the experiment on the social media platform X, he reflected, even if American manufacturers are willing to bring manufacturing back, faced with high prices, American consumers are unwilling to bear these additional costs incurred by American manufacturing. And this is not just a problem they face alone.
However, Van Meer does not blame consumers. He knows that America's severe inflation problem has left ordinary people struggling with living expenses such as gasoline, daily necessities, and mortgages. "Made in USA" has become a luxury that most people cannot afford.
"The fault does not lie with the consumers, nor with us. The root cause lies in problems within the American economy." He frankly stated that although small business owners have intentions to invest in the US, decision-makers and experts must realize clearly that if they want to rebuild manufacturing, efforts need to be made in building supply chains, promoting production automation, and incentivizing consumers, among other areas; otherwise, local manufacturing will remain just empty talk.
Van Meer's advertisement page
In fact, Van Meer also hoped to produce showerheads in the US. His filtration materials mostly come from the US itself, and the payment terms with domestic suppliers are more convenient, avoiding tariffs. Previously, he had to pay approximately $25,000 in tariffs for each container of goods shipped from Asia.
However, after contacting six manufacturers, his attempts to localize production repeatedly hit roadblocks. Producing showerheads involves packaging materials, ABS plastic, and manual assembly, taking two months to produce one head in Asia. He even questioned whether the US could complete the entire production process.
He reluctantly admitted, "We lack the capacity for scaled manufacturing and skilled labor."
According to Canadian media reports, before his inventory runs out, Van Meer has a few months to find a new production location. To solve the production dilemma, in April, he specially flew to China to attend the 137th Canton Fair held in Guangzhou, hoping to meet manufacturers from countries like Vietnam and India, and also hoping to connect with Chinese companies that have already established overseas production capacity.
Van Meer added that even if he successfully finds a company with production capabilities outside of China, China will remain a key part of his product supply chain, "Most of the suppliers I know still purchase a large amount of raw materials in China."
Talking about Trump's tariff policy, Van Meer criticized it harshly, calling it "terrible" and a "catastrophe" for many small businesses.
Compared to others, Van Meer is relatively lucky. Just before the tariff policy was announced, he had received inventory enough to last for six months. However, many of his peers' goods are still trapped in US warehouses, unable to be retrieved due to the inability to pay the huge tariffs.
In his view, the actual effect of the tariff policy is questionable. Regardless of the fact that his company still relies on Chinese production, even before the tariffs were imposed, most of his company's expenditures flowed into the US, including paying port workers, truck drivers, warehouse personnel, photographers, accountants, and so on.
He felt wronged, "Entrepreneurs like me are blamed for not producing products in the US, but 60% of my funds are invested in the US economy."
"We share these data because we ourselves are deeply shocked, and we believe these data deserve discussion."
When explaining the experiment on the brand's official website, Van Meer pointed out bluntly, "If policymakers and experts aim to rebuild American industry, they must confront a cruel reality: idealism is ultimately defeated by real-world price tags."
In Van Meer's social media comments section, many netizens expressed their support for him. One commenter shared that they had also conducted a similar experiment, and the final results were almost identical to Van Meer's situation.
A user with a profile picture featuring the American flag and an "eagle" emoji wrote, "I also offer customers the choice between overseas and domestic production. They always choose the overseas production. The price of domestically made products is almost triple that of overseas made ones."
Others commented, "People always choose the cheaper option. And not only consumers do this, but also corporate clients."
"99.99% of Americans don't care about the origin of products like showerheads. As long as the quality is the same, give me the cheaper one. In fact, I trust Asian-made products more than American-made ones. Nowadays, 'Made in USA' often means poor-quality products."
"The truth is that most Americans simply can't afford American-made products. Therefore, rebuilding manufacturing is not something that can happen overnight—it requires a well-rounded plan and high-paying jobs to truly make a difference."
"People's love for 'Made in USA' depends on how fast they are willing to open their wallets."
"You've captured a core contradiction in Trump's economic nationalism: his slogan of 'bringing jobs back' sounds good, but if consumers are unwilling to pay more for 'Made in USA', the whole thing will collapse due to its own contradictions."
Others sarcastically remarked, "People lie, but data doesn't deceive."
Of course, some people raised objections to Van Meer's views, regurgitating outdated arguments like "overcapacity in China."
However, a netizen's rebuttal hit the nail on the head: "Can manufacturing return to the US? Yes—but only if there are large-scale long-term investments in human resources and infrastructure, and a proper national strategy, not some hasty plans scribbled on napkins at 3 a.m. in a waffle house."
This netizen sharply pointed out further, "Reality is far from ideal—what people get is empty slogans, hats with slogans, and a farce of 'role-playing' in the economic sphere. Frankly speaking, no one is willing to pay double the price for the same product just to make someone who supports 'Making America Great Again' sleep more soundly wearing underwear printed with the American flag, not even Americans themselves."
This article is an exclusive contribution from the Guancha Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7498567477350416915/
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