Buy local, be patriotic, blah, blah

Buy locally made products? Not likely!

It is all very well to exhort one and all to buy locally made products – ostensibly to save foreign exchange and support the local manufacturers. That may well be true but where does this leave the individual consumer?

Let me say this – he is left holding the short end of the stick; as usual. In short, he's being
conned again.

No need to look far and wide. A few examples are housing where we pay through our noses for mediocre quality houses that are grossly overpriced vis-a vis earnings capacity & potential. The national cars are overpriced which brings a cascading effect of inflating prices of foreign cars to a level where we pay some o9f the highest prices for cars in the world.

Well, we buy a house and a car once in a while but we need to eat everyday, don't we? Food, yes glorious food in all its forms. Local fare is blessed with a plethora of flavours and styles, enough to please all but the most fastidious of palates. It is the manufactured and packaged food that I am driving at here, be it biscuits, confectionery like chocs, noodles, etc.

Some of the sins of local manufacturers are :

1.Concocting names that are nothing but a jack-off of an imported brand. Imitation is not the best form of flattery here, it jusy shows that you are devoid of ideas amd inspiration.

2.Packaging and get-ups that brainlessly and shamelessly simulate that of established brands. I have always felt that the worst offence in this direction is the veritable ketchup and chilli sauce bottle. The guy who originally designed the narrow necked bottle is a heckuva dumbass – it is so difficult to pour from it. How do you expect people to consume more if they can't pour fast enough? A wide necked bottle should be used instead. Case of the blind leading the blind. Haven't they heard of Aji-no-moto's success in ramping up sales simply by making bigger holes in the bottle stopper that allowed more flavor enhancer to be dispensed each time?

3.Weights and volumes are so inconspicious as to be virtually invisible. The print is in such small size and non-contrasting colors that you need a magnifying glass to decipher it. The reason is make a would-be buyer unable to compare weight/volume against prices. Isn't it devious and despicable all at the same time? It is a phenomenon affecting local products only, look around you. Imported products have their weight and grammage conspicously located on the package, not hidden in some little nook as in the local item. The packaging of local stuff will most often than not be flamboyant and wasteful. It is only when you weigh it in your hand that you realise that you are being taken for a ride. Shortchanged, that's what it is. Quick, put it down and look for something else.

4.Quality and pricing that are not commensurate when compared to imported products. Imported products are not really that expensive considering their better quality, such examples as chocolates and noodles; the local versions are practically inedible – their only redeeming feature being 'cheaper' than corresponding foreign items; helped substantially by import tariffs. Look at the ingredient list and see the difference. Instead of modified palm fat and dried milk powder, read real cocoa butter and full cream milk in imported chocs. Similarly, see how what goes into flavouring packs of imported noodles- you see what I mean? Local noodles are just not worth the money, just a con job to make us part with our money. Even house brands of hypermarkets like Tesco (imported from UK) are better than locally made products, very often cheaper too. Which makes me suspect that local manufacturers are making super profits and duping the consumers at the same time. Time to stop being fools, eh?

5.Products that become worse when locally made. Case in point being Campbell's canned soups, now made in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. Just as I predicted, quality deteriorated, I have sworn off Campbell soup forever. Insult to injury, they are actually much more expensive locally made even when you factored in increased costs and exchange rates. What happened? Are we really such pathetic suckers?

I am not being unpatriotic in urging against consuming local products. As consumers, we are only concerned with getting value for our money, with quality to boot. If imported products are worthwhile buying bearing in mind quality and costs, then so be it. Who cares if local manufacturers cannot compete and survive? We are not fools. Time to stop the duping, let's wise up. It is the only way local manufacturers will buck up and give us value for money. Good luck to them. Me? I will always give local products a miss and opt for the imported item. No snobbery involved, just plain common cents (pun intended). Too bad for the local manufacturers, but that's the way it is.