Williams-Sonoma fined $3.175m for "Made in USA" labels on Chinese products

[Brian Lutz]

https://apnews.com/article/williams-son ... 0546a2b9a2

Williams-Sonoma has been fined $3.175 million by the FTC after it was found that a number of products in their house brands were made in China but labeled as being made in America. They were previously cited for this in 2020, resulting in a $1 million fine at the time.

[ClownLoach]

I think this is the tip of the iceberg, not necessarily for WS but the entire industry especially in the last few years. The mad scramble for materials after all the supply chain crises, port backups, etc. has surely caused many more labeling issues. Much easier for crooked suppliers to falsely state country of origin on raw materials versus completed goods. Although this article makes it sound like they were trying to do the classic "Made in US of Imported Materials" which of course is an oxymoron since most materials are "made" these days. I do not trust labels for much of anything these days, Made in USA, Made in Japan, Made in China... The top tier manufacturing countries are frequently misrepresented.

[storewanderer]

Best at this point to try to look at the quality of the product and form an opinion based on the quality of the product as opposed to the "made in."

I've seen some really bad Made in USA summer sandals, gift wrap, in recent years at Wal Mart. Like the comparable items that said "Made in China" were much more durable and better quality. I really wanted to buy these Made in USA items and I did and was pretty disappointed.

I think some of this is also an effort to get around certain tariffs which were put into place in the 2017 period and have been kept in place through 2023 despite a lot of noise about how bad said tariffs were made out to be during the 2020 election by one side. Getting around tariffs through inaccurate labeling strikes me as an activity that represents fraud and not paying money to the US Government that is owed, so I have a problem with that regardless of if I approve or or disapprove of the tariffs.

[veteran+]

I think this is the tip of the iceberg, not necessarily for WS but the entire industry especially in the last few years. The mad scramble for materials after all the supply chain crises, port backups, etc. has surely caused many more labeling issues. Much easier for crooked suppliers to falsely state country of origin on raw materials versus completed goods. Although this article makes it sound like they were trying to do the classic "Made in US of Imported Materials" which of course is an oxymoron since most materials are "made" these days. I do not trust labels for much of anything these days, Made in USA, Made in Japan, Made in China... The top tier manufacturing countries are frequently misrepresented.

You nailed it with the "tip of the iceberg"..................that's for sure!

[Alpha8472]

I was listening to man on the bus talking about how his company makes the materials for mattresses in China and then does the final packaging in a warehouse in the Oakland, California area in the US. They call it made in the USA, but it is practically done already in China. The mattresses come off of ships at the Port of Oakland and the warehouse is nearby ready to ship mattresses to stores.

I just looked at my Williams Sonoma plate and it says made in Japan. The quality is not that great, and I suspect that it might be from somewhere else. Labor in Japan must be expensive now.

[storewanderer]

I was listening to man on the bus talking about how his company makes the materials for mattresses in China and then does the final packaging in a warehouse in the Oakland, California area in the US. They call it made in the USA, but it is practically done already in China. The mattresses come off of ships at the Port of Oakland and the warehouse is nearby ready to ship mattresses to stores.

I just looked at my Williams Sonoma plate and it says made in Japan. The quality is not that great, and I suspect that it might be from somewhere else. Labor in Japan must be expensive now.

I have some of their plates that are supposedly Made in France. Who knows. I like the plates.