BellaOnline Forums Money Investing Made in the USA Investing

My weekly circular from Walmart states that Walmart plans to spend more money buying products Made in the USA. In this circular, they showed six products that are made in the United States. That got my investing wheels turning.

Suppose you want to own a portfolio of stocks of companies that manufacture in the U.S.
Perhaps to help keep jobs available to U.S. citizens or as a sign of patriotism. So I thought the circular would be a good place to start. The products included Dawn dish detergent, Brawny paper towels, Backyard Grill lighter fluid, Kingsford charcoal, a Coleman cooler, and a Nuk patriotic cup.

The next step is to determine who the manufacturer of the products are and if they are publicly traded companies with stock to invest in. I'll continue this post the next day. In the interim, why don't you join me? Google the products and find out who makes them.

Okay. So I did a Google search of each of the products to see who are the manufacturers and if they are publicly traded. Some were easy to find and others required more extensive searching.

1. Brawny - Brawny is made by Georgia Pacific. Georgia Pacific used to be a publicly traded company but they were bought out by Koch Industries. Koch Industries have remained privately held. So Brawny has no stock to invest in.

2. Nuk - I could not find this in my Google search. I tried finding the cups at Walmart today and was unable to locate them. I wanted to find the manufacturer on the cup. So I'll try some more research, but for now Nuk is out for a stock investing idea.

3. Dawn - Okay, jackpot. Dawn is owned by Proctor and Gamble. Their website is pg.com. They have lots of company info and a plan where you can invest directly through the company.

4. Backyard Grill - Again, I had a lot of difficulty with this product. It may be owned by HOC Industries, but I'm not sure. If it is HOC, then it is out because the company is privately owned. More research is required to be sure.

5. Kingsford Charcoal - Good news. Kingsford is owned by The Clorox Company. Their website is thecloroxcompany.com. This is a good option for a stock investment.

6. Coleman - Coleman is owned by the Jarden Corporation. The website is jarden.com. Another good option.

So the results look like we have three options: Proctor & Gamble, The Clorox Company, and Jarden Corporation.

How did you do with your research?

Let me stop here a minute and explain in a little more detail how I did this research. My first step was to Google the name of the product along with words such as "manufacturer" or "maker" or "company" or "who makes".

This often presented me with a list of websites that answered the question in the short info that comes with the Google listing. Dawn is a good example of this. Oddly enough, Wikipedia often had the answer on their site along with a history of the company.

Other times, I had to try different combos of words like "company investor" to get the info. Backyard Grill was a real problem. There are lots of Backyard Grill companies or references for people wanting to grill. In fact, I didn't find the Backyard Grill I was searching for. I perused several of these reference sites but to no luck.

Once I found the company that made the product, I googled the company's name and "website" or "company stock" or "company investor". This usually returned a listing that included the main company website. Many times, it came up with a link to the section of the company website devoted to investing in the company's stock.

So that is it. It is a fairly simple search although it can be time-consuming. And sometimes frustrating. But this is a good method to use to find out who makes a product and if that company is publicly traded.

I discovered that Lazyboy states that they are Made in the USA. I'll have to do some research to check this out.

Hi Sandra,

Have you tried:

http:
//www.dartcontainer.com/

I used to work for the $5M Auditorium they donated to the local community college

-- Burt B.

Thanks Burt. I'll check it out.

I checked out La-Z-Boy and Burt's suggestion of Dart Container. Unfortunately, Dart Container is a privately held company. This is disappointing because the company looked to be promising. According to their website, they manufactured their own raw materials for their products. Dart makes foam cups, etc.

La-Z-Boy is publicly traded and they do make their furniture in the USA. So I'll add them to the list of possible companies to invest in.

I haven't seen any investor link, so this may be private also:

http:
//www.sauder.com/

-- Burt B.

Burt - Thanks for the suggestion. Another great Made in the USA company.

I checked but Sauder is still privately held.

Isn't it odd how you can miss something right in front of you? I had to get a new washer recently. Yesterday, I finally noticed that it had a label stating it was made in the USA. It's a Maytag.

Maytag is owned by Whirlpool. Whirlpool is a publicly-traded company.