Online Source for Lighting that is made in America

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I need to replace two lights in my upstairs hallway. I'm fed up with made in China [censored]!

Is the thought of being able to find quality lighting online that is made in America just a pipe dream anymore?
 
If you need just regular incandescent bulbs, I bought some Sylvanias at Walmart that are made in USA. They're claimed to be extended life and they were less expensive than even the regular GE bulbs that are made in China. I imagine you could get these Sylvanias at other stores besides Walmart, maybe Meijer, Kmart etc.

Why do you need to buy them online? If you're talking about light fixtures or flourescents then I'm not sure.
 
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Had discussions with people about things like this. Our society is too bent over getting the cheapest thing. Id rather spend double or more on better quality products that will last for a long time instead of buying cheap stuff. Pay more get quality and it also saves the landfills from getting bigger. Im all for things made in canada or usa and am definitely more likely to buy something if it is. We have to push for that demand. Sorry for going offtopic!
 
Originally Posted By: Rolla07
Had discussions with people about things like this. Our society is too bent over getting the cheapest thing. Id rather spend double or more on better quality products that will last for a long time instead of buying cheap stuff. Pay more get quality and it also saves the landfills from getting bigger. Im all for things made in canada or usa and am definitely more likely to buy something if it is. We have to push for that demand. Sorry for going offtopic!


This.

Folks are programmed to be completely short sighted over the past few decades...this "disease" has crept into all areas of our society. It hasn't always been this way, in the past folks bought quality at a higher price and were willing to service and repair things that were still completely functional, but had odds and ends that eventually wore out.

Now folks stupidly think they are getting a deal on that piece of Chinese [censored] even though in the long run they have to buy three pieces of disposable oriental garbage instead of buying one high quality made in USA/Canada/Germany item which would lasted just as long as all three junk items. That higher quality product would have actually been a cheaper choice! LOL
 
Sometimes the chinese sourced item both cost as much or more and is lower quality. That seems to be the the case with A19 light bulbs with GE vs Sylvania as an example. Even when the chinese product is priced less it always cost more in various ways.
 
There is a fair amount of it out there, but the prices can be breathtaking.

Like this simple pendant:

http://www.lampsbeautiful.com/meyda/commerce-flush-mount-ceiling-fixture-112356.html

If you need, say, 10 or so for a project, that gets to be a big number. It's just hard to justify spending 20 times or more what similar imported fixtures cost.

Especially when most people never bother to look at a ceiling, or notice the lighting fixtures.
 
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
If you need just regular incandescent bulbs, I bought some Sylvanias at Walmart that are made in USA. They're claimed to be extended life and they were less expensive than even the regular GE bulbs that are made in China. I imagine you could get these Sylvanias at other stores besides Walmart, maybe Meijer, Kmart etc.

Why do you need to buy them online? If you're talking about light fixtures or flourescents then I'm not sure.



I found those too, and bought a couple boxes. Now if only I could find CFLs made in USA.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick R
.... Now if only I could find CFLs made in USA.


You can get U.S. made (assembled, most likely) LED bulbs fairly readily, but, again, the prices are breathtaking.

Example:

http://www.myledlightingguide.com/Household_LED_Lighting-list.aspx

$44 for a 60 watt incandescent replacement.

The U.S. made products are out there, particularly in the commercial lines, but most people just gag on the price.
 
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I think a big reason why some US made items cost more than imports is because of lost economies of scale. If the imports weren't taking up the market volume then US made products would be affordable just like they use to be. There's things that can be obtain cost effectively from the US, light bulbs, oil filters etc, since they still have economies of scale. It really doesn't cost much per item to mass produce products in the US, you just have to have enough volume and distribution which is often lost to imports.
 
Originally Posted By: Win
Originally Posted By: Nick R
.... Now if only I could find CFLs made in USA.


You can get U.S. made (assembled, most likely) LED bulbs fairly readily, but, again, the prices are breathtaking.

Example:

http://www.myledlightingguide.com/Household_LED_Lighting-list.aspx

$44 for a 60 watt incandescent replacement.

The U.S. made products are out there, particularly in the commercial lines, but most people just gag on the price.


I seriously doubt that those LED bulbs are made in the US beyond simple final-stage assembly using Asian components. To me, wording like "Assembled in USA with domestic and imported components" is misleading at best, a poor attempt to convince people that something is made here.
 
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
I think a big reason why some US made items cost more than imports is because of lost economies of scale.


I think they are just price gouging. Many of my posts here notwithstanding, I always look for and generally buy U.S. made products, which are still readily available in the commercial lines, and not all that hard to find in the consumer lines.

I'm somewhat familiar with the recent lighting products because I had to buy a bunch of interior lights last fall for a building I'm gutting and putting a new business in, and I still have to buy the exterior lights. I don't mind paying a reasonable price. But 10X or 20X over comparable imports for a light fixture is just beyond the pale. Especially when the average joe that walks into a place never bothers to look at the ceiling in the first place, and if he / she did, couldn't tell the difference between a $3K light fixture and a $200 - 300 light fixture to save their life.

An extra $30 or $35K for lights is a half dozen package air conditioners, a bunch of inventory, a lot of paid labor, halfway to a new Jaguar ( or Cadillac ), etc., etc. I'm sure you get the point. There are just better things to spend the money on than subsidizing people to put out an overpriced product.

Pretty much anything you want, you can find a U.S. made product that does it. Even the much ballyhooed HF battery tester, has a superior U.S. made analog, made by Megger (or did). If you can just stomach the price tag. Most people can't, or won't.

The U.S. manufacturers used to have the economy of scale. They peed it away. They were loaded up with unions that thought their members should make unsustainable wages just for having no education, and for standing on an assembly line 40 hours per week, and getting this off, paid that, yada, yada, and spineless managers that went along with it. That type of model doesn't work well in a competitive environment.

This has been coming on since the '70's. Anyone with a pulse could look around at that time and see the Toyota's, Pioneer stereo's, Sony TV's, etc., hitting the market and see that the train was leaving the station, if it had not already left. But they bought the imports anyway, likely thinking the invasion wouldn't ever get to whatever factory they worked in. Well, eventually it did.

I don't mind helping my fellow Americans, but I won't be gouged by them.
 
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Of course many American made products are now going for the high end/high price market and limited volume. Almost everyone is price gouging to a degree including the imports unless the imports are in the dumping phase.
As far as that goes other things like real estate constitutes gouging and most people can't afford it either.

My point is if you can't afford manufacturing, the highest productivity endeavor of all, in the US then you can't afford anything. I have to disagree with putting the blame on high wages and unions. Big business outsourced just about anything and everything, non-union and low payed production work too.

Blaming the US worker is barking up the wrong tree imo. The real blame is on the US middleman, trade policy (other countries protected their markets while the US left its market open), and other countries manipulating their currency, dumping etc.

Imported products are not always less expensive. Once the market is captured the price is set to maximum the market will allow. A lot of these seemingly inexpensive imports from china are false economics. How are you saving money if you are continually replacing low quality products that continue to break? Still, when US made products have the volume, they are just as affordable as imports and usually better quality and value.
 
Thanks for the responses BITOGers, off-topic or not.

I was looking for light fixtures for the ceiling, not bulbs.

And yes, I have zero issues with spending my hard-earned dollars for a solid quality product. As mechanicx pointed out above, I'm not a believer in continously replacing low quality products.

The two light fixtures I need to replace in the hallway ceiling are my lack of oversight as to the country of origin. It's time to use some foresight.
 
Try Lithonia Lighting. They make some nice, affordable FL lights. A VERY good company, always a live person whom helps on the phone. Another possible may be "Quizel" (sp?) lighting out of Canada. The only US manufacturer I could find for my outdoors porch light (polycarbonite $15) was about 10yrs ago. I deliberately paid more (and got a high quality product which has lasted).
 
Originally Posted By: sparky123
Try Lithonia Lighting. ....


I was looking at a Lithonia LED fixture this afternoon and it was Hecho en Mexico.
 
If they can take a regular incandescent, go to Home Depot and pick up a couple Cree LED lightbulbs for $13 each. They're assembled in North Carolina. They also look exactly like a 60 watt incandescent.
 
Originally Posted By: Win
Originally Posted By: Nick R
.... Now if only I could find CFLs made in USA.


You can get U.S. made (assembled, most likely) LED bulbs fairly readily, but, again, the prices are breathtaking.

Example:

http://www.myledlightingguide.com/Household_LED_Lighting-list.aspx

$44 for a 60 watt incandescent replacement.

The U.S. made products are out there, particularly in the commercial lines, but most people just gag on the price.


Hogwash. I bought Philips US made LEDs for $29 at HD. Today I saw Cree US-assembled LED bulbs in 40W form for $9.97 at HD.

Of course it does not change the shortsighted desire to save even more (and pay a ton in taxes to keep these people treated and fed) by buying Chinese stuff.
 
I bought a dozen LED Canopy Low Boys this afternoon. I hope the savings in electricity and low maintenance of LED's will justify the cost over metal halides.

I *hope* these are US made, or at least assembled. They had every specification imaginable marked on the box, except country of origin.
 
Well my LED lamps are sorta made in the US.

The manufacturer is:

http://www.atlaslightingproducts.com/default.aspx


and the lamps I bought are the VN1256LED, but when you drill down to the product cut sheet, it states assembled in the USA of US and imported parts, but meets buy American requirements within the ARRA ( whatever that is ).

Like, CChase, I am deeply dubious of any LED fixture claiming to be made in USA. Assembled is probably about as good as it gets. And these weren't cheap, at least not in my mind - over $350 per fixture. I probably could have got imports for $150 or less. Big difference when you need a bunch.
 
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