Last week, an advertising watchdog group called out Walmart’s website for selling more than 100 products labeled as “Made in the U.S.A.” even though they were manufactured in other countries. Now comes a local news report showing that the confusing problem isn’t relegated to Walmart.com.
A viewer of ABC11 in Raleigh-Durham noticed that his local Walmart in Wilson, NC, had a “Made In America” display that contained products made elsewhere.
The shopper says he was just trying to buy a fan and was willing to spend a couple more bucks for a domestically manufactured product. But the fans in the Made In America display did not live up to that label.
“I turned the box over to look at the specs on it and says ‘Made in China’ on the bottom,” he tells ABC11.
He says Walmart only sent him an automated response when he tried to bring this to the retailer’s attention, and when ABC11 went back to the store to investigate, it found the fans were still being sold under the Made In America banner alongside numerous other items — July 4th-themed cups, a chalk play set, a bubble machine — made in China.
When reached for comment, Walmart explained that the Made In America signs had originally been posted to advertise the coolers and other products that were indeed U.S.A-made, but that “we didn’t do a very good job of taking the signs down as new products filled the shelves.”
After being told about the mislabeled products, the Made In China products were removed from the display.
It’s a violation of federal law to deliberately mislead consumers into believing that a product is made in America. While items advertised as Made In U.S.A. don’t have to go through any sort of vetting process to earn that label, the Federal Trade Commission has compliance standards that manufacturers and marketers must follow in order to make sure they aren’t being deceptive.
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
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