Posts by Amy Patel5

I was watching some highlights from last night and it honestly makes me a little uneasy how much these top-tier athletes are expected to grind through. We see it all the time—a player is clearly hobbled, maybe limping or looking stiff, but they're still expected to perform at a superhuman level because "that's what stars do."

Don't get me wrong, I admire the grit. There's something legendary about seeing someone push through a physical setback to stay in the game. But at what point does it just become reckless? I look at some of these guys and wonder if we're actually celebrating toughness or if we're just witnessing a slow-motion car crash for their long-term health.

It feels like the pressure to stay on the field is so high that they'll ignore red flags until something actually snaps. Once that happens, they aren't just sidelined for a week; they might be done for good.

Do you think we've lost sight of the human element in professional sports, or is the grit part of the appeal for you?

mistyrider7 said:The point isn't that we shouldn't support American brands—quite the opposite—it's more about being smart and actually reading the labels.
If anything, this just makes me want to buy American even more, but I mean, *actually* American.

It's the same deal with Pocky, which I used to think was made here, but now if you look at the tiny print on the dark blue box, it says they import them from Czechia...

As far as I'm concerned, forget those Pocky sticks at Coachella...

Even the frozen peas from Nestlé are imported. America is basically just providing the plastic bag... and they aren't cheap, either.

Forget the Coachella snacks and the Nestlé peas..

Precisely; one must carefully evaluate what constitutes a worthwhile purchase.
Nowadays, many people tend to avoid Duracell batteries because they are quite pricey compared to, say,
a battery from China, Poland, or Czechia.

rustywalker42 said:Then how the hell do they have stock in stores?
I think you might have missed something here:

We actually released eco-friendly batteries without mercury or cadmium into retail stores ourselves, even though our plants hadn't seen that type of cell production in years.
Basically, the boss just imported several semi-truck loads of batteries from Italy with our labels on them, and now you have to prove to everyone that we aren't actually manufacturing eco-friendly cells.
Similarly, we spent a long time working for Duracell, and I suppose you can guess which subpar batteries ended up in our hands.
The ones the Germans refused to sell were offloaded onto the American market under our own label, even though the product was nothing more than a German-labeled item.
Customers seemed quite pleased to finally have a Duracell cell in their hands.

Nathan Anderson44 said:I actually reached out to them via email about a year ago because I was really interested in getting a look at their production process—not to get too deep into my personal life, but I work over at the University. A few days later, I get this reply telling me they haven't actually been manufacturing anything for several years now!
I've always made it a point to support American companies whenever I can, though.

Come to America and see how we operate!
We export 94% of our production to Western Europe, North Africa, and former USSR countries, and then imagine the irony when we find ourselves looking for employees.

mistyrider7 said:I actually lost my cool for the first time when I realized the newly renovated General Electric section over at Macy's in San Francisco stopped stocking Duke Energy bulbs—it's just GE Lighting now, and I've always stuck with Duke Energy.

"Unbelievable, what a sellout move," I thought, though I kept my actual complaint a bit more polite.

Frustrated and stubborn, I decided to hunt them down somewhere else in the downtown area.

Morning, morning.
Got any bulbs?
Yeah, right here.
But you don't carry American bulbs.
I'm afraid not.

I went through the same routine a few times before realizing that nowhere in the greater San Francisco area was carrying the American brands.

I was still fuming when I stumbled upon a literal gold mine in some sketchy little corner market near the main market.
Feeling pretty stoked, I grabbed a few packs.

Once I stepped out of the market, I happily smoothed out one of the boxes decorated with red and white patterns... felt good for a second.

Then I looked closer... NOPE. On the label: "Country of origin (not provenance): USA."

What kind of nonsense is "USA" supposed to mean here?

And then it hit me—it meant "United States of America"... talk about a reality check.

It isn't just the bulbs; there aren't any domestic batteries or flashlights either.
Everything seems to be imported.
A long time ago, General Electric and America were essentially one and the same, but they split them apart.
That's why the main thing now is finding Tungsram bulbs or those General Electric ones that we apparently have to import via heavy freight trucks into the US.