Duke Energy light bulbs - twice as frustrating!

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.

I mean, I always look for them first. Every single time. Even with all those GE products flooding the shelves, I’m sticking with our brands. Why wouldn't I? The price is basically identical anyway.
Let me double-check... yeah, you can still find them in stores in Indianapolis and Columbus.

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.

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.

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

China basically dominates the lightbulb market because they’ve got these massive factories churning them out for dozens of different brands at once...
it drives the costs way down, so honestly, you might as well just grab what works instead of obsessing over buying "Made in America" everything.

Richard Lewis16 said:China basically dominates the lightbulb market because they’ve got these massive factories churning them out for dozens of different brands at once...
it drives the costs way down, so honestly, you might as well just grab what works instead of obsessing over buying "Made in America" everything.

Where on earth are you getting your info?

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.

Welcome to the era of globalization!

I spent years in the import-export business, which meant I was constantly on the move, traveling all over 🙂
You’d be surprised by how much you pick up while trekking through places like China or Thailand... honestly, it’s pretty wild seeing just how many Americans show up in those parts, too

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

It still looks like they’re just "manufacturing" (buying) everything from China—I mean, why else would the boxes say "Country of Origin: PRC"?

I'm pretty sure it isn't the "People's Republic of China"... 😁

Maybe they should just rename themselves "The Hardware Store."

I suppose I also tend to buy American products...

But globalization is doing what it does. Manufacturing lightbulbs locally has become far too expensive, yet if we lose our domestic production entirely, we really ought to support an American brand.

I always hunt for deals, honestly... it just feels so much more worthwhile than settling for anything made here in America.

Richard Lewis16 said:China basically dominates the lightbulb market because they’ve got these massive factories churning them out for dozens of different brands at once...
it drives the costs way down, so honestly, you might as well just grab what works instead of obsessing over buying "Made in America" everything.

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..

General Electric is just your textbook privatization disaster story from this part of the country. It’s the same old script: you use political connections and backroom deals to buy up a factory in Washington, D.C. for pennies on the dollar, shut down all production, toss the workers out on the street, and then flip the real estate for a hundred times what you originally paid. The "business" stays alive through a tiny office where the only employees are ghosts and a secretary who occasionally answers the phone just to say the director is away on business. It’s the classic American privatization playbook from the San Francisco era.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Amy Patel5 said: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.

Maybe you could elaborate on that a bit more.