Brett tried on a pair of “Made in Italy” Ray-Bans at a Sunglass Hut and liked them, but they were the display model so he had to come back to pick up his own a few days later. When he did, he discovered that the real pair he bought said “Made in China,” and in his opinion they felt lower quality. [More]
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USDA Wants To Make Sure That Organic Food From China Is Really Organic
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has banned one of the biggest food inspector groups in the nation from operating in China, reports the New York Times, because of conflict of interest concerns. It turns out the Organic Crop Improvement Association (OCIA) was using employees of a Chinese government agency to inspect Chinese government-owned farms, which sort of misses the point of independent certification entirely. [More]
GM, Tengzhong Close To Hummer Brand Sale
So long, Hummer. Sort of. GM and Chinese company Tengzhong are closer to their deal to sell the Hummer brand.
Macy's Confirms It Never Did Business With Queens Sweatshop
Last week, news broke that a sweatshop in Queens, NYC was producing clothing for several large U.S. retailers, while overworking its mainly Chinese immigrant employees and cheating them out of wages. At the time, Macy’s announced it was cooperating with New York’s Department of Labor and investigating the matter internally. Now the company has confirmed that it never did business with the sweatshop—in fact, it investigated it twice in 2007 while evaluating potential suppliers and rejected it for shoddy record keeping. Use your crazy Macy’s coupons all you want, readers.
Chinese Fake Harry Potter Is Awesome; Also A Dragon
Officials might consider counterfeit Chinese “translations” of copyrighted work illegal, but we like to think of them as the marketplace’s version of outsider art; it’s like fanfic and Lulu.com got together and opened up a bookstore in Shanghai. The New York Times teases its readers with awesome excerpts from a handful of recent Harry Potter knockoffs, with titles far better than the real ones:
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Harry Potter and the Chinese Porcelain Doll
Harry Potter and the Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon
Harry Potter and the Chinese Overseas Students at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry