MINICASE ARE YOU REALLY BUYING AMERICAN? Consider the following scenario of a "typical" American fam work, stopping for gas at the Shell station. At the grocery ily: The Osbornes, Jesse and Ann, live in the suburbs of store, she fills her cart with a variety of items, including Chicago. Jesse is a manager at Trader Joe's specialty grocery Ragu spaghetti sauce, Hellmann's mayonnaise, Carnation store chain. Ann is an advertising executive for Leo Burnett Instant Breakfast drink, a case of Arrowhead water Worldwide. CoffeeMate nondairy coffee creamer, Chicken-of-the-Sea Ann listens to the new Adam Lambert CD on her Alpine canned tuna, Lipton tea, a half-dozen cans of Slim-Fast, car stereo in her Jeep Cherokee while driving home from Dannon yogurt, and several packages of Stouffer's Lean Notes 25 Cuisine frozen dinners and some Hot Pockets. For a treat, Groupe Danone of France produces Dannon yogurt she picks up some Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Toll House cook- ies, and a Butterfinger candy bar. She also grabs several cans of Alpo for their dog, Sassy, and a box of Friskies and a bag of Tidy Cat cat litter for their cat, Lily. She goes down the toilet ries aisle for some Dove soap, Q-tips cotton swabs, Vaseline lip gloss, and Jergen's moisturizing lotion. Before finishing she calls Jesse on her Samsung smartphone to see whether there is anything else he needs. He asks her to pick up some PowerBars for him to take to the gym during his lunchtime workouts next week. She also stops at the bookstore and picks up the new John Grisham book published by Random .Chicken-of-the-Sea tuna is made by Chicken of the Sea - Japan's Kao owns Jergen's. .Samsung smartphones are made by South Korea's .Bertelsmann AG of Germany owns 53 percent of International, which is based in Thailand Samsung. Penquin Random House, and Pearson ple of the UK owns the remaining 47 percent. Societe Bic of France produces Bic pens. Japan's Bridgestone Corporation owns Firestone. House, signing the credit card slip with her Bic pen. . BP of the United Kingdom owns BP gas stations. Columbia Pictures, owned by Sony of Japan, releasecd After leaving his office, Jesse stops at the BP gas station to fill his gas tank and checks the air pressure in his Firestone tires. He heads to the liquor store for a case of Miller Genuine Draft beer and a bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon. He walks next door to the sporting goods store to pick up some the Spiderman movies; Sony Pictures Television distrib- utes Breaking Bad. SABMiller plc of the United Kingdom produces Miller beer Wilson racquetballs for his workouts next week. Ann's favorite TV show, Breaking Bad, is just starting asDavide Jesse comes in the door, so she pours herself a glass of Amer Group of Finland owns Wilson Sporting Goods. definition television while Jesse loads the latest Spiderman installment onto his computer Beringer wine from Napa Valley and turns on their Philips high- s dinner and down- .Beringer Winery of Napa, California, is owned by Wine Estates. prepare Australia's Treasury Philips televisions are sold by Philips of the While this may sound like a very typical evening for many Americans, foreign-owned firms produced nearly every item Netherlands. This simple example reflects the impact of extensive for- eign investments in the United States, especially in recent years. Even some of the best-known "American" products and brands are now produced by foreign firms. the Osbornes purchased or consumed: Trader Joe's is owned by a family trust set up by German businessman Theo Albrecht. .Leo Burnett Worldwide is owned by Publicis of France. Investments have also flowed outward from the United .Sony Music of Japan produces and distributes Adam States. U.S. companies such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Lambert's CDs McDonald's, the Gap, Microsoft, and Levi's are found in Japan, South Korea, China, Australia, Singapore, and nearly every European nati Japan's Alps Electric produces Alpine car stereos. owned by Italy's Fiat. Shell. U.S. companies have also purchased Jeeps are a brand of vehicles made by Chrysler, which is a range of foreign companies and brands. The British-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell owns Questions 1. Should it matter to consumers whether the companies Nestlé of Switzerland produces Alpo, Arrowhead, Butterfinger, Carnation Instant Breakfast, CoffeeMate, Friskies, Hot Pockets, PowerBar, Stouffer's Lean Cuisine, that make their products are based in the consumers home country or not? Explain your rationale. 2. Why has there been almost no negative backlash among Toll House, and Tidy Cat. Unilever, a British-Dutch multinational, makes Slim-Fast. Dove soap, Hellmann's, Ragu, Q-tips, Lipton, Vaseline Americans to the flood of foreign investment into their country? and Ben & Jerry's. Sources: From company websites (February 1, 2014).
