My colleague Suzanne Kapner covers retail, and recently she wrote about one particular shirt sold at Walmart.
It showed up in stores last summer for the Fourth of July.
Can you describe the shirt?
Sure.
It's a hundred percent cotton T shirt.
It has the words American made on the front, and there's a little American flag patch near the hem on the bottom.
At first glance, it looks like any other patriotic T shirt.
What stood out to Suzanne, though, were two things.
First, the shirt's price, $12.98, and second, its origins.
What's remarkable is that it was entirely made in the United States.
The cotton was grown here, it was ginned, it was dyed, it was sewn.
All in the U.S.
is that unusual.
To see an inexpensive item of clothing made in America?
It is very unusual these days, yes.
There's been a lot of talk about trying to move more manufacturing back to the US President elect Donald Trump has proposed sweeping policy changes to try to make that happen.
Everything from 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada to upending trade deals.
But getting more things made here can be complicated, and no one knows that better than the guy who got that T shirt on the rack in the first place.
Did you think that you would make a T shirt in America that sells for $13?
If you asked me that a year and a half ago, I would have said no way.