Is Made in America important to your customers? Or do they really care where a product is manufactured?

To a few of our customers, Made in America is important; to most of them it doesn't make a difference. We have a section called Mountain Artisans that features West Virginia products made here. Personally, I would like to see more goods that are made in America, even though 40 to 50 percent of our products are made in the U.S. Besides the West Viriginian artisans, we also carry Wilton Armetale, made in Pennsylvania; pottery that's made in Louisiana; and throws from Kentucky. Our stationery and invitation business is all U.S. made, from companies like Crane's. We also carry products from Poland, Taiwan, France, Argentina, New Zealand, and Italy. We have European foods in the gourmet area and people are very interested in those. It's the appeal of having something from another country that makes them so popular.

Made in America is a kind of perk, if you will. Everyone likes to support something made in the U.S. But most people are not willing to pay a higher price if its made here. That's just the way our society is right now, we're very price-conscious. During the [Iraq] war I heard lots of mention of people boycotting things made in France, but that was short lived. For the most part, people don't ask where a product is made, but we'll tell them if it's from Italy, France, England, or the U.S. But so much of the merchandise comes from India, China, or Indonesia that if customers don't ask, we don't mention it. We are avoiding certain merchandise, depending on where it's made. We aren't buying as much Middle East-looking merchandise, because I think people are sensitive about it.

We haven't really found that our customers are concerned. We haven't had many inquiries about where a product is made. Parchment isn't a store that deals a lot with local artisan merchandise, it's more about manufactured product. We also don't promote any items based on where they're made, but I'd say that about 60 to 70 percent of it is probably made overseas. We do hardly any direct importing, although I do deal with a couple of Canadian companies and one in France. But we mostly work with American distributors. Certainly it seems that more and more product is made overseas, but in many cases I don't even look to see where something was made.

Because Soiree is a luxury shop specializing in French- and European-made products, it matters to me. And it matters to my customers, too. I really try to avoid things made in China. However, more and more companies, including some French ones, are starting to manufacture in China. But I try to avoid those. For many years I'd buy exclusively French- or French-related products. Now we carry a wider range of luxury goods. Still, it really does matter. A couple of years ago I stocked some tableware from a French company that manufactured in Nepal. Customers would turn over the "French" plate and ask why was it made in Nepal. They were specifically looking for French-made products, and were disappointed.