Buy Local at Walmart?
Walmart draws a fair share of accusations across small-town America. Among them: Walmart sells low-priced merchandise from China and forces local retailers out of business.
As a well-known spokesperson for thankless, dirty jobs, Mike Rowe recently took some of the flak for Walmart when he voiced a commercial announcing the mega-retailer’s pledge to buy $250 billion of U.S.-made products over the next 10 years.
Sonja Ropp of the Urbana Walmart store holds two of the American Baking Classics products made by Bundy Baking Solutions.
Responding to the negative comments left on his Facebook page and explaining why he did the spot, Rowe wrote:
“Dozens of American factories are going to reopen all over the country. Millions of dollars will pour straight into local economies, and hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing positions will need to be filled.
“There’s a lot of merchandise currently in Walmart that’s manufactured right here in the USA.”
Made in USA – in Urbana
Did you know that the Urbana Walmart store sells products that are manufactured right here – in Urbana, Ohio?
If not, don’t feel bad.
When I asked Sonja Ropp, Urbana Walmart zone merchandising supervisor, if I could snap a photo of her holding an American Bakeware Classics brand 12-cup muffin pan and half sheet pan, she was surprised. And not just by my request.
Until I told her, she had no idea that the products, and others on the shelves behind her, were made by Urbana’s own Bundy Baking Solutions.
The world’s leading baking corporations have long recognized Bundy for the quality and durability of its commercial baking pans and associated products. Now home bakers are discovering Bundy’s quality through the American Bakeware Classics consumer line, made since 2013 for Walmart.
Wendi Ebbing, marketing manager for Bundy, says that the company makes other consumer brands, such as USA Pan, for retailers that include Williams-Sonoma, Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.
“We are known as experts in manufacturing baking pans and we’re thrilled to bring the same quality that commercial bakers have come to appreciate into the home,” Ebbing said.
What other Champaign County-manufactured products are available at local retail stores?
Share your answers in the comments section below.
And stay tuned for upcoming posts.
Today’s bonus: A downtown Urbana retailer shares her view of Walmart at the end of a previous Champaign Uncorked! post. It may not be what you’d expect.
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