No, France isn't a friend to this country, and it's not complicated in the least given decades of political backstabbing. It's right there slapping you upside the head! Because of that, I rarely buy French goods on the primary market, and it's been that way, for my family, since 1986 when I canceled a trip to France. When I buy Hermes, Limoges china, Cartier jewelry or French fragrances, it's from the secondary market. The only thing I've purchased recently (last February) was an LV Babylone tote, and I'm now avoiding the company again for a wide variety of reasons.
I really don't see what's so strange about politics entering the handbag arena. Whether it's the treatment of animals used for furs and exotic skins, counterfeiting, child labor laws, countries that cheat with exchange rates and offer sweetheart deals...it's all related to handbags in the end--especially now with the pricepoints going nutty.
Like I said though, I really don't get why consumers don't care where their money goes, and why they'll gladly pay $600 for a purse that cost $20 to make and ship to the U.S. warehouse.
Before responding to your points I would like to request this discussion to go along a peaceful path as much as possible - people may have a lot of reasons to be frustrated, but let's not get too excited when it's actually not necessary,
I do not share the same point of view on this 'friend to a country' idea. Countries are not individuals. Countries go after profits and benefits, and friendship among countries is illusion. At different times a country may have different goals or benefits to go after, and other countries may or may not share the same goals; for the ones that share the same concerns or benefits, they cooperate, and call each other friend. However, this is not a binding long-term life-time relationship like marriage. (Well, even for marriages now there is the choice of divorce available, which shows that probably nothing is as solid any more.) When they do not share the same cause any more, or they find their causes become apart, even against the other's benefits, they break up. Every country has its own concerns and needs, and most of the time they can cooperate on some things but argue over other things. To put an expectation of unconditional friendship is unrealistic when talking about international politics.
According to what you said, France is not a friend of the U.S. either. May I dare to deduce that based on the same standard probably there are many other countries that do not totally agree with the benefits of the U.S. waiting to be screened as friends or non-friends? In that case, may we all keep a list of 'friend' countries and boycott all the others that do not qualify based on the same standard? I feel it might be much simpler if we just say, 'ok, Made in USA only now.' That may be the only safe and reliable solution to avoid running into the accident of benefiting the non-friends.
Another thing I find a little strange is that buying goods that are made by the 'non-friend' countries from secondary markets is acceptable. It does not make too much difference in my opinion - your money goes to the secondary market, and the secondary market paid the money to the original manufacturers, then where does your money go? It's not solid to say that in this way you are carefully managing your money so that it does not go to the non-friends.
As for the problems of animal treatment and labor protection, I feel that there might be some exaggeration in the actual ratio of factories doing that. I do not deny they happen; but how often and is there any improvement over time? My knowledge tells me that when capitalism first started blood factories were very common in Europe. The savageness goes away over time. For the countries that are still developing, it's true that we need to bring these problems into attention, but we also need to recognize it's not because those countries or those people are just greedy and evil. It's a long way to reach the modern civilization. Probably the U.S. and the Europe are ahead, but it does not mean that they didn't come from the same path. Personally I would rather give the developing countries more understanding and patience, and make some noise from time to time, but not prejudice, or even hatred.
Anyway, I respect people's choice of buying or not buying things from a certain country. My original question was purely a question to understand why some people prefer one way. Now I think I have some idea. Although I feel I am not convinced by those reasons and thus I won't change my own preference, I do not have the intention or motivation to ask other people to accept my idea.
ush:...and the sad thing is, you're exactly correct.