Saw this post on Reddit and thought it was interesting to see someone’s experience.
I’ve been trying for a few months to get rid of any stuff made out of EU (even before it was mainstream lol), and here are my conclusions at the moment:
Groceries: It’s pretty easy. I try to go to local stores, but if I need to go to a supermarket, I go to Carrefour, Mercadona or Froiz, all european, and I’ve reached to the point that EVERYTHING I buy is european (mostly spanish, portuguese, french or italian).
Clothes: This has been tricky. To buy sneakers has been more dificult than I thought it would be. There are a lot of european brands that actually make it’s products in China, Bangladesh, etc., so I had to look very close. Finally, I buyed Victoria sneakers and I’m very happy with them. For shoes and boots, Pikolinos is a very good brand also. Miguel Bellido shirts are very good as well.
Furniture: Well, Ikea is the obvious choice, but I do preffer to buy on spanish and portuguese stores that also have prety good quality for a good price, like Lufe.
Sports: Only sport that I play is climbing, and my last pair of climbing shoes are Tenaya Ra, and I couldn’t be happier with them. La Sportiva has amazing products also, being italian and as far as I know, still manufacture in Italy.
Technology: Oh man, this is a pain… I don’t want to throw away my iPhone 13 mini until it’s done, but when the time comes, I don’t know if there are going to be any alternatives. Fairphone, probably, but the components are also from China, right? And anyway, I will struggle with a big phone, which I hate. In PC I can move from Windows to Linux, but the mayority of the PC parts would be made in USA.
Good news is that the only USA page that I actually visit is Reddit, as I don’t have Instagram, facebook or any other social media. Bad news is that it will be virtually impossible to leave Whatsapp.
Well, this is it, I guess that all of you are struggling with the same, being the technology the real issue, cause the rest is pretty easy to find alternatives even better.
My faith in Europe has risen since few months back, and I hope it’s not too late for us to being able to compete in this new world that is emerging, where if you depend on any way on USA or China, you’re lost.
A hug from Spain to all of you, european brothers. And sorry for my poor english.
Regarding furniture second hand seems like the way to go in my opinion. Assuming of course one has the ability to transport things.
Often one can find much better quality for lower prices, simply because people want to get rid of it for one reason or the other. And furniture is also one of the products where it seem easier to asses the condition of compared to other things, compared to others that might have hidden issues.
Second-hand is the way to go for a lot of things, IMO. Even tech and clothing, IMO, should be second-hand first.
Refurbished phones and laptops are great, and you can find lots of very well maintained clothing for relatively cheap on second-hand online platforms such as Vinted (which is European).
Most things in general should be second-hand first, IMHO.
True, I just find it particularly interesting for furniture. Tech in my experience is more mixed.
Refurbished with warranty is a good choice, particularly for something like a used business laptop. But in the person to person second-hand market I find that people usually have unrealistic price expectations for older tech and you also run a higher risk of hidden flaws that you can’t see before purchase.
As for second hand clothing I admittedly have little experience, but that is partially down to the fact that I tend to wear my pieces for a very long time. And then often want to purchase a few identical things at the same time. Which i assume is harder to find second-hand.
Yup, very much so. You can find similar or even the same models for sale, but it’s hard to find them all at the same time. Sizing can also be an issue, for example. It’s definitely less convenient. However, if you ever want to buy some clothes, I really do recommend at least checking it out.
Admittedly, I’ve never had to buy furniture, so I can’t comment on that particular aspect of it. I have seen those videos of people flipping old furniture though, so I assume there’s a market for that kind of thing, at least.
You can also buy technology second hand. That’s a way to avoid giving money outside your country.
And clothes! I buy my socks and underwear new, usually from Ukraine, and all of my other clothes in the past 20 years have always been second hand. Has worked very well.