JUST SAY NO: Coach Handbags

Okay. Take a deep breath.

Look closely at the first three photos.
These are the Coach bags that I own which I was able to get my hands on quickly (for the purpose of this rant). I rotate them, depending on the season and their wear, blah blah blah, so some are put away. On all three of these, you can see that they are "handcrafted in China". Click on the photo if you need a larger image to read. I want us to be on the same page, here. I bought each of these bags at a Coach store in Philadelphia, so I know they are authentic. That is not the question. The question is: Why am I such a tool?

Each of these bags cost at least $200 and I love them all. They are nicely made, beautiful leather, and I ass-u-med that they were made, if not in the United States, at least in Italy (country of beautiful leather crafts). Nope. Little sweatshop Chinese sisters made these while making meager wages so the big American Corporation could increase its greedy profits.




Now, look at these photos. As you can see, they, too, are made in China. The mustard-colored bag was $16 and the Ralph Lauren bag was probably around $20.

They were probably all made by the same little Chinese sweatshop hands. The difference is that the latter two companies are not trying to suck the very marrow out of American wallets.

Did Coach trick me? Did the company present its goods as made locally or in (at least) an industrialized European nation that I would consider visiting? No, they were very up front about the whole toolage situation. They dangled a lead-laden (pure speculation on my part) handbag in front of my status-conscious eyeballs and let me do the rest.

Well, the veil of ignorance has been lifted. Here is the amount of money that I will spend in the future on any and all Coach products: ZERO AMERICAN-ASS DOLLARS.