Ramon van Meer sells showerheads made in China and Vietnam.
When President Trump imposed steep tariffs on Asian imports this spring, van Meer decided to find out if it made business sense for his company to shift production to the United States.
"I wanted to see how many people would actually pay for the more expensive, 'Made in the USA' version," van Meer said.
So, he set up an online experiment. On his website, where customers can already choose from a variety of finishes — chrome, nickel or black — for their showerheads, van Meer offered two options: The imported showerhead for $129 and a domestic version costing about $100 more.
How he came up with the price
The higher price for the domestic option was based on what it would cost van Meer to stitch together a supply chain from scratch — one company to handle the plastic molding, another to do the metal plating and a third to supply the special filter that removes chlorine and heavy metals. No single company is making a product like that in the U.S. today, and if van Meer wanted to start, he figured he'd have to charge about 85% more than he currently does for the imported version.
What he found from his experiment could pour cold water on Trump's effort to encourage more domestic manufacturing. The results were not even close. Of the more than 25,000 people who visited the website during the two-week trial, about 600 ordered the imported showerhead. Not a single person clicked on the more expensive, "Made in the USA" model.
"I was surprised, and not surprised," van Meer said. "I was expecting the cheaper, Made-in-Asia [version] to quote-unquote 'win.' But I was not expecting that the results were this off balance. We sold zero 'Made in the USA' versions."
Then there's SaverShower, which is made in the USA
The offerings at a brick-and-mortar hardware store suggest similar buying patterns.
Nearly all of the showerheads on display at an Ace Hardware store outside Washington are made in China. The lone exception is a water-saving version made by Rick Whedon's family business in West Hartford, Conn.
"My dad designed the original SaverShower in 1976," Whedon said proudly. "We were shipping 2,000 showerheads a week out of here because everybody wanted to save energy."
In addition to Ace Hardware, SaverShowers are popular at Menard's, a big home improvement chain in the Midwest.
"Menards buys from us because we had a U.S.-made product and we were the only one they could find," Whedon said. "The Ace buyer told me he doesn't think consumers care at all where a product is made. And I kind of think he's right."
It takes eight local suppliers to make the parts for the all-brass showerhead, and they're getting harder to come by.
"When we started this, there were 300 machine shops in Connecticut that turned brass to make parts," Whedon said. "Today there might be 75."
Whedon's company makes most other models of their showerheads overseas, with the exception of that original, water-saving version.
He's doubtful that Trump's new tariff policy will spark a domestic renaissance in that kind of manufacturing.
"There's nobody in the United States that's going to start making showerheads here, even if the tariff were 250%," Whedon said.
The California irrigation expert turned showerhead maker
Even companies that want to manufacture in the U.S. often struggle to compete.
"We charge a reasonable price for our showerheads," said David Malcolm, a California irrigation expert who turned his water know-how to indoor plumbing about 15 years ago. "If you compare to 'Made in China' showerheads, ours are maybe twice the price.
Malcolm used to buy parts for his showerheads from a machine shop in nearby Merced, but that shop folded when most of its customers went overseas.
"At the time, everything was going to China," Malcolm recalled. "And so little by little, the screw machine shops were disappearing."
Today, Malcolm buys parts from a supplier in Taiwan. His website advertises showerheads "built at our factory in the California mountains from domestic and imported parts."
"If the strategy behind tariffs is to bring industry like the screw machine shops back to the USA, it can't be done on a moment's notice," Malcolm said. "It has to take time."
So far, neither shoppers nor the president have shown the patience for that. Trump temporarily suspended his most punishing tariffs on imports from China after just over a month. And there's no telling what comes next.
"The uncertainty is really bad for business owners," said van Meer, the Texas showerhead marketer. "It's going to be very hard to even plan ahead longer than three months."
Van Meer said he hasn't given up on manufacturing showerheads in the United States. But it's not a high priority. He noted that imported products also help to employ American workers.
"Port employees are being paid. Trucking companies. Warehouse employees," van Meer said. "The conversation lately was only about manufacturing jobs, but not about all of the other jobs that are alive because we can make it in other countries and sell it for a price that people are willing to pay."
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