foreign trade – Home Front with Cynthia Davis

You are voting with your pocketbook

10813158-large — Dennis Nett/The Post-StandardThe former Muench-Kreuzer candle factory on Syracuse’s North Side is being converted into 40 apartments and some commercial space by developer Cosimo Zavaglia. His company paid $80,000 for the 60,000 square foot building at 617 E. Hiawatha Boulevard. Zavaglia plans to spend about $3 million on the project. He said the apartments will be ready for occupancy in August.

You can tell what a person values by looking at his credit card statement. We vote with our wallets every day for what we think is important. Does anyone remember about 20 years ago when Walmart boasted about selling “Made in the USA” products? If you are too young to remember, you will have to take my word for it.

People like the price of Chinese-made goods, but when our factories go out of business, we act surprised. This Christmas season when I attempted to place my Christmas candle order, here is what I found:

Syracuse used to have a thriving candle manufacturing industry with five candle companies. Two brothers — Alexis and Norbert Muench — started Muench-Kreuzer in 1925. They were executives at another local candle company — Will & Baumer. Will & Baumer had been in the Syracuse area since 1855, but moved to Tennessee in 2009 to become a candle importer.