Vermont Teddy Bears - not as USA anymore?

After a gap of a few years, my wife and I traveled to the New England area to see the fall colors. I have always enjoyed going to Vermont/New Hampshire area (have been there 4-5 times now). The natural landscape is spectacular, especially during this season, the people are very friendly, and more importantly, the area still carries a lot of rustic charm that seems to be eroding in the urban areas. If anyone wants to visit the 'real' USA, at least as imagined based on past classics that are still popular in India such as Archie comics, this area is a great place to start.

Our trip was quite productive, with lots and lots of fall colors everywhere and the weather cooperated beautifully. We tried to go through as many of the local roads as possible, hoping to catch a glimpse of the fall colors in all its splendor. Ironically, I felt the colors were far more vibrant along the interstates (especially I-89 and I-91) than the local roads. One exception was the loop of Burlington-Hanksville-Waitsfield-Waterbury, which was amazingly beautiful with extremely vibrant colors - I highly recommend the drive.

I have always been pleasantly surprised by the ingenuity and local entrepreneurship in this region, the two most famous being the Ben & Jerry ice cream company and the Vermont Teddy Bear Company. In the face of increasing globalization, these two companies seemed to stand bravely, protecting the American brand proudly. However, during this time, I had a bit of a shock to find both these thoughts shattered somewhat.

Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Founded by two friends a few decades back, B&J was awarded the "Small business persons of the country" award a way back. The guys started the company small and grew fairly big. I was quite disappointed to hear that the company is now owned by Unilever - a fairly huge conglomerate of companies.

While they still seem to do their best to keep the 'local' flavor of the company alive, I cannot but help feel that commercialization has taken over this company as well. Thankfully, the ice cream still tastes the same :)

Vermont Teddy Bear
This is probably my biggest disappointment and the reason for this post. As some of you may or may not know, "teddy bear" got its name from a cartoon depicting "Theodore "teddy" Roosevelt", former American President, an avid game hunter, who could not bear himself to shoot a cub tied to a tree (by his cohorts, as he was not getting any wild animal that day).

Since then, teddy bears became quite popular. One day, a person named John Sortino wanted to get a teddy bear for his son and found that he could not buy one that was made in USA, thereby starting his own company to make some.

The company has prided itself in its small-town values and 'Made in USA' brand. Having been deluged every day with products from Asia, I was happy to do my bit to promote local products and suggested to my wife that she get herself a bear, even though it was slightly over-priced (fair enough, since they don't mass produce stuff and the quality is good).

Here came the shocker. In the "build-a-bear" section of the company, half of the options were 'imported' (read 'made in Vietnam')! The other half were all a new type of bear concept called 'Flattie' - which honestly, looked as if a Teddy Bear was put under a steamroller.

There was absolutely no decent 'made in USA' option that we could buy. As I looked at others around me, including all the children, everyone was making a beeline for the 'imported' options, as they looked more like teddy bears and less like flattened pancakes.

Worse, there was a 'charity' bear (buy 1 and they give another to the local fireman's association or something similar). I was quite impressed and thought I'll get one of those - only to find that they were also not made in USA!

I mean, why promote the company as "made in USA" when half the options are not so and the ones available look nowhere like teddy bears? Calling them 'exchange students' and 'imported' does not make it any better or glorified. It's still not made in USA.

I still pressed forward and picked up a 'flattie' hoping that when stuffed it'll look somewhat like a bear - no dice. It still was as flat (esp. the nose/mouth area) as it was put under a steamroller.

At the end of the day, I walked back with a heavy heart, light wallet (the 'imported' ones were the same price as the 'local' ones), and a flattened bear - not the feeling I was hoping for. I am sad that yet another 'local' company has succumbed to the globalization.

UPDATE: A day after I posted the blog, Wendy from the company was kind enough to respond to the post and clarify some of my statements. As she mentions, the issue I had was mainly with the "friend for life" section of the factory and not the entire store itself. There are definitely a lot of authentic bears to choose from. It also appears that the 'flatties' are available only in the store and not elsewhere. I am definitely very impressed with the courtesy of the staff as well as their professionalism and wish them the very best in future. Oh, did I also mention that all teddy bears have a 'life-time' guarantee (except if you put your teddy in a dryer)?! That's something you don't see anywhere else.