Community Chat

[dulwich]

Just read post about bar codes saying if the first three numbers on bar code begin with 690, 691 or 692 item is made  in China,  00 thro 09 Made in U,S. or Canada, 471 made in Taiwan.

I googled this to see if the above was so and indeed it appears to be correct.

It would seem that out in regular stores this is the way to check where item comes from however online ‘imported’ seems to be the norm.

Just wondering Ladies, just out if interest, do you know how many brands/designer items on QVC are made in U,S,A?

[sunshine45]

you may want to read a snopes article regarding this.

According to this tip, a glance at the first three digits of a product’s bar code will tell you where it was made. Unfortunately, determination of product origins for American consumers isn’t quite as cut and dried as it’s been made to sound here.

First of all, the two- or three-digit country codes referenced above are incorporated into the European Article Number (EAN-13) bar code standard, but not into the UPC-A bar code which is most commonly used in the U.S. Moreover, what those EAN-13 country codes indicate is the country or economic region where a particular bar code was assigned, not necessarily the country where the product identified by that bar code was made.

For example, if a Mexican company imported fruit from Guatemala, then packed and shipped that fruit to Belgium, the country code portion of the final product’s bar code would likely indicate an origin of Mexico rather than Guatemala. In that case the bar coding would be of little help to consumers who (for whatever reason) were desirous of avoiding food products grown in Guatemala.

It may be the case that in some parts of the world there is a fair degree of correlation between assignment of bar codes and product origins (i.e., in some countries the preponderance of bar code assignments may apply to domestic products), but for surefire product origin identification consumers must rely upon other methods. In determining the country of origin of a product sold in the U.S., consumers often still have to rely on the standard method of looking for “Made in [country name]” labels on the packaging.

(clipped from a snopes article....

Can You Determine a Product's Country of Origin by Its Bar Code?

11/26/2014)

[Imaoldhippie]

Its only a guess but I would venture to guess that at least 90% of all goods are manufactured in a foreign county being sold here in the US.  The Q is not the only retailer.