buying australian-made is not easy...but not impossible

when i set about starting up giftboxology there was one thing that i never doubted - EVERYTHING we sold has to be australian-made. buying australian-made is something that i am very passionate about.  i'm all for free trade and buying fairtrade but it disturbs me that so many products are all made overseas now. especially clothes and toys.

i visited a toy shop with my son a few months back, we had a lovely browse about the store (well my son did, i spent most of the time watching him to make sure nothing was broken and placed back everything back where it should be after he had toddled off to the next object that took his fancy)...

anyway i approached the toy shop counter to inquire with the sales assistants and our conversation when something like this:

"hi there, just wondering if you could tell me which toys here are made in Australia?"  
"australian toys?"
"yes, do you have any Australian toys?" (um, yes, toys made HERE IN AUSTRALIA?! is that such a weird request i thought!)
"ah no, none of those here"
"ok, thanks, bye"

it was then that we left the store, me feeling disappointed, my son happy enough for playing with the toys (he's still too young to really care if they are his to take home)

why should we have to ask where the australian-made toys are? why are there NONE in the toy stores?

lucky we have lots of great people making beautiful things here in australia. who knows, maybe one-day they will be even stocked in the local toy shop.

i still find it astounding that toy shops in australia have NO TOYS MADE IN AUSTRALIA!? how absurd - are all the australian toys in the chinese toy shops? 

until then we can thank our lucky stars that we have the following:

www.madeit.com.au
www.chunkychooky.com
www.bris-style.com

and of course giftboxology when we open our cyber doors next week

x