It's quality over low cost for U.S. clothing manufacturing
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.8 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 19 August 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
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Summary
Many garment factories have shuttered amid a decades-long decline in U.S. apparel production, and tariffs won't be enough to bring them back. But higher-end, higher-quality clothing can still be made at a profit stateside. Today, we'll take lessons from one suit factory in New Bedford, Massachusetts. But first: Home Depot reported disappointing profits this morning, and more retailers are having to weigh price costs, dwindling warehouse inventories, and price-conscious consumers.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You can still make clothes in the United States at a profit. |
| 0:06.7 | I'm David Brancaccio in Los Angeles. First, big retailers are coming out with their spring and the summer results. |
| 0:13.0 | One bellwether for the economy is Home Depot, which posted disappointing profits today. |
| 0:17.5 | And some of that is the flagging state of the real estate market. Marketplaces Nancy |
| 0:22.1 | Marshall-Gensur reports. Home Depot reported second quarter earnings and revenue below analysts' |
| 0:27.8 | expectations. It says total sales for the quarter were about $45 billion. Home Depot's CEO says |
| 0:34.6 | its customers are focused on smaller home improvement projects. Consumers are |
| 0:39.4 | putting off home purchases. Those who already own homes are delaying big jobs like kitchen and |
| 0:45.4 | bathroom remodeling as they wait for interest rates to come down. Home Depot is focusing more on |
| 0:51.1 | professional contractors. Lowe's is set to report its second quarter earnings |
| 0:55.5 | tomorrow. So is Target. Its first quarter sales were dragged down by weak consumer spending and a |
| 1:01.7 | boycott by consumers upset that Target was ending some of its diversity initiatives. Walmart is |
| 1:07.8 | set to report earnings Thursday. Last spring, it said it would pass the cost of tariffs onto consumers. |
| 1:14.7 | I'm Nancy Marshall Genser for Marketplace. |
| 1:18.2 | Staying on Home Depot results, let's turn to Larry Adam, |
| 1:21.7 | chief investment officer at Raymond James. |
| 1:24.1 | If you listen to what they said on their earnings, |
| 1:26.6 | basically they said that they really haven't |
| 1:28.1 | raised prices yet because they had previously imported a lot of goods prior to the tariffs, |
| 1:33.9 | but they did say that these price increases are coming. And that's why I think the earnings |
| 1:38.7 | reports that will continue this week, whether coming from Target or Walmart, we're going to have |
| 1:43.1 | a clear focus on what they're |
... |
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