French stores routinely advertise that their products are “made in France”. While this is hardly unusual, Dalrymple notices something else:
…neither the supermarket nor the do-it-yourself store would advertise their wares as “Made in Europe.” Marketers tend to know their customers, and they know that such a slogan would entice no one. Indeed, it would probably raise suspicion that something second-rate or botched together was being palmed off on the public. It is true that nowadays you sometimes buy things that tell you only that they were “made in the EU,” but they tend to be the kind of products, such as rubbers or kitchen towels in whose origins no one is much interested.