Towns where they make things you can't buy there

[kphoger]

As many of you know, I've spent quite a bit of time in the town of Parras, Coahuila, Mexico.  Until operations were shut down during COVID, there was a Dickies factory in that town, yet it was all strictly for export.  There was no store anywhere it town that sold Dickies clothing.  (It's now a La-Z-Boy factory, and I kind of suspect there's no store that sells La-Z-Boy furniture either...)

Similarly, for a brief time, I had a temp job at a Circuit City distribution center in Marion, Illinois.  I was loading 48-foot trailers floor to ceiling, nose to tail, full of Circuit City merchandise–and yet there wasn't a Circuit City retail store for miles around.

What other, better, examples are there of something like that?

[NWI_Irish96]

Jack Daniels is produced in a dry county.

[roadman65]

Hershey sort of. Yes you can buy Chocolate there, but for more than what's in your local retail store in your home town.  So yes you can buy Hershey products at the Hershey Chocolate World, but not at the average market price as the average retail outlet.

[Takumi]

From 2014 to 2017, the Mercedes R-class was built in the US, but only sold in China. (However, it had been sold worldwide in previous years, so I'm not sure if that fits.) Numerous other auto makers built cars in the US for export with various options not available in the US.

[kphoger]

Hershey sort of. Yes you can buy Chocolate there, but for more than what's in your local retail store in your home town.  So yes you can buy Hershey products at the Hershey Chocolate World, but not at the average market price as the average retail outlet.

I just did an online comparison on the cost of a Hershey's bar:

GIANT grocery store, Hershey (PA) – $1.59
Dillon's grocery store, Wichita (KS) – $1.49

That doesn't exactly sound like a huge difference to me.

[Dirt Roads]

When I worked in Miami, I was stunned when a delivery truck pulled up to a cosmo salad cafe in Downtown and stocked up the restaurant with say 40 cases of tofu produced by Spring Creek Soy Dairy in Spencer, West Virginia.  Other than perhaps a piece or two of tofu that might pop up in the hot and sour soup at the local Peking Restaurant, I seriously doubt you can get tofu anywhere within a 50-mile radius (or more) around Spencer.  But Spencer is THE place to go if you want to get some good black walnuts.

[Dirt Roads]

This is so mean.  They make NGK spark plugs in Sissonville, West Virginia but there hasn't been an auto parts store in town in at least 40 years.  There is an Advance Auto Parts on the other side of Pocatalico, which is across the main road from the "new" Sissonville High School some four miles south of town.  I might be wrong, but it doesn't look like there are any shops in Sissonville anymore. 

[Rothman]

Hershey sort of. Yes you can buy Chocolate there, but for more than what's in your local retail store in your home town.  So yes you can buy Hershey products at the Hershey Chocolate World, but not at the average market price as the average retail outlet.

Because there are no supermarkets in Hershey?  This doesn't ring true.

[roadman65]

Hershey sort of. Yes you can buy Chocolate there, but for more in price than what’s in your local retail store in your home town.  So yes you can buy Hershey products at the Hershey Chocolate World, but not at the average market price as the average retail outlet.

Because there are no supermarkets in Hershey?  This doesn't ring true.

The Chocolate  World facility is the de facto store for the factory since 1971, when the factory store closed.  It sells the products more in price than even the East Derry Township supermarkets, which I include as outside the realm as inside means in the world of Hershey.

Anyway this topic is gone on long enough. 

[Rothman]

Hershey sort of. Yes you can buy Chocolate there, but for more in price than what's in your local retail store in your home town.  So yes you can buy Hershey products at the Hershey Chocolate World, but not at the average market price as the average retail outlet.

Because there are no supermarkets in Hershey?  This doesn't ring true.

The Chocolate  World facility is the de facto store for the factory since 1971, when the factory store closed.  It sells the products more in price than even the East Derry Township supermarkets, which I include as outside the realm as inside means in the world of Hershey.

Anyway this topic is gone on long enough.

Sure, it's the store for the factory, but, as pointed out by others, there are other places to buy Hershey's chocolate in Hershey for expected prices.  So, given the OP's intention, Hershey and its chocolate doesn't fit the bill.

[formulanone]

Jack Daniels is produced in a dry county.

We last visited the distillery in 2011; they would sell filled special edition decanters (naturally, at higher prices) but there's no tasting room and you can't just get a $20 bottle to go. The story goes that Jack Daniels employees could receive them as year-end gifts.

I think they made up some nonsense how they can't repeal their dry county status but my guess is that they just don't want a bunch of drunks driving around the area.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Jack Daniels is produced in a dry county.

We last visited the distillery in 2011; they would sell filled special edition decanters (naturally, at higher prices) but there's no tasting room and you can't just get a $20 bottle to go. The story goes that Jack Daniels employees could receive them as year-end gifts.

I think they made up some nonsense how they can't repeal their dry county status but my guess is that they just don't want a bunch of drunks driving around the area.

Yeah, the Jack Daniel's distillery is in a dry county but it is still possible to purchase some of their products there as the law making Moore County dry gives them an exception to sell various promotional and "commemorative" items.

[abefroman329]

As many of you know, I've spent quite a bit of time in the town of Parras, Coahuila, Mexico.  Until operations were shut down during COVID, there was a Dickies factory in that town, yet it was all strictly for export.  There was no store anywhere it town that sold Dickies clothing.  (It's now a La-Z-Boy factory, and I kind of suspect there's no store that sells La-Z-Boy furniture either...)

This reminds me, when we went to Colombia, we were told that the best coffee beans were exported, but the coffee I drank was still off the chain.

Back on topic, nothing springs to mind other than the aforementioned distilleries in dry counties.  I guess it's possible that states with recreational cannabis would have grow operations in a city/county/what-have-you that doesn't also have a dispensary.

[kphoger]

Hershey sort of. Yes you can buy Chocolate there, but for more in price than what's in your local retail store in your home town.  So yes you can buy Hershey products at the Hershey Chocolate World, but not at the average market price as the average retail outlet.

Because there are no supermarkets in Hershey?  This doesn't ring true.

The Chocolate  World facility is the de facto store for the factory since 1971, when the factory store closed.  It sells the products more in price than even the East Derry Township supermarkets, which I include as outside the realm as inside means in the world of Hershey.

Anyway this topic is gone on long enough.

Sure, it's the store for the factory, but, as pointed out by others, there are other places to buy Hershey's chocolate in Hershey for expected prices.  So, given the OP's intention, Hershey and its chocolate doesn't fit the bill.

Exactly.  Thank you.  After all, the very first word of the topic is "Towns".  Hershey is a town.  Hershey's Chocolate World is not.

[J N Winkler]

I used to own a 1986 Nissan Maxima which was manufactured (as I learned by decoding the VIN) at a Nissan factory in Oppama, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan.  One would not have been able to buy it there (except possibly through a single-vehicle-import process) because it was US-spec with the steering wheel on the left.

[hbelkins]

A Lion Uniform factory reopened here several months ago. I don't think you can buy firefighting gear locally.

[Bruce]

One cannot just walk into Boeing's factories in Everett and Renton and buy a plane. Have to go through the corporate sellouts in Chicago (soon to be Virginia) first.

[Scott5114]

One cannot just walk into Boeing's factories in Everett and Renton and buy a plane. Have to go through the corporate sellouts in Chicago (soon to be Virginia) first.

I would imagine if you bought enough of them, they would probably let you close the deal in Everett, even if they had to fly some exec in from Virginia to do it.

[J N Winkler]

Another example locally famous in Wichita is Dean and DeLuca, the gourmet grocer.  Their world headquarters is in town but with the exception of very short-lived pop-ups, they have never had a store locally.  The closest, which has now closed, was in Leawood in the middle of Johnson County big money, and even that was an outlier because most of their other stores were in alpha world cities.

[formulanone]

I used to own a 1986 Nissan Maxima which was manufactured (as I learned by decoding the VIN) at a Nissan factory in Oppama, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan.  One would not have been able to buy it there (except possibly through a single-vehicle-import process) because it was US-spec with the steering wheel on the left.

I think the U11 chassis code Maxima was still sold in Japan, but as another model called the Bluebird. Quite a sharp-looking car for its time which has aged well!

There's a lot of auto plants in which the dealership to purchase them would usually be in another city. The Detroit area might be an exception to the rule, but many modern facilities are out in rural areas due to zoning, noise concerns, et cetera.

[J N Winkler]

I think the U11 chassis code Maxima was still sold in Japan, but as another model called the Bluebird. Quite a sharp-looking car for its time which has aged well!

The Bluebird name was used in other markets as well, such as Britain.

It was a sweet car.  Although very few specimens made it to 200,000 miles without a rebuilt automatic transmission, I managed to avoid an overhaul by changing the fluid every 30,000 miles or so (not a required service or one for which instructions were given in the FSM, though the third-party Haynes book explained how).  It had good NVH characteristics for its time.  The VG30E engine, later used in Nissan pickups, was well-nigh indestructible.

It did have one weakness--triple-layer welds at the back of the rear wheel arches.  That was where rust started, and I ended up donating the car after 22 years and 227,000 miles.  By that point it had been to 44 states (all of the lower 48 except Wisconsin, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida), four Canadian provinces, two Mexican states, and all five boroughs of New York City.

[ErmineNotyours]

Several pinball manufacturers were located in Chicago in the mid-20th century when that city had a pinball ban.

Savers, the company that runs thrift store Value Village locally has a signed corporate building in Bellevue.  There is no way there could be a Value Village in Bellevue, Washington.

[Bruce]

Several pinball manufacturers were located in Chicago in the mid-20th century when that city had a pinball ban.

Savers, the company that runs thrift store Value Village locally has a signed corporate building in Bellevue.  There is no way there could be a Value Village in Bellevue, Washington.

Plenty of wealthy areas have (rather good) thrift stores...the Issaquah Value Village is a treasure trove compared to the ones elsewhere in the region. There's a few in Overlake that fall in Bellevue's city limits as well as a Goodwill just a block away on the Redmond side.

[Rothman]

Several pinball manufacturers were located in Chicago in the mid-20th century when that city had a pinball ban.

Savers, the company that runs thrift store Value Village locally has a signed corporate building in Bellevue.  There is no way there could be a Value Village in Bellevue, Washington.

Heh.  Banning pinball...'cause we've got trouble, right here in River City, it starts will T which rhymes with P and that stands for pinball!