How We Verify Made in USA
Plenty of sites will put a flag icon on a product. This page explains exactly what our US-origin claim is based on, where the data comes from, and what we do when it turns out to be wrong.
Where the origin data comes from
Country of origin on every listing is the value reported by the manufacturer or the master distributor in their published product data — the same field their own compliance teams certify to. We do not infer origin from a brand name, a company headquarters, or an assembly location.
What we do when suppliers disagree
Many of our products are carried by more than one distributor, which means we can cross-check the same item against two independent origin records. When those records contradict each other, the item does not get a US-origin claim.
In our most recent audit we measured one major supplier's country-of-origin field as contradicted on roughly 9% of overlapping items. Every contradicted item was pulled from this store and added to a permanent exclusion list so it cannot be re-listed by a future catalog refresh.
What the badges mean
| Made in USA | The manufacturer reports the United States as the country of origin for the finished good. |
| TAA Compliant | A US-manufactured end product, which qualifies under the Trade Agreements Act (FAR 25.4). |
| Recycled content | Post-consumer recycled content percentage as published by the manufacturer. |
These are supplier-reported claims that we verify and cross-check — they are not an independent laboratory certification, and we do not describe them as one.
If you need it in writing
For a bid, a Buy American determination, or a TAA justification, we will provide the manufacturer's own country-of-origin documentation for the specific line items you are buying. Request origin documentation.
Found a listing you believe is mislabeled? Tell us and we will pull it the same day while we re-verify. That is how the exclusion list got built.
