this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2025
118 points (98.4% liked)

Buy European

6527 readers
471 users here now

Overview:

The community to discuss buying European goods and services.

Matrix Chat of this community

Rules:

  • Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. No direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments.

  • Do not use this community to promote Nationalism/Euronationalism. This community is for discussing European products/services and news related to that. For other topics the following might be of interest:

  • Include a disclaimer at the bottom of the post if you're affiliated with the recommendation.

  • No russian suggestions.

Feddit.uk's instance rules apply:

  • No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
  • No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
  • No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
  • Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
  • Do not spam or abuse network features.
  • Alt accounts are permitted, but all accounts must list each other in their bios.
  • No generative AI content.

Useful Websites

Benefits of Buying Local:

local investment, job creation, innovation, increased competition, more redundancy.

European Instances

Lemmy:

Friendica:

Matrix:

Related Communities:

Buy Local:

Continents:

European:

Buying and Selling:

Boycott:

Countries:

Companies:

Stop Publisher Kill Switch in Games Practice:

Banner credits: BYTEAlliance

founded 5 months ago
MODERATORS
maam@feddit.uk
alex@jlai.lu
circledot@feddit.org
Argyle13@lemmy.world
Sunshine@lemmy.ca
buyeuropean@lemmy.ca
buyeuropean@feddit.org
lazycog@feddit.uk
118
The World's Most Respected 'Made In' Labels (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 day ago by Sunshine@lemmy.ca to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] drmoose@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I'm surprised to see Russia so high up but in all honesty Russia doesnt really export anything but perishables. Even before the war Russian made products were laughable at best and straight up insulting to everyone involved at worst.

It's the Soviet's "build to last" manufacturing thats really carrying this reputation like ak-47 or even small things like meat grinders and razors are regarded as "build to last forever" in post soviet countries by old people.

[โ€“] alexcleac@szmer.info 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Unironically, the "Soviet's build to last" idea was nothing more than a propaganda product, like "cheap, natural and tasty ice cream" and "natural sausages". In fact, comparing one-to-one tooling made in US vs Soviet tooling, it turns out that US was much higher quality and could last longer.

The primary reason for that illusion to sustain is because after soviet union fell apart, general poverty caused people to use tooling until it broke down completely โ€”ย which made quality degradation of modern tooling much more apparent. The old-created tooling was produced years ago, and it was economically unsustainable at that point of time, and it was produced in huge masses disregarding actual need โ€”ย making it almost as cheap as the new bought (while the latter was lower quality).

At the same time, the overall quality degradation for pricing lowering in richer countries was not noticed as much, because people were changing things over the time. I still see lots of projects, where people restore old European grinders, saws, etc โ€” to the state that those tools look like new. They just got into awful shape, because there was an ability to replace thing, while in post-soviet countries you had no choice: either you take a good care of tool, or you don't have it at all (because of poverty).

p.s. The ice cream and sausages is really just a propaganda legent: they were adding margarine to the ice cream, and so much stabilizers to sausages, it wouldn't be allowed even in US, not speaking of EU.

Speaking of razors: I only recently learned that Gilette was producing their double-edged blades for safety razors in russia. IDK if they still are, but... yeah, that was a surprise for me.

[โ€“] drmoose@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Good point tho small part of the items were legit good due to keep it simple philosophy even if not intentionally. Particularly as you mentioned stuff like razors were very well regarded.

As for present it's actually crazy how incapable Russia is at making stuff. As a Russian speaker myself I struggle to come up with any other country with such miniscule presence in actually creating stuff that is not weapons, rockets or dubious software.

[โ€“] alexcleac@szmer.info 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

AFAIK nginx was originally created by a russian, then opensourced.

Though, now, I cannot care less for russian products, not since 24.02.2022.

[โ€“] drmoose@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I've worked with many Russian software developers and they're mostly good dudes making good stuff. The issue is the brainwashed and uneducated masses and some bad apples that are in bed with the this mafia system.