Well it’s certainly an abstract loss, so saying “what exactly” is slightly unfair as the abstract loss cannot be exactly quantified. But probably the simplest answer is that the customers may have paid less if they knew it was not made in the USA, and so they have lost money. So perhaps a class action lawsuit will be filed. I guess loss of money is concrete enough.

More abstractly the people may have hoped to support the work of their fellow countrymen, and would instead have been undercutting them with overseas labor. That loss is not financial, but in the way the US works perhaps some monetary value could be conjured for this as well. Or perhaps that loss is considered equal to the amount they overpaid for the product.

In any case I think I’ve convinced myself that the customers should receive some financial compensation and the company should be required to clearly notify people of what they have done, to scrub any goodwill they earned that could have led to an increase in future purchases at the store.

Some customers do actually make purchasing decisions to support products made in their home country. Buying a product falsely labeled as Made in the USA tricks the customer into supporting a product or business that they would otherwise have wanted to avoid supporting.

Said differently, the customer lost the freedom to support a product actually made in the US while simultaneously supporting something they didn't mean to.

The article lists a teen marketed mattress as one of the “made in USA” products actually made in china.

After the last decade of lead contamination and other toxic products from China, I would imagine some parents are wary of a product they spend close proximity to for 10 hours every night for years.

https://www.thestreet.com/opinion/china-has-a-history-of-sel...

What do companies gain by pretending that their product is made in America?

I would argue that if they bought a more expensive product because of the label "made in usa" then they lost the difference between what they would have paid for the cheaper product and what they paid for the product labelled "made in usa".

The funds and impetus to buy something that was made in America.

I don't know how you'd quantify that as a function of the product's price, but they figured out a way to put a price tag on emotional damage so I'm sure someone can figute it out.

It's called fraud. That word used to mean something.

We prosecute companies for false advertisement so why would this be any different? People sometimes buy products for a indicator that says made in the USA

Faith in the system

A USA made product

jobs