I do my best to keep updated on what my competition is doing.  I always make sure our prices are awesome and competitive and that we continue to expand our product selection to match what our customers are looking for.  Recently, a competitor has started to advertise his bags as 'Genuine Mylar' Mylar bags.  Now, I'm all for good marketing, but along with that, he trashes any of his competitors that import bags.  I don't like to get into 'he said, she said' arguments with my competitors, as that generally doesn't help anyone.  However, when a competitor starts getting into half-truths that could tarnish reputable companies (and not just mine), I feel the need to say something.  

This is what the competitor says in some of his ads (and this is one of the nicer ones): 

"Is it REAL Mylar® ???

Mylar® is a brand name for a special film developed by DuPont and like Kleenex and Scotch tape, the name is now being used as a generic term to represent anything similar. Sadly, most vendors are selling foil-lined bags from China. However, there is a difference and these come directly from an official distributor for a REAL Mylar® manufacturer, who pays no shipping charges and can afford to compete with those selling inexpensive imports.

Mylar® possesses many desirable properties including gas and moisture resistance, chemical stability, high tensile strength, and when laminated to aluminum foil, Mylar® provides a higher puncture resistance than any metallized polyester film. It should be noted that most other flexible packaging companies sell laminated structures with only 0.000285" thick aluminum foil, which provides very little resistance to punctures and tears."

Let's break it down and illustrate how many misleading statements there are in these two short paragraphs.

1:  'Sadly, most vendors are selling foil-lined bags from China'

Response:  The company our competitor buys from imports Mylar bags from China regularly.  I used to conduct business with both companies, and the bigger company would never actually tell me where they sourced their bags from, but tried to imply it was from the US.  However, public records of said company show clearly they import MANY (if not most) of the items they sell.  This was one of the reasons I decided to start working personally with a reputable manufacturer, as the lack of supply chain information provided by the supplier was scary. 

A second point is that there is nothing inherently wrong with 'foil-lined bags from China'.  I worked with several manufacturers in the US (as I VERY much love selling American made products when I can, and for the first several years sold only USA-sourced products), and I hate to say it, but it was constantly a challenge.  Every one had trouble even building small orders.  They included cut, torn and damaged bags among the good stock, and if I didn't catch those during packaging, the customer would end up with it.  Their bags never had the same clarity and aesthetics as our current bags.  And they didn't keep me updated if something was going to be late, and otherwise provided pretty poor customer service.

By contrast, our Chinese partner company ships entire containers of product to us without a single problem, where it was difficult getting even a single pallet 100% correct from an American manufacturer.  Our Asian bags are almost 100% free of the defects that plagued our US-based manufacturers.  And while it takes a while longer to ship something from Asia, when they say something is going to ship at a certain time, it does.

2:  'Mylar® is a brand name for a special film developed by DuPont and like Kleenex and Scotch tape, the name is now being used as a generic term to represent anything similar.'

This is true.  Most 'Mylar bags' don't include any Mylar.  The website where my competitor buys his Mylar bags from doesn't list Mylar (BoPet) ANYWHERE on the technical specification section of their website, so I'm not sure why he is convinced he is selling Mylar and no one else is. Plus, a fun fact for those keeping score, Mylar film is now ONLY made by a multinational partnership between Dupont and a Japanese company named Teijin.

One other thing to remember is that Mylar was developed in the 1950's.  There are many comparable, or better, films on the market today than Mylar that have been developed over the last 60 years.  In the end, it is the results that matter.  Our products have as good or better barrier rates to moisture and oxygen, contain genuine Mylar films, and are constructed in the exact same way, as any product with 'Mylar film'. 

If I had to guess, that is what it actually comes down to, and why our competitor says these things.  There's no getting around it, importing is less expensive than buying American.  To cover that fault, they need to convince you that the extra money you are paying if you buy from them (for essentially the same product with the same protection) is worth it.

3:  "Mylar® possesses many desirable properties including gas and moisture resistance, chemical stability, high tensile strength, and when laminated to aluminum foil, Mylar® provides a higher puncture resistance than any metallized polyester film."

Again, this is true.  However, you could just as easily say 'PET films possess many desirable properties including gas and moisture resistance, chemical stability, high tensile strength, and when laminated to aluminum foil, PET films provide a higher puncture resistance than any metallized polyester film."  All PET films have these same properties, they are not unique to 'name-brand' Mylar.

The last part of the sentence is also misleading.  Foil-lined bags (which includes all our ShieldPro 5 mil+ bags) are made by a different process than metallized polyester bags (our Econ line, for example, is metallized polyester), and they are not intended to be equivalent products.  It's like saying 'That Hummer has better crash resistance than that Honda Fit'.  The Honda Fit is still an awesome little car that's not trying to be a Hummer.  If you're storing food for a few years, why would you pay extra to put it in a bag that costs twice as much when it will last just as well and be just as edible in a lighter bag that costs half?  We sell millions of Econ bags because for many folks, they provide the protection they need at a price that is very affordable.

Interestingly I will note that the company supplying bags to our competitor also sells millions of metallized polyester bags, because they are a different product line for a different type of customer.  Again, this is just a case where our competitor doesn't carry an inexpensive line of bags, and so needs to steer you to his expensive line. 

4:  "who pays no shipping charges and can afford to compete with those selling inexpensive imports."

As I mentioned, the supplier in question imports huge quantities of bags and products (again, there is nothing wrong with that), and this quote leads me to believe either my competitor doesn't know that, and potentially may not even understand where his products might be coming from.  Basically, our competitor is buying from a wholesaler, not working with a manufacturer, and that is why they can't get their prices as low and need to come up with misleading advertising to sell products.

At the end of the day, I want everyone to prep, store food and water, and otherwise be prepared to take care of themselves and their families.  Thus, I will always do my best to be straight up with you, even if it causes you to not buy something from me.  If you have any questions about this article, storing food, our manufacturing process, or anything else, please let me know.  While I won't share a few trade secrets (such as the exact manufacturing specifications of our best-in-class bags), the rest of my business is an open door for you to look through and understand.  So please drop me a line with questions, comments or suggestions to admin@discountmylarbags.com.