Since being in North Carolina, I've seen a few stores, (Subway shops, gas stations) displaying signs that say "American Owned and Operated." It's clearly meant to be a selling point. We've all seen "Made in America" stickers on products. Perhaps not as many as "Made in China," but we've seen them. Our products come from all over the world, and these labels let us know where they were made. They let us know if a product is supporting the American economy and American jobs. But services are not like products. Services, by their very nature, (excluding say, phone tech support) are provided in the country where they are bought, by people who also live in the country where they are bought, so we already know that they are supporting the American economy and American jobs.
So what are these signs trying to say? Are they stating the obvious, this business is located in America? Unfortunately, I don't think so. It seems to me these signs imply, this business is owned and operated by real Americans. Fear not, you won't find any Pakistanis selling you cigarettes or Mexicans making you sandwiches here. The underlying message of the sign is offensive. Why do I need to know the immigration status of the owner of my fastfood franchises?
I don't.
Perhaps I'm just not as cynical as you, but I don't really think that's the implication of those signs. I will say, however, that Florida natural OJ has a really annoying commercial in which they target tropicana from getting some of their oranges from Brazil! In this global economy, clearly that's appalling.
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