China looks upmarket

In addition, many young shoppers are more concerned about how much a product costs than how long it lasts, Ms. Nicholson says. This is especially true with clothes and electronics, where what's hot one season is out of fashion or obsolete the next.

Nicholson says companies including Target, Ikea, and H&M understand that their consumers crave well-designed, inexpensive items. Whether a television, desk-lamp, or skirt lasts until next decade is of little concern. Nor is country of origin.

The Internet has made consumers savvier. Many now compare product specifications of retailer websites and read product reviews posted on discussion groups and technology sites like CNET.com before heading to the brick-and-mortar stores, Mr. Edwards says.

While China has been the "workshop to the world" for more than two decades, only in the past five years have Chinese companies begun aggressively exporting more upscale merchandise stamped with their own name.

In this sense, China is following in the footsteps of its neighbors Japan and South Korea, says Dominique Hanssens, a marketing professor at UCLA. In the 1950s and 1960s, many Americans considered Japanese cars and electronics to be poorly made knockoffs of American goods. Yet in the following two decades, Japanese companies Toyota and Sony became two of the brands to Americans respected. A similar phenomenon occurred in the 1990s with the South Korean company Samsung.

Many analysts believe it's now China's turn. But the challenge remains for Chinese companies to move into the realm of higher-end products. Haier - which has been selling appliances and electronics in China for almost 20 years - is probably the most established Chinese company in the US, says Annie Chung, a Hong Kong-based analyst for Gartner Inc., a technology research group.

Michael Jemal, chief executive of Haier America in New York, acknowledges the stubborn perceptions of some American consumers that the "Made in China" label means inferior quality. He says Haier has a responsive repair network, and that the firm's products speak for themselves. He declined to provide sales figures.

Another challenge to China's entry in these new categories: The US International Trade Commission is currently investigating whether the selling of televisions in the US by some Chinese manufacturers at below-cost prices damaged business for Five Rivers Electronic Innovations, one of the few remaining US television manufacturers. Five Rivers, in Greenville, Tenn., filed an antidumping petition in May.

Yet hints exist of some initial success for Chinese firms in America: Haier's air conditioners and refrigerators, for example, dominate Target's appliance aisles, and Haier can produce more than 300,000 refrigerators a year at its three-year-old South Carolina plant, among the first built by a Chinese company in the US.

Jemal says he expects Haier to become the "Sony or GE" of China by focusing on selling innovative products aimed at young buyers.

Haier must not only contend with the dozens of other Chinese companies that may enter the US market, but also with consumers like Steve Simons. After finishing his shift behind the electronics counter at Target in Nashua, N.H., Mr. Simons returned home to his Sony 36-inch high-definition television, Sony surround-sound speakers, and Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft video-game consoles.

While he doesn't hesitate to recommend lesser-known brands to customers, he says he wants only the best for himself. "I'm sort of an electronics buff," he says.

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