Who buys Handmade goods?

We have great products we make by hand in our small studios, mostly located in our own homes. We keep expenses down, our quality high. Most of us do not want to be famous or discovered, we just want to put food on the table and oil in the tank and buy more materials. We are not only willing but we insist on our customer knowing who we are and we stand by our products. We who design and produce our products here in the USA care if our customers come back! It is one of the most essential concerns we have!
I have a wholesale account here in Maine at a "fine" jewelry store. You know the kind...they sell diamond engagement rings, rubies and on down the list. The gal that works there is in charge of buying the handmade merchandise. So they have all that stuff made elsewhere and do you know that for a solid month over the summer the ONLY stuff that sold was handmade in New England? In fact, made right down the street. You would like to have that shorter? No problem and you want more bling on the earrings, happy to do it. Or perhaps you want something in those stones but less dramatic, more dramatic...glad to oblige!
So why is it so hard to get our stuff out there? Why is it that although everyone complains about our economic situation, people rush out in masses to big box stores and support the overseas economy rather than bolster the economy in their own neighborhood?