Kinda sad actually. I went to another auction today in Gardner, this one I knew had been coming up for a while and was one not to miss. It was one of if not THE last large furniture manufacturer in the northeast. 100,000 square feet of building, millions and millions of dollars in equipment. 20 spray booths easy. At least 4 LARGE turret cnc routers with 8 stations. This was a VERY large operation. Walking through there it would just absolutely BOGGLE your mind as to the size of the operation.

So now you got the background and here's the rant. I got to talking with a younger guy there maybe in his mid 30's and he mentioned he used to work there for 9 years. Guy tells me he was a spray finisher and he got paid $20 and hour piecework. Do 55 pieces in an hour...get paid full pay. Do 30 pieces and hour and they reduced the pay to like $13 an hour. It was piecework incentive. Really tough way to make a living for a family but he learned to work quickly and efficiently and made a decent days pay.

These guys decided to fold and started laying people off and eventually it was a skeleton crew. I asked him why he thought they went out. His comment was that they had outsourced to China some of their stuff and he thought that was what started drawing the company down. Then he said that someone who I won't name bought alot of the assets including the name etc. Hey you buy a name you buy their image too. This company is in NY and he said that they were taking everything to get this...VIETNAM to build all the furniture now.

Folks this is what's wrong with America. Where 2-300 people could have been employed still, these guys paid for the name to get the image and will have all the stuff made overseas. UGH I find this disgusting and above all very sad.

I asked him how the quality was...knowing that alot of people have said to me that have done this that it was very high. These are chairs, tables, desks, etc. pretty generic stuff. He said it was garbage.

For the almighty dollar these guys sold everyone out and now your stuck buying CRAP that they import instead of a local company in business for over 80 years.

Make a conscious decision to support your local merchants and don't go to Walmart or Target etc that bring this stuff in from overseas. Goes for tackle or anything else you buy too.

Edit...oh by the way. They're going to knock the entire building down and put a mini strip mall in place of it too. :wall:

That really sucks:realmad:

Didn't Penn do something similar to this?

Nope truck is made in Missouri Karl :grins:

Would take me 2 days to get there on the riceburner but it would sure be more fun :happy:

;)

so.... did ya ride up there in your canadian made van, or take your japanese motorcycle????

:hidin:

:D

at least you make your own plugs, in the USA from Start to finish :kewl:

Yes I think they did. :wall:

Didn't Penn do something similar to this?

Big business, send it overseas or bring overseas here. Executives pad their bonuses by destroying American workers' lives. Retirements that will never happen, educations that will never be financed, homes lost. Sad and outrageous.

Most of the entire US furniture industry has left our country...and the quality is for the most part...crap.

The real problem here isn't globalization, it's short-term revenue. People don't want furniture that will last, they want something new that they will replace in a few years of use. It's about turning inventory rather than building a quality product.

-spence

Fortunately, transportation costs may reverse that direction.

Vietnam is the assembly plant labor choice of nations worldwide these days, Mexico and China are outsourcing in mass to their the last 2 years.

Isn't Bob's Furniture all made over there? IKEA definitely is.

And as Spence says, it's not meant to last more the 3-5 years at best.

Fortunately, transportation costs may reverse that direction.

.


Funny you say that. I was talking to a few guys there in a group and that exact subject was brought up, guy said he's starting to see more guys open production up again down in NC and SC where it was really big at one time. I view this as good news.

I wish I knew about this auction :( crap
I need some good American machines.

It totally sucks what they did to that company, but it's been going on for years:uhuh::wall:
America needs to wake the hell up

what happened to made in America?

to share your Gas !!

buddy up ...and make sure we ..... s t r e t c h .... all the fuel

because OPEC is meeting today or maybe it was yesterday... (time difference)

to make a decision on lowering the production of oil.

those BASS turds :realmad:

Spoke with a guy in Buffalo about a bandsaw yesterday and he said that people are moving furniture production back here to the USA!!! Good for us, I believe that if we apply the Japanese principles that they learned from Americans after WWII we can build a better product and deliver it to market at a lower total cost faster with higher quality than they can make it overseas.

And the guy who worked hard and banged out the pieces will be viewed by potential employers as someone who was a victim who does not deserve a decent wage and he won't be offered one.
After I got s-canned the second time I swore I'd never work for anyone else again.

And the guy who worked hard and banged out the pieces will be viewed by potential employers as someone who was a victim who does not deserve a decent wage and he won't be offered one.
After I got s-canned the second time I swore I'd never work for anyone else again.

I hear ya, I just I could find something that I would say, I could make some fair money.

It is a disposable society. Family heirlooms are a thing of the past. People today want what they buy to be the cheapest they can get and don't care where it is made. I prefer to save up and buy the best , longest lasting products I can get usually. If it happens to be foreign made than that is what I buy. How can you compete with the foreign wage, environmental conditions, and lack of safety that is allowed in those country's? Pretty much can't. The writing has been on the wall since the Honda and the Toyota.

It is a disposable society. Family heirlooms are a thing of the past. People today want what they buy to be the cheapest they can get and don't care where it is made. I prefer to save up and buy the best , longest lasting products I can get usually. If it happens to be foreign made than that is what I buy. How can you compete with the foreign wage, environmental conditions, and lack of safety that is allowed in those country's? Pretty much can't. The writing has been on the wall since the Honda and the Toyota.

Agree with one exception, if you study manufacturing, you will learn that Honda and Toyota don't build less expensive vehicles through low wages and skirting environmental regulations but by a system of relentless continuous improvement.

Agree with one exception, if you study manufacturing, you will learn that Honda and Toyota don't build less expensive vehicles through low wages and skirting environmental regulations but by a system of relentless continuous improvement.
The story always goes that in Detroit, problems we're ignored because the unions didn't want to stop the vehicles from moving out the door.

In Japan, ANY employee can stop the production line if they see a problem.

LEAN Manufacturing has really changed how a lot of product development companies operate.

-spence

I was trying to say not that they were less expensive but a better quality made product when they started to take over the auto industry from the American manufactures and the writing on the wall was the fact that manufacturing will come from somewhere other than your own back yard

The workers are the ones who built the reputation that was sold from under them. The workers are always the guys who get screwed hardest.
GM once decided to build a super-plant. Took the best and brightest guys and put them all in a plant in Lordstown. To build Vegas:hee:. Promised premium wages for the move and all kinds of nice things. GM got caught speeding up the line thus stealing from the workers. Contract said X number of cars. GM decided that meant X plus what they don't know. They were the Best and Brightest remember? They quit going to work and started going to sabotage. Vegas were crap from then on. I personally removed a Coke bottle from a door to fix a door rattle. I heard of a ham sandwich in a headliner.
I don't really want to sound like a socialist, but the working folk in this country really need to get their act together. We're becoming watching folk, and working 3 jobs folk.

After I got s-canned the second time I swore I'd never work for anyone else again.

I said the same thing 20 years ago and havent looked back. Being self employed sucks sometimes though they get you coming and going.

Slip next time I see you I will give you the names of all the guys I watch. You got to go and get on their lists.

its a sad story, but someone made an investment and bought the company. Non of you bought the company. Your $ is not at risk.The new owner can do as he pleases. If his stuff is crap, it wont sell, he loses money. His risk, his investment.

The larger problem is how we just accept crap. i bought a toro lawnmower a few weeks back from HD. the think rattled like hell, I returned it. got the same one, a little better but on mid-length grass it chokes up and stalls, my prior sears model could mow a jungle, I just dont have the time to drain the gass and return it. I'll live with a crap mower.

But Jim, You and I are the problem as well... Just as someone else is the probem by buying the CO.... each and everyone of us who buys less expensive product is fueling this outsourcing mentality..

I restore old volkswagens... you can not buy quality parts for them becuase all of the quality part manufacturers have been put out of business by the ones who make crap.. simply because people buy what ever costs less...

Its all a viscous cycle..

I'll live with a crap mower.

Thats what the rest of America says too.

Well as far as making and buying furniture goes we've dealt with two of the NC manufacutrers over the past 10 years and could not have been more satisfied. I think both are still in business. Entertainment center, TV cabinet, bureaus, three bedroom suites, dining room set. We go to the furniture stores and find the stuff we like, get the model and serial numbers when the salesman isn't looking and go on-line to see what it compares to the manufacturer. Even with shipping we always came out well on top. Everything branded Made In USA (and heavy, too). I ronically, yesterday I received a replacement night stand for one slightly damaged in a shipment two weeks ago. I asked if they needed directions to the next stop. The next stop was the furniture store where we got the models and numbers.

why not post it's name? :huh:FACT IS FACT.

I consider myself to be a patriotic American who tries to buy "Made in the USA" most of the time, and FYI, I drive a Ford.

One of the conditions of the GM buyout was that workers' starting wages were reduced by half, to $28/hr. Yep, STARTING pay at GM used to be $56/hr (100k per year). I knew guys who worked in the auto industry who said the union would routinely swipe cars from off the line for gifts. The auto industry did it to themselves. It was estimated that there was a $25/hr wage disparity between these workers and their Japanese competition.

You're absolutely right though that we're all to blame. I do it myself - trying to save a few bucks. That's what forces outsourcing.

I highly doubt starting wages were 56/hr. The average wage of a union autoworker is 28/hr. 56k /year is not a hell of alot of money to live on these days... Just ask Ty Law....

One of the things most people don't realise is that outsourcing helped to create the huge middle class in these foreign countries. This middle class is the one that is now able to afford cars. This is a major factor in driving up the price of oil.

Interesting observation just today...

Got rear-ended this morning on 128 going to work.

My Nissan truck (japanese made) had the rear bumper pushed in and the tailgate dinged up, and I drove away....The other guy was driving a Chevy Silverado (american made) and his trucked was totally screwed up. front end completely smashed, radiator busted, leaking ani-freeze all over the place...had to be towed away.

He even commented "Christ sakes $40,000 for a truck and it looks like this from just rear-ending ya"

just an observation....:huh:

I go to restaurants because the food and service are good. I hire tradesmen because they do quality work, and I try to buy stuff that is durably made....regardless of where it is made.

Be the Best and people will Buy the Best.

I've heard plenty of people here say that they would rather spend the extra money and get "The Best"

Interesting observation just today...

Got rear-ended this morning on 128 going to work.

My Nissan truck (japanese made) had the rear bumper pushed in and the tailgate dinged up, and I drove away....The other guy was driving a Chevy Silverado (american made) and his trucked was totally screwed up. front end completely smashed, radiator busted, leaking ani-freeze all over the place...had to be towed away.

He even commented "Christ sakes $40,000 for a truck and it looks like this from just rear-ending ya"

just an observation....:huh:

I go to restaurants because the food and service are good. I hire tradesmen because they do quality work, and I try to buy stuff that is durably made....regardless of where it is made.

Be the Best and people will Buy the Best.

I've heard plenty of people here say that they would rather spend the extra money and get "The Best"

Sorry to hear about the Accy but that wasn't where it's made it was how he hit you. He was probably breaking which dipped his nose and exposed less bumper you were probably breaking and exposed more rear bumper. Wasn't where it was made but Physics. I was in a similar situation a couple years ago when I got hit by a Jeep Grand Cherokee. I had a ding in my bumper and it was pushed in < .5 inch and the Jeep had 2K+ in damage.

Having worked in Foreign car repair I will say that the Toyotas, Hondas, and Nissans are pretty stinking good but they still have plenty of their own issues...

Oh I know...it was just funny to hear him say that when he got out and looked.

actually I was at a complete stop....and he didn't break at all.....right into me. had that split second "Oh Crap" moment with the rear view mirror.

But Que sara sara.....now to get a new ass end on this thing :huh:

Its really not the consumers fault its this countries economy system

Even if we still only purchased only American made goods the large corporations would still outsource.. its not economical with today’s minimum wages and cost of living in the states to employee Americans... Its the bottom line.. Granted its just a house of cards and will lead to a depression ..Oh wait we are on the verge of one.....

Its sad to see but most major companies are in a constant battle to keep there doors open.. They have to cut cost

Really if you look at our government as a business they would have bankrupted years ago... There has been a ton of bad ceo's that managed the tax payer’s money poorly to pursue meaningless endeavors...
But this isn't a business it's a country so you can't close the doors and lay everyone off...

Its sad it really is and if you look to long at the big picture your liable to move to Canada :D

Ah the good old american vs. foreign vehicle debate. Now by "american" do you mean "North American" or United States? What about all the "American" vehicles made in Mexico? Or Japanese vehicles assembled in Texas? WHAT WHAT WHAT???? All I know is I cant afford to drive a vehicle that leaves me with a hole in my wallet so I stopped buying so called "American"......


And one more tidbit before you burn me at the stake. My father is a die hard "buy american" and yes I get the comments all the time. He stopped a few months ago after his "American" pick up with 20,000 miles is a heap that wouldnt pass inspection. Mind you he is pretty particular when its comes to maintenance too......

Last time I was in Greenville (SC) BMW was hiring 500 more people which translates into 2500 net new jobs for the area.

Toyota has made vehicles in the USA for nearly 50 years. They have been investing heavily in new production sites.

The automotive industry in this country is alive and strong, it's just now growing in the South where there's less union influence.

-spence