Rant on Hancock and Moore

• Posted by susan2_2008 (My Page) on Thu, Nov 20, 08 at 19:04

Hello everyone, Just wanted to let you know I am a dislocated employee of H&M along with quite a few of my coworkers due to the fact that H&M has jobs coming in from China all the time. All of these jobs will have a H&M tag attached to them with a lot of our names. But they came to the plant in plastic bags from China. We had to put our names on these jobs just like we had done them. But yet H&M will not sign the petition so we can go to school. They say we did not lose our jobs to China we lost our jobs due to the economy. Well HELLO does overseas jobs not go hand in hand with our economy. Furniture has almost all gone to China and we need to be trained in another field so we can support our families and pay our bills. As for child labor in China Jimmy Moore is probally all for it as long as it pads his pockets. He's driving a brand new corvette and I'm wondering if I can pay my house payment or put food on my table for my family. So just because the tag looks like USA made don't bank on it. H&M needs to come clean and sign The Fair Trades Act we deserve this.

I had this rant forwarded to me from the Garden Web forum, with a poster asking me to comment on it, so I thought I'd do it here since I no longer post on the other site.

First I have to ask, who is this person? A fired employee? A jealous competitor? One never knows who posts on the internet, and since they don't reveal their true name the validity of the rant is always suspect.

I will stake my reputation on this first of all: Everything that has the label HANCOCK AND MOORE on it does not arrive from China in a plastic bag and then employees are 'forced' to sign the consumer tag saying they've built it. That's simply not true. I've spent enough time in the H&M production facility and can tell you point blank that they have their own frame shop, their own finishing department, cutters, sewers, the whole operation. It is made in the USA, though some components on some combinations may be sourced overseas.

H&M does import Chinese hides (Document and Cavalier), and some of them arrive boxed in kit form as "Married Covers" (that means the leather is finished in China, cut and sewn there for a particular frame). There are also a few highly carved frames such as The Treaty Chair that are imported, as cost of carving overseas is far less than in the USA. That's the extend of the H&M involvement in China-made products on their flagship brand.

Now, having said that they offer a line called Randall Allen, and that is 100% made in China, but it will be called Randall Allen and not Hancock and Moore. I do not carry that line in my store, as I do not care for Chinese-made furniture, nor want to represent it.

Jimmy Moore is a fine man, and I dislike seeing someone trash him on a public forum. He's wealthy enough that at age 71 he could retire and never work again, but he loves his business and is on the factory floor every work day (he's not an office kind of guy). Walk the floor with Jimmy sometime....its like nothing you've ever seen. He knows every employee by name, and their kid's names, and loves to tease every one of them. The way he banters back and forth with his people is a hoot! Its not "Yessir, Mr. Moore" its more like this:

Jimmy (to a woman sewing a hide): "Hey Dottie, you go any slower on that I'm going to clock you out for lunch".

Dottie: "You just mind your own business old man, and keep on going where you're headed".

And then they both laugh riotously.

Jimmy has a full time professional nurse on staff, with her own medical office in the main plant of H&M. He's doesn't have to do that - i've never seen a furniture plant that has one, but she's there to give immunizations, allergy shots, and first aid on-site, treat minor injuries and give them meds for colds, etc. Its all free of charge to the employees. He told me he does it because he cares for his great big extended family.

The tales of Jimmy Moore helping people in and around Hickory NC are legion. Take a tour of H&M (its open to anyone) and you'll see and hear of them for yourself.

As to the 2007 Fair Trade Act - it covers a lot of ground and is partially about disclosure of material origin, but also has to do with manufacturers setting the floor on retail prices. As anyone shopping H&M knows, retail pricing is set by the dealer and is all over the board. H&M does not dictate retail pricing to its dealers.

Finally, H&M is not in the deception business. The American consumer has choices, and the can choose if they want to spend $ 2,200 for a H&M sofa with a Chinese leather on it that was marked, cut and sewn in China, or $ 3,400 for the same sofa with German leather on it that was marked, cut and sewn in the USA. Either way, the frame, springs, webbing, decking, foaming, wood finish, cushions, and trim nailing is done in Hickory NC.

I bet whomever wrote that tirade does most their shopping at Wal-Mart. <g>

I feel bad that H&M like any company had to lay off people and hope that the employees who lost their jobs can recover. Now with that out of the way what that person posted over on gardenweb is just nonsense.

This person claims employees are forced to lie about the country of origin for the products and who built them? You are not forced, you are told to do something and you choose to do it or not. I do not doubt there are companies out there that mis represent their product and it's country of origin but I think not H&M. Also if this practice existed any employee could could hire a lawyer, alert the state/federal authorities and trust me no company would want that kind of publicity and investigation that would result. Instead we got a message on the internet making this claim. The message reeks of bitterness or worse yet one of those internet advertising spammers who try to make other companies/products look bad through half truths and outright lies.

I almost had to laugh that the person is complaining about the owner driving a new corvette as if the corvette is super expensive and somehow the purchase lost them their jobs. Other than the C6 ZR1 most Corvette's while costing more than the average Chevy are not that expensive. Now there are companies where the chief executives who can hurt the company with large bonuses, stock options, short sighted policies and other stuff we read about lately in some of the largest financial corporations but buying one new corvette is not going to cause people to lose their jobs. Also an employee/owner of a company buying a new car is that persons right as an individual. BTW the Corvette is an American car not foreign so buying it didn't send money overseas.