Bradington-Young recliner mechanism, made in China

[aaron]

A typical consumer won't see the difference between a U.S.-made sofa at $2,000 and a Chinese-made sofa at $1,000. And frankly, if the margins on selling the two Chinese-made sofas are going to meet or exceed the margin on selling one U.S.-made sofa, and you'll get two or more times as many buyers at the lower price, the typical furniture store won't care. Tell them, "This one will last five years, that one twenty", and they'll probably think you're selling them snake oil. (I'll omit discussion of the nation's shift from a culture that saves to a consumer culture, but impulsiveness also plays a role - "I want it today" very often wins out over, "I'll save and buy a better one next year.")

The ready availability of cheap to inexpensive Chinese merchandise has put enormous pressure on mass market products. If you can't count on your authorized dealers to educate consumers, many of whom are brought in by "sale" signs and ads and "big red price tags", who will? A small number will educate themselves. A smaller number will chance across a dealer who really wants to sell quality items even if it lowers his revenues. But not all of them can afford a "Made in America" or "Made in Europe" premium, even if they're getting much higher quality.

Unfortunately, when you're trying to get prices close to those of Chinese imports, you have to sacrifice quality in order to preserve a decent margin - so the net effect is that a domestic manufacturer may be offering a product that's not much better than a Chinese import at a significantly higher price point. Either that, or they walk away from the middle of the market, or launch a differently branded line of Chinese imports to serve that market, while aiming their domestic product lines at the upscale market.

I find it extremely frustrating that you can now go to the hardware store and have a great deal of difficulty figuring out whether a faucet is well-made, or whether the finish on a product will start to flake off, wear off, or discolor the moment it is used. The problem of "You can't tell from the outside whether there's quality on the inside" extends far beyond furniture, and manufacturers have developed coatings and finishes that make it difficult to tell them from a higher quality product.

Having had a bad experience with a Home Depot faucet for my bathroom, some years back, I decided to bite the bullet and get a "quality" faucet. I purchased a Hans Grohe faucet through a mail order company - it was literally smashed in the mail, revealing the inside components to be almost entirely plastic beneath its stainless steel skin. That inspired me to research more deeply and I found a remarkable deal on a Bach faucet, built like a tank - brass, stainless steel and ceramic parts. Well, Bach is out of business, but you can still buy that Hans Grohe faucet. The market at work.

The net effect is that we seem to be moving into a binary market - premium goods vs. disposable goods - and I'm not sure what we can do to reestablish a range of products in the middle.

[ta_billy]

OK, here's the way I see it...

You're both right.

Part of it is satisfying Wall St for more profits (this applies to the public companies like the one I work for). The other part is the companies undercutting their competition, which is very much encourage by retailers like Walmart. Next, the customer gets accustom to lower and lower prices for 20-30 years...welcome to the Walmart nation.

Problem now is that, in general, the American population does not have jobs to keep buying the low-priced Walmart "stuff". Pop goes the balloon!

Thats why Americans must support other Americans by purchasing American made products when we have a choice.

Any recommendations on an American made coffee maker

Billy

[drcollie]

Ever since I can remember I have bought high-quality products. I think it goes back to the days when I was a teenager and we would ride our dirt bikes into the deep woods in the Ozarks of southern Missouri. When we all got our first bikes we rode the pot-metal Yamaha and Suzuki bikes of the day, and more than a few times found ourselves stuck 40 miles deep in the woods with broken bikes. We learned quickly and moved into European bikes such as Husqvarna, Penton, and Bultacos. Tougher bikes that cost more, but they brought you home.

I find quality costs less over the useful service life of a purchase. Yes, you pay more on the front end, but you may get 2x or more use out of it than a something that was 20 % less in price.

I've brought that same attitude into my store. The sales reps know that I won't tolerate the junk that makes up 80% of their presentation catalogs and is sold to mainstream stores. And I make no excuses for the prices - if its outside someone's budget well - sorry - there's ten stores down the road that carry product to meet a price point. I don't sell junk because first of all I don't believe in it, and secondly I loathe getting those phone calls a few years after a purchase from customers that tell me they are very displeased with a purchase.

So the real trick is to find that balance between very good quality and balancing it with affordability. Hence the whole purpose of a forum such as this, to help show (and discuss) what makes a good piece ..... a good piece!

Example: I may have a 6-drawer Huntboard I want to carry in the store The junk one will sell for $ 1,000. The mediocre one that is just OK will sell for $ 2,000. The finely made one is $ 3,000. Then there is the 'artistic' one with lots of sizzle and smoke that sells for $ 6,000 (that may be only 10 % better overall than the $ 3K one). My target piece? The $ 3K one. That's quality without breaking the bank.

[johnstonamerica]

Hey Duane - I bought out a bunch of old t-shirt transfers from another T-shirt shop in my area about 10 years ago - mainly stuff from the late '60's and early 70's.
If you'd like some shirts made up just let me know which ones you like and what size/color. They'll only really work on light colored shirts and I may not have every single one of these left, but I would be more than happy to make some up and send them on down as a big thanks for all you've done!

[KNEEBITER]

wow I had a CZ . What a great bike. All my friends had honda and thought I was nuts. Then I got a CAN AM and they all had envy. how much for a 2xl Jawa CZ ? I Want one.

[johnstonamerica]

Knee - No charge!

Just pm me your address and what light color shirt you'd like and I'll get it out to you..

[KNEEBITER]

Who is better than this guy Thanks again, Rob.

[drcollie]

Wow! Check those out, old Roach designs! Bet you can sell those on FLEABAY for good money. I'll take a Husqvarna and Bultaco in 2XL, please! But you have to let me pay you for them or we can't do the deal....really! Those are two of my old bikes (used to race Motocross on various Husqvarna's and had one Bultaco Trials bike).

Tell you what, you post those over on www.advrider.com and you can sell them all off in a day or two for good money. The guys over there would go nuts for them.

[johnstonamerica]

Nope, you can't pay Duane Don't try to argue with a stubborn Scotsman..

Yeah, I bought about 2000 of them, mostly all Roach - Some really sick early Crumb ones from '68 - Just about as early as transfers came out. The typical Pinball Wizard, Columbian Gold, etc.. A bunch of old hotrods too...

I was selling them on the 'bay for awhile, maybe sold half of them, one by one... but who has the time?

What color T's Duane?

I

[ta_billy]

Johnston,

Do you have any old Mopar designs? I mean the crazy designs with big pipes, flames coming of the tires, and some crazy bug-eyed dude sticking his oversized head out the window with a need for speed on his face. Something like out of the old Mopar adds in the late sixties to early seventies.

I'm an avid Mopar guy...I have a '70 Dodge Challenger and a '69 Dodge Super Bee. I would have to at least pay for the Tee and shipping plus something for the transfer.

That's why I use the handle ta_billy...I have a Challenger TA

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