I'm currently reading The Furniture Wars, by Micheal Dugan (2009) and to give you an idea of what the book is about the subtitle is "How America Lost A Fifty Billion Dollar Industry". Of course they are talking about the massive exodus of production to China and collapse of most American furniture production.

One passage I want to share since we have a lot of Hancock and Moore fans here on the forum (myself included) is a section under the chapter "The Asian Invasion" entitled "Focused Specialists" on page 405. Dugan writes:

Focused niche players - such as Jack Glasheen at Hancock and Moore, John Bray at Vanguard, the Audi family at Stickley, Jay Reardon at Hickory Chair and Don McCreary at McCreary Modern - also managed to hold their own in the face of the Asian Tsunami. They did so because:

* Were entrepreneurial in spirit with strong leaders who were relentless in staying in touch with consumers.

* Stayed within their niches. If they decided to after another, they did so carefully with a separate organization, The model at this was Eliot Wood.

* Were not so big that they lost focus.

* Avoided alienating their dealers and generated substantial loyalty, especially against the big companies.

* Had a passion for their companies and inspired their workers and managers to share in that passion.

I find the book very interesting to read and Dugan thinks the American Furniture industry is finished for the most part and cannot recover, but will perish. That so much damage has been done and will continue to be done by cheap Chinese labor that mainstream American furniture production cannot survive. He says the very cheap furniture will survive because it avoids the freight cost from China - I can see that. He also says the custom upholstery market will continue because it takes too long to get special orders from China. I agree with that as well.

I'm a bit more bullish on the American Furniture Industry overall. Dugan put this book to press before the backlash against Chinese goods (lead paint in Mattel toys, bad drywall for homes, pet food tampering and on and so forth), and in the past two years I have seen a massive resistance to products made in China, even by younger shoppers. If that trend continues, and consumers are willing to pay a little more for that MADE IN THE USA label and quality, then maybe our furniture industry won't collapse - though there will continue to be parts made in China that go into the USA-made furniture.

Interesting times. I won't carry, or even look at lines that are made in China. I tell ever sales rep that he/she is wasting their time, don't even pull out the book. I've met a lot of people that make furniture in the factories and small shops. They have pride in workmanship, and I intend to support them fully as they're my countrymen, and the USA furniture industry is worth saving (waving an itty-bitty American flag).