New Furniture Cost - the imports

[baileyuph]

In research, it was stated how Asian upholsters worked and what their life was like for them:  I will share a couple facts
  a.  Their pay is about $3 a day (no per hour)
   b.  Their employer puts them up in long building with small units similar to a school domitory.  Several cots are provided in the units as it is shared by several workers. 

The operating scheme for this scenario is workers are in effect on call 24 and 7, they get up and walk over to the factory as needed.

Needless to say I am talking about their manufacturing upholstery support.

Bottom Line:  No wonder countries like ours cannot compete with the imports.

Doyle

[bobbin]

It's also worth noting that dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs is growing daily with the worker bees in China.  Just the way it did in this country in the late 19th. and early/mid 20th century.  And for good reason. 

I thought about this as I was fitting a slipcover to one of those perfectly dreadful Pottery Barn "club chairs" this morning.  The piece was clearly marked, "made in America", but it's basically crap.  Over-sized, grossly out of proportion with nothing remotely close to the handsome lines of a real club chair, and it's light as a feather and the frame (particle board?) is beginning to rack.  The construction details that would make it a "keeper" are lacking; no grace in proportion, it's too over-sized to be comfortable for any but the largest of men (remember Lily Tomlin's Edith Ann?), and the back cushion is a cheap, knife edged affair with some seaming at the base to give the hint of boxing.

I have a similar chair (25-30 yrs. old) that is smaller in overall shape and form, but the scale is considerably more refined (will seat a large male comfortably and doesn't swallow a small female).  The frame is heavier (although the piece is smaller), shows no hint of racking, and represents the quality for which American furniture used to be renowned.  We have a love seat in the house that seems to represent the transition between the chair just referenced and the Pottery Barn garbage... the downhill slide is evident.  Both of my pieces were free, discarded by someone in pursuit of a "new look" and I happily snapped them up. 

We speak of this often and I do believe that educating the public is a big part of our mission if we are to keep our trade alive and bolster its importance.