Interesting article on Chinese Furniture

[byhammerandhand]

http://www.npr.org/2014/07/14/331356258/how-a-factory-man-fought-to-save-his-furniture-company

I will have to add that I see almost no furniture that is not made in China, VietNam, or Indonesia.

A few years ago, Stanley outsourced manufacturing to China.   It was a complete disaster.  Horrible quality.   Last I heard, they brought back a lot of it.

[SteveA]

It makes you wonder when our leaders will ever get it right.  Trade with the world for cheaper goods resulting in lost jobs here rather than negotiating with American Workers, Legislatures, and employers to keep it at Home where it belongs.  Not to mention now the cost of fuel and the pollution produced to transport the goods is over the top. Those folks in Washington aren't able to do their jobs with the interest of every American in mind. 
SA

[baileyuph]

There are more changes on the way.......government (s) are way to big and too fat at all levels.  For me, it raises the question about how structure and pay for government here compares to ..........well say China?

I don't have the numbers but highly suspect they are much higher in the US than other countries?

Yes, our furniture industries (domestic) have taken a wash, so standby, it will get much ugly before it is over.


Doyle

[SteveA]

 - the MTA workers here in NYC earn approx. 60 thousand plus benefits and over 80 w/overtime. Sounds like pretty good pay  .......right !
They are considering a strike while the mayor is going to Italy for two weeks vacation.
China thinks we're lazy Americans whose values are non existent  - sooner or later the rest of the world will out gun us at every turn - China is one of several countries that see an opportunity to pull themselves up due to our greed while we self destruct.
SA

[byhammerandhand]

I had to translate the line, "Just let us manufacture your furniture," into "We will take your intellectual property (designs), cheapen it in every way possible, sell to your competitors or directly to your customers under private labels, and leave you holding the bag."

Surfing the internet the other night, I found a Planning Document from 1989 for my home town (just think blue collar ex-urban rust belt).  One of the chapter was on demographics and it said 52% of the town's employed were in manufacturing.   I am sure at its peak, say 20 years earlier, it was much higher.

[kodydog]

I look forward to reading the book Hammer. Bassett was never a high quality line they went after the affordable market. But for many years they were the largest producer of furniture in America and probably the world.

John Bassett III is a noble man to fight back against this foreign onslaught single handedly. Dumping, the business of importing products into the US cheaper than the cost of manufacture is illegal. And although I'm for smaller government this is one area I think more money should be spent. When foreign countries supplement their industries to sell products cheaper than it can be manufactured  American companies go out of business.

Japanese companies got busted in the 80's for dumping electronics.

Having said all that I believe the furniture industry is partly to blame for their demise. Like the article said, Bassett tried to compete with cheap Chinese furniture by lowering their already low standards. If they had stuck to their guns and kept producing furniture of a higher quality Americans would soon grow tired of the cheap crap coming out of China and seek American made products. As of now there are only a handful of true quality furniture manufactures in the US. I believe the industry could be turned around but it would take time and a lot of hard campaigning. And what is the alternative.

We turned our car industry around. Remember the crap coming out of Detroit in the 70's.

[Darren Henry]

Trade with the world for cheaper goods resulting in lost jobs here rather than negotiating with American Workers, Legislatures, and employers to keep it at Home where it belongs.

same up here, with an extra poke in the eye---It's our natural resources we are buying back in all those cheap disposable goods!

[baileyuph]

What sells?  PRICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

The stats support this - Furniture Brands------ a conglomerate of American furniture products (I.E. Henredon, Drexel, Broyhill just to start the list ---- which goes on) filed bankruptcy less than a year ago.  They produced quality but still went bankrupt while the retailers of much Asian cheap junk are still selling their stuff. Retailers of US quality made furniture are the stores that have gone out of business over the last few years.  There is a strong message here!  The bankruptcy of Furniture Brands, you aren't going to like this but their business was bought out of the bankruptcy by a company in East Asia, it could be China.  The company owned 10% of FB stock already, that sets the stage for them to copy any and all of FB products and ship them to be retailed through FB marketing network, those that survive and continue to compete against any US manufacturing/marketing efforts of high quality products.  There has been change going on and it isn't over.

We must ask ourselves why?  Several reasons, one of the main reasons is consumers are driven by price, not quality (not enough anyway).  There is no product loyalty, consumers of today don't think that way.  There are other reasons, people living off social programs can't afford the high quality US made products.  About the best they can do is buy the Asian made cheaper built.

The US auto industry is still in trouble, they never rebounded, after the recession, to their previous position in the market.  Just yesterday it was reported that VW outsold GM, in the world market, according to the latest accounting report! 

Folks that is in stark contrast as to when it was the big Three, pumping out products in Detroit!!!  Think about it.

Go back 25 years and compare manufactures of that time.  KIA, a company along with Hundi (sp?) were either not heard of or laughed at; my how times have changed for both of those brands.  The change started with their price advantage, over time their quality had made an added difference.

The copy of a US chair by China is only a start, there are so many other cases that remind us of what is happening, just today printed is the fact that China is/has copied the Monsanto seeds and the case is headed to court, as we read. 

Things are changing, everyone has skin in the game, but so far it doesn't seem to drive the right corrections to all the problems. 

The outcome:  US may not be willing to make the right changes (more concern for their piece of the pie (than whole pie) and getting reelected) but CHANGE will and is coming all the time. 

We are not out of the woods!!!

Enough,

Doyle

BTW I just reasearched and read a lengthy study from a major south east University on future technology being and already developed that will drive how we manufacturer furniture in the very near future.  To add, the technology developed to support the new way of doing things is very significant because it is near full robat status and is/or will serve as the backbone for many industries in US manufacturing years forward.  The US has to do something; China cheap labor (they aren't dumb people either, BTW) drives US manufacturing to go in this direction, no choice. 

On the home front, the way us upholsters do business is changing and will in the very near future, will not be close to what it is today.  We comment all the time the skill cannot be found or developed and so on.  Well, it will be less of an issue with new technologies I read about and have mentioned reading about addresses this dimension of the furniture business.

Even repairs will be handled by this new technology, the study/report was very eye opening!

What can someone aspiring to work in this field as a custom upholsterer do (good question), well there are a few ideas but one is "nothing" ...... the future will change things whatever we do (if nothing).

It is an obvious fact, things will not get better nor stay the same if you try it that way.

Doyle

[SteveA]

There's no question - most folks are looking at the price.  I believe most families think to themselves that real estate space is expensive and the square footage is less for them than their parents provided.  That means furniture will get used thoroughly.  Why buy good quality when within 3 years the sofa is worn or soiled and needs replacement or recovering now matter how firm the deck is.  Easier to replace it during one of the holiday sales.  At Bob's furniture a neighbor bought a 2 piece leather sectional on sale for $ 400.00 + delivery.  Contrast that with the cost to recover a 2 piece frame with leather you're over $4500.00.

SA

[kodydog]

Borrowed this book from the library and started reading it last night.

I always wondered what happened to Americas $50 billion industry?

This quote from an Asian businessman in 1984.
The Taiwanese businessman had never met people quite like the Americans.

"If the price is right you will do anything. The Americans were not only knocking one another over in a stampede to import the cheapest furniture they could but they were also ignoring the fact that they were jeopardizing their own factories back home by teaching their Asian competitors every nuance of the American furniture-making trade.
When we get on top the man said, don't expect us to be dumb enough to do for you what you,ve been dumb enough to do for us."

[forsailbyowner]

Theres a big reason price is the driving concern. Wages have remained stagnant for the vast majority while the price of everything has been rapidly increasing. 14 years ago before Clinton signed the trade agreement with china then Bush put the country on an eternal war budget. The price of gas was around a buck. Whos wages went up 350%?  Sure not the factory workers or tradesmen. Chinas plan since the 60s was to promote revolution from within the american populace. Seems to me they are doing a heck of a job of it. Meanwhile the government panders to bankers and corporate billionaires above the good of the majority. Lazy americans I dont think so.