Kiplinger Dying Professions

[baileyuph]

So true what is being said, change is inevitable - driven by technology and cheaper labor in other parts of our world.

In the upholstery service field the change started way back and continues.  If there isn't a way to for people involved in the craft to reconnect, so to speak, then like many are witnessing here, workers have to go in another direction.

Asian workers, as an example, it is reported are $3 a day workers.

Go figure,

Doyle

[Rich]

Darren, I have to disagree with "I think we need to find ways to educate the public about the benefits of our services".
I remember back in the early 80's, I was doing sublet work for an auto customizer who was doing vinyl tops and electric moonroofs for some Saudi businessmen. He told me "we don't make trends, we follow them". That stuck with me. He said, we are too small to have such an influence on people they way large corporations can sometimes do (Think Apple etc.). So what are we to do? Look around, see the attitudes, then think of ways to satisfy them. I hate the way that people want to buy cheap and end up contributing their upholstered furniture to the county landfill, but I don't have the time nor energy to tell them not to do that. Instead, I do different work, work that the customers in my area think is worth paying for.
Rich

[gene]

Two weeks ago I heard the term "brown", used to describe older furniture and antiques. It's meant to be derogatory. I do a lot of reupholstery for retired folks who spent their lives buying the best furniture available and collecting antique furniture. They are downsizing and often cannot give their furniture away to their grandchildren who are married and just starting families.

I think young people like to shop. And if they buy quality furniture that will last a lifetime, they will miss out on the many trips they could have made to IKEA or Costco to replace their broken chairs and worn out sofas.

gene

[brmax]

Something I have for many years seen, in writing and conveyed in word and is bullshit.
Using the term "Low skill manufacturing", This term Low skill working with your hands is in my experience from the writer and others who most likely couldn't touch their nose with their own finger.
I also have found the educated around me in a medium government town to be overly educated without pay because it does not require the education they have to punch a keyboard, adding to that fact they have promoted education in areas of non production, non demand, and no responsibility.
This is simple to see and we have commented many times on the couch potato, game playing youngsters that need to be moving around in competitions and letting them know full well when your team is not the winner of the game its "not" and that is why they don't get the ice cream or treats.

Floyd

[sofadoc]

I think young people like to shop. And if they buy quality furniture that will last a lifetime, they will miss out on the many trips they could have made to IKEA or Costco to replace their broken chairs and worn out sofas.

Sums it up pretty well. People nowadays don't even WANT their stuff to last. Because if it did, they wouldn't have any reason to buy new stuff.

And people love to buy new stuff.

[byhammerandhand]

re: Low skill professions.

A lot of these will be done by robots.   I took a tour of a cabinet factory last year and aside from the finish room and the owner keying the design options into his "cabinet software," about all the labor did was move parts from one machine to the next.  Saw a brick laying robot last week.

Not saying that we will someday have robo-upholsterers, but I'd say it's a better than even chance.  CNCs to cut and stitch fabric, CNC to cut frame parts, robo-arms to assemble them and add glue and fasteners, snap on the springs and padding, and reach and staple on the fabric.

[Rich]

I think young people like to shop. And if they buy quality furniture that will last a lifetime, they will miss out on the many trips they could have made to IKEA or Costco to replace their broken chairs and worn out sofas.

Excellent comment Gene! For whatever reason, shopping has become a national pastime, an idol if you will. Many of us can't resist the rush from going out to buy something NEW. Makes us feel important, refreshed, lifts our spirits etc.
I guess re-upholstery did that for past generations, but not so much today.
Rich

[Darren Henry]

You're dead right Rich. We cannot change public mentality, but so many of these "Daddy buy me the new X-box right now!" kids are suddenly having to pay their own credit cards and don't know what options are out there. I t boggles my mind just how many people I talk to that don't know that a shoe could have been fixed, or a broken spring wasn't the end of their 2 year old chair, etc...If people knew what services were out there and that life still exists off-line there would be alot more use of local services.

[Rich]

Years ago Darren, when I lived in NYC, a friend worked for the NYC dept of sanitation (trash collector) and he used to pick up perfectly usable items he found in the trash in affluent neighborhoods. For instance, I remember he got a good hedge clipper that someone threw out because they had accidentally cut the cord.

Today, it seems that mentality has spread to other classes of society as well. Of course, not everyone can afford to ditch an item for such reasons, but they do it.

One reason that I think people are willing to toss and buy new is that we're not even in a repair mode anymore for so many things. I was trained as a secondary school Industrial Arts (now Tech Ed.) teacher. I had taken an interest in shop classes while in Junior H.S. Back then, it was considered part of a child's education to have a working knowledge of tools, techniques etc. even if that wasn't to be their trade. I remember a professor in college who told the class that even if a student never actually applies this education in their work life, they will be better equipped to deal with a repair person when they have some knowledge of the subject.
So, today, we've all but ditched Tech Ed. thinking that it's not necessary to have a knowledge of how things work and how to repair them.
Now I certainly realize that so much of what is produced today is meant to be used up and discarded as it's virtually un-repairable, but collectively, people who have repair skills might be less likely to even want to buy the throw-away stuff and if fewer bought it, there'd be less of a market for it.
Just a thought,
Rich

[sofadoc]

I recently saw a mattress sitting out by the curb. I stopped and cut the tag off (yes, I'm probably going to go to prison for removing the tag).

This mattress was renovated by my grandmother back in '69. People didn't just throw their mattresses out and buy new ones back then. They bought one with the intention of it lasting a lifetime.  If it became worn out, they got it renovated and sterilized. And a new cover put on, all in one day for $30. We used to sterilize, and re-sell used mattresses. It was a big business. Now, people are so worried about cooties, you can't even give a used mattress away. I think the "cootie factor" has probably made it's way into the furniture world as well.

Another example of our throw away society.

[SteveA]

Those same people have no issues sleeping in Hotels anywhere !
They could load up old mattresses and send them to countries that need them.  They could have bundled in some mattresses on that plane that just carried away 400 million to who knows where and for what ?
SA

[byhammerandhand]

One of my delivery/moving co. customers used to get up to two semis of mattresses a week.  They'd haul back the old ones upon request and I forget what they said they had to pay to dump them, but it was very expensive.

(and not to be picky, but shouldn't it be Bois D'arc  (trans: Bow wood, pronounced as it's sometimes spelled "bow dark") and not Bois 'D arc ?)

[sofadoc]

[quote author=byhammerandhand link=topic=14161.msg115673#msg115673 date=1470438024

(and not to be picky, but shouldn't it be Bois D'arc  (trans: Bow wood, pronounced as it's sometimes spelled "bow dark") and not Bois 'D arc ?)
[/quote]You are correct. We had 1000 tags that came from the printer that way.

But I think the literal translation of Bois D'arc means "Wood of the Ark". Because of the tree's appearance (branches looking old, almost petrified) people associated it with the wood used to build the Ark.

[byhammerandhand]

I didn't toil through 4 terms of French class for nothing.

The trees acquired the name bois d'arc, or "bow-wood", from early French settlers who observed the wood being used for war clubs and bow-making by Native Americans.  -- Wikipedia.


M. pomifera has been known by a variety of common names in addition to Osage orange, including hedge apple, horse apple, bois d'arc, bodark, bow-wood, yellow-wood, mock orange and monkey ball.

I think printers and sign painters should be expert spellers and grammarians.   I saw a sign, professionally made, recently that said "Alpaca's for Sale."     I also laugh when I see the sign on the back of someone's truck, " Masonary"     I mean how good can you be if you don't know your profession is "Masonry" not "Masonary?"    Any Uphosturers out there?

[sofadoc]

I only did 2 years of French, so I bow to you.

But if we're really getting technical, the A is capitalized. So it should be Bois D'Arc.