Not Good News For Many

[Ron61]

This article about Where You Won't Shop In 2009 doesn't sound very good. Even Sears isn't expected to make it through the year.

http://www.forbes.com/commerce/2009/...iness_commerce

Ron

[4RE KLR]

Interesting, Some of this is already happening around here. I beliee this will touch everyone before it is over. It's going to be a long road.

[Wayne Maybury]

A lot of the crap in many stores is made in China anyway. These will mostly be service jobs that will be lost as the manufacturing jobs have already been shipped offshore.

Wayne

[Ron61]

Wayne,

If K-Mart and Sears closes it won't just be service jobs. And the Sears store here has already been in serious trouble and I am surprised they haven't closed it already. I really would hate to see Sears go as I like their tools and equipment.

Ron

[Wayne Maybury]

Ron

When I got married, I bought a Sears lawn mower that was great. It lasted about 25 years before it got to the point where it was just too tired to fix. I never even looked elsewhere when I decided to get a new one, I went right back to Sears. What a piece of crap that was. I junked it after 5 or 6 years. Needless to say the next mower did not come from Sears.

I also used to buy quite a few tools at Sears then I bought an electric miter saw (chop saw) from them. It worked OK but it hasn't lasted the way I thought it should. I checked and the damn thing was made in China. It won't last much longer as the motor started making strange noises when a piece of wood jammed in it recently. I haven't even been in a Sears store for several years.

I now always try to buy stuff made in Canada or the US as much as I can, even if it is more expensive.

Wayne

[Ron61]

Wayne,

I haven't bought a lot of stuff from Sears for the past several years, but what I have bought was made in the U.S. I have had good luck with their Craftsman tools and the lawn equipment. I have two lawn mowers and one of them is almost 13 years old and the other is about 9 years old and all I have ever did was replace the plug and blades as they wore out. I quit going there when K-Mart took out all of the clothing and stuff and filled it with cheap Chinese made junk.

Ron

[Scott S]

Originally Posted by Ron61

This article about Where You Won't Shop In 2009 doesn't sound very good. Even Sears isn't expected to make it through the year.

http://www.forbes.com/commerce/2009/...iness_commerce

Ron

Good news for me, my wife shops in many of those stores.

Scott S

[Ron61]

Scott,

Not such good news for people in your business. Last week the mill here announced they were laying off one shift and cutting way back on hours worked. I don't see many log trucks going in any more either. Last time I drove by there it seemed they had a huge amount of logs piled and they weren't going down very fast.

Ron

[mln385]

It is a double edge sword, we the consumer have demanded the cheapest price hence the over seas market here.

Look at all the imported tools they are cheaply made and why because the consumer demands the lowest price at the cost of quality. This is why the usa markets have lost...

The USA consumer has done this to themselves.
Is it coming full circle?maybe....is it to late....maybe.
I think the bottom will be around mid year this year and then we may start coming out of it, however it is going to be slow rebuild in my opinion.

Marc

[Scott S]

Originally Posted by Ron61

Scott,

Not such good news for people in your business. Last week the mill here announced they were laying off one shift and cutting way back on hours worked. I don't see many log trucks going in any more either. Last time I drove by there it seemed they had a huge amount of logs piled and they weren't going down very fast.

Ron

My first slowdown in two decades starts mid February, we can only ship 10 loads a day(we average 16) and may work 3 weeks a month.

This will be tough on the crew.

Scott S

[Ron61]

Marc,

Look at all the imported tools they are cheaply made and why because the consumer demands the lowest price at the cost of quality. This is why the USA markets have lost...

Sorry but I don't agree with you on that point. It was not the consumers that made the companies move overseas to get cheap crap. It was mostly unions and greed for more and higher pay all the time. And as for the tools being cheaper, around here they still cost about the same, just aren't worth a darn. On that point I agree and I try to find anything I can that is made in the U.S. and not china, Taiwan, or Korea, but it is getting very hard to do around this area. I have always preferred to pay a little more and get quality than pay for junk.

Ron

[Bobcat]

Ron , another factor is our punitive tax structure on Corporations and business . A few years ago , I spent some "off site " time with some of my upper , upper level management and one of the things we unofficially talked about was our opening plants out of the US .... guess what , our tax structure was a major factor , as was Unions . I have also heard that when Daimler and Chrysler were merging , they were looking at where to locate the headquarters for the new Corporation . If they named the company Chrysler Daimler and located here , they were at a 15 % disadvantage over naming the company Daimler Chrysler and locating overseas because of the US tax structure .
Like you , I try to buy as much American made stuff as possible , but it`s getting really difficult .

[Silverback51]

Originally Posted by Ron61

Marc,

Look at all the imported tools they are cheaply made and why because the consumer demands the lowest price at the cost of quality. This is why the USA markets have lost...

Sorry but I don't agree with you on that point. It was not the consumers that made the companies move overseas to get cheap crap. It was mostly unions and greed for more and higher pay all the time. And as for the tools being cheaper, around here they still cost about the same, just aren't worth a darn. On that point I agree and I try to find anything I can that is made in the U.S. and not china, Taiwan, or Korea, but it is getting very hard to do around this area. I have always preferred to pay a little more and get quality than pay for junk.

Ron

Ron, I think this is an older generation thing.

I'm the same as you. I will pay more for a quality product everytime. If you buy something that is cheap, chances are you will not be satisfied with it. You will always be thinking, why didn't I pay an extra $$$$ for what I really wanted.

The few times I did buy something cheap, I either gave, or threw it away to buy what I really wanted in the first place.

[427 S/O]

Quote Silverback: 'why didn't I pay an extra $$$$ for what I really wanted'.

Well said, I went the cheap route a few times, no more!. best to wait until you can afford it.

[Ron61]

Yea, nothing quite like the experience of having a socket made in China split when you are trying to get a tight nut off and causing a person to break their hand. No, it wasn't me. I won't buy tools made in China. It was a friend of mine that figured he was ahead if he had to replace them every other use as they were so cheap. After the medical bill he now tries to find tools made in the U. S. He even tried to buy three of my socket sets.

Ron

[trularin]

I hate trying to get a tight nut off in China.

[Joe Wicked]

Originally Posted by Ron61

Yea, nothing quite like the experience of having a socket made in China split when you are trying to get a tight nut off and causing a person to break their hand. No, it wasn't me. I won't buy tools made in China. It was a friend of mine that figured he was ahead if he had to replace them every other use as they were so cheap. After the medical bill he now tries to find tools made in the U. S. He even tried to buy three of my socket sets.

Ron

Been there done that. When I was first married and broke, I bought the cheap tools as it was what I could afford. I was at the junk yard helping a friend get some parts for his car and had the 12MM split on me and while I didn't break my hand, I sliced it from my knuckles to just past my wrist. No stitches were needed, but after tetanus shot and everything else, I learned a lesson.

[nevermind65]

Problem is, most don't even know what is made in China these days and what isn't. Look at Milwaukee power tools, now owned by a Chinese company and half their products are made in China. Most think Milwaukee is all American. Same with Ridgid. Manu of their tools are still made in the U.S., but many come from overseas plants. One of their newer tools has many of the internal parts made in China, but they assemble it here and make the casing and motor in the U.S.

It's a world market these days. People wanted cheap, Wal-mart gave them cheap.