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Jos. A. Banks used to have the most awesome, lasted for years, men's no-iron dress shirts. When they switched production from 'made in Hong Kong' (long a source for quality menswear) to the more generic 'Made in China' their quality and quality control fell off a cliff- Spousal Unit bought a group of four dress shirts, and three of them shredded along the seams within the first ten washes.
Jos. A. Banks used to have the most awesome, lasted for years, men's no-iron dress shirts. When they switched production from 'made in Hong Kong' (long a source for quality menswear) to the more generic 'Made in China' their quality and quality control fell off a cliff- Spousal Unit bought a group of four dress shirts, and three of them shredded along the seams within the first ten washes.
Spousal Unit? Anyway Hong Kong certainly had a very good garment industry. I guess one could see the writing on the wall when England split the seam, I mean the scene.
I just got home from my latest trip to the store to return something.
It used to be that most of these trips were made because I bought the wrong item, or wrong size or something like that. These days it is almost exclusively because the thing I just bought didn't survive it's first use. IT'S JUNK.
More specifically - Chinese Junk.
That "JUNK", is a product of American companies giving Chinese manufacturing plants clear and specific specs on manufacturing. Don't blame the Chinese, they just manufacture the items as the fortune 500 companies specify and order. All the US multinational corps care about is a profit, not the product's longevity. US corps also engage in what's called, "PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE" If they could, they'd make the same cheap "JUNK" here in America but labor costs are cheaper elsewhere.
When given orders to build high quality merchandise, ie your iphone, they are extremely high quality and made in China. Quality is a function of the decisions made in the American board room.
Last edited by ControlJohnsons; 04-29-2016 at 11:15 AM..
I am somewhat skeptical when people claim American made means high quality. I've bought American made clothing and shoes that have fallen apart quickly while other clothes made in China or Vietnam have held up through the years. It's hit and miss. If something is cheap, it's cheap for a reason
American cars still suck. I've owned 3 american cars, 2 japanese, and 2 german in my lifetime. we had a 2005 SAAB that was built by GM, it had the most problems i ever experienced. was fine for first 18 months, then the problems began one after another. drove a 2010 buick lacrosse, that was a piece of sh*t, had radiator, ac and transmission issues all within 3 years. bushings were worn out too. i happily traded that in.
the camry and acura drove for 180k+ miles with no issues, EVER. the 2 bmw's i owned rock solid. i still own the camry and the 2 bmw's.
Last edited by ControlJohnsons; 04-29-2016 at 11:17 AM..
No clue about tools made in USA or elsewhere, but no question all our high quality electronics are made ex US. There's not a good US option so what are people supposed to do?
One area where I always buy American is furniture. China, Taiwan, Vietnam etc. make crap when it comes to furniture. Sure you pay more for brands made in the US, but the quality is worth it. All you need to do is shop Rooms to Go to see what passed for "quality" when China is making furniture.
Most American style furniture manufactured in China ie Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, IKEA are American designs. They are junk for the most part because the board room dictates what inferior materials to use to engineer earnings growth
Now, buying real Chinese furniture is another story. Anything Chinese made for Chinese is made right. The stuff that breaks and made cheap is decided by the board room at a US corporation.
Last edited by ControlJohnsons; 04-29-2016 at 11:18 AM..
I will never buy anything made in China and feed it to my dogs!!!!
90% of the things in your home is made in china probably, you just don't realize it. with the exception of amish fireplaces, america doesn't do much manufacturing anymore.
Virtually all high tech electronic consumers good such as those with the Apple brand name are now made in China. China produces 5x the number of high tech products as produced in the US. The clock is ticking on US high tech. Even Intel is cutting back 15,000 jobs this year.
If you want to buy cheap junk, you can buy cheap junk made in China. If you want to buy high quality, high tech products you pretty much need to buy them from China or what is left of Japanese manufacturing.
Agreed.
We won't have much of a high-tech industry in a decade except defense industry.
Though i wouldn't be surprised one day they decide to move our fighter jet production to China!!
Most American style furniture manufactured in China ie Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, IKEA are American designs. They are junk for the most part because the board room dictates what inferior materials to use to engineer earnings growth
Now, buying real Chinese furniture is another story. Anything Chinese made for Chinese is made right. The stuff that breaks and made cheap is decided by the board room at a US corporation.
Are you kidding? Clothing that falls apart after 10 washings? Kitchen appliances that don't last more than 5-10 years? 70% of America's small farmers driven off their land by agribusiness, who are toxifying the land at alarming rates in order to bring you that cheap food laced with pesticides (yeah, that's really "amazing") that I wouldn't in a million years feed my children. As for variety: how much variety do you need? Only toddlers need a new shiny object every day. Not to mention the thousands of small farmers in Mexico driven off their land because they can't compete with American agribusiness that has invaded their economy with cheaper prices.
Every heard of anti-trust laws? They were once enforced for a reason.
Not to mention that if our jobs hadn't all been shipped overseas, people wouldn't have to be concerned with buying the cheapest possible product, would they. Back when I was a kid and all economies were local and regulated, when there were no malls, when the only big box stores were Sears and maybe a couple of others, when downtowns were thriving with small family-owned businesses, when there was a strong and thriving American middle class, people could afford just about everything they needed and almost all of it was made in America. And it was INFINITELY of better quality that the often VERY expensive crap coming out of China. But hey, so what if Indian farmers are committing suicide because of Monsanto, so what if Chinese or Peruvian workers have to slave 12 hours a day for peanuts, so what if climate change from the ramped-up CO2 coming out of those factories and from manic global transport of goods will doom your children, at least you've got your LEDs at the price you want. You can call that "progress" if you want. I call it a profound moral failure on the part of the American character.
you're correct IKEA, the company is swedish. and made in china.
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Anyway Hong Kong certainly had a very good garment industry. I guess one could see the writing on the wall when England split the seam, I mean the scene.
