For Sale to China

[cowboydoc]

Normally I do very little if any shopping. I hear stuff on here about made in china and all the mahindra, kioti, and other mfg. like deere and nh being produced overseas. However we have been building an addition on our house and I have spent way more time in stores than I would have liked. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif We went to look at and buy some new furniture. We shopped at the higher end furniture stores and the box stores like American, Oak Express, Sofa Mart, etc. Everything that I saw was made in China. I looked in the warehouses when we were picking stuff up and it was floor to ceiling everything boxed up and all the boxes said made in china. I asked at numerous places for american made furniture and was told there wasn't any. To add even further insult to injury they don't even put your stuff together!! It just comes in these boxes labeled MADE IN CHINA. I'm not talking about cheap stuff either. I'm talking about supposedly the top of the line stuff. Anyway I have been more than a little shell shocked with the whole experience. And oh yeah they will set-up for an additional $300. After stewing about this for the last couple days I loaded everything up two nights ago and headed back to the stores and returned it all. A friend told me about a store called Amish furniture that is all hand made Amish furniture. It was all solid wood and very nice. It was more than what we had bought but it was all assembled and ready to go. They even deliver and set for free. Now I realize this is built into the price. But still this was what I had expected from the other so called "quality" stores.

It's no wonder that steel is so high and fuel is so high. Everywhere you look almost everything is made in China. I ordered a breast collar from a "supposed" quality outfit called National Ropers Supply. For years they have had great stuff that is supposedly hand made. Well they forgot to take the sticker off because it had made in china right on the back of it. I mean this is a horse breast collar. I guess even the western stuff isn't sacred anymore either. When I called the mfg. he said yes they had to start carrying the "china" stuff to compete. I said well you sold me the last piece of equipment.

I realize it's a global economy and all but everywhere all you see is Made in China. Seriously how much more can the US economy take if now even all the furniture and something I thought would never say made in china, horse equipment, isn't even safe??? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[shvl73]

Maybe someday when we get fair trade, $1.00 in, $1.00 out.
I'd like to see it happen.

 

[Glenn1]

I have a sister and two brother inlaws loosing their jobs at Keller Manufacturing in Cordon Ind. They manufacture high end dinning room and bed room furniture. This was a company in buisness close to 100 years. The NEW management shutdown all manufacturing and is buying from China. The few people remaining are batching the material from china upon receipt.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

cowboydoc . . . I know how you feel. We just bought new bedroom furniture for a couple rooms plus some bookcases. Amish Furniture is the genuine stuff, but it doesn't suit my tastes. We found plenty of other American made stuff as well, but it is definately on the pricy side. What we settled on was delivered and set in place, it arrived fully assembled, with real tongue & groove joinery, solid cherry construction, etc. The lovely Mrs_Bob is getting a new jewely cabinet for Christmas that matches the new bedroom furniture we purchased less than a year ago. The price quote I got for that narrow little jewelry chest is $1000 even, and that is with my discount. A couple other stores gave me quotes on the same piece that ranged from 12-to-18% more. So you can get American made stuff, but you better be prepared to pay for it.

Now I will also say that just like with many other things, you get what you pay for in terms of quality. No pressboard, no vinyl veneers that look like wood. This is the real thing, just like the Amish stuff. Stuff that will be handed down through the generations and still look good.

 

[cowboydoc]

Bob can you tell me what those mfgs. and stores are? I have no problem paying more. I would much rather support our own industry than China.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Doc, call Mandy at Basista Furniture, she is great to work with and handles high end and modest priced brands. Some are imported some are domestic. Basista is based in Ohio, but ships with white glove type service. Her phone number is 216-398-5900.

Basista Furniture

 

[rdln]

News in Michigan today is quarterly report from Lazy Boy showing dwindeling profits resulting in a new 52week low stock price, among reasons are higher raw materials (steel and wood) I am sure mgmt will be scared into more importing = american layoffs=higher unemployment stats=lower stock market=more importing=..............Until americans start shopping with there minds and not thier wallets....hhmm make sense?

 

[cowboydoc]

<font color="green">You know you have a real tractor when shifting your body wont improve it's traction.

</font>

ROFL that is the best description for a real tractor I've seen. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[rdln]

Yeah Doc, Its about time I changed that.

I thought of it this spring when I was rolling my moms lawn on her JD stx46 (15hp gasser) and my tires started to spin and instinctively stomped my left foot down to lock up the rear diff and forgot what the correct procedure actually was.

 

[mwechtal]

Bob,
I see that Basista carries Crawford furniture. Crawford is based in Jamestown NY, and we have several pieces of their furniture in Oak. We are very happy with it. It is all solid wood except for the backs and drawer bottoms. Frankly the drawer bottoms should be made of ply, and I don't really care about the backs. Anyway I've been outside of the factory and they were recieving hardwood. This was about 4 years ago though. I can't remember the pricing, but I'm sure it wasn't that much more than the prices for the imported junk.

Mike