MADE IN THE USA!

Bamby said:

for big box stores to bother with

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I believe this is why home businesses should concentrate on 'niche markets.'

If there are no craftsmen in your area, then there is no competition for you.

The Tourist said:

I understand that. And in most cases the work demonstrates the prowess you have in your chosen field.

But how many chefs and serious home cooking hobbyists know anything about 1,000 year old Japanese history and superior steel?

There are trades--like medicine, architecture, safety--where the client needs advice as well as a product.

If one of my clients is about to shell out somewhere between 500 and 2,000 dollars for one knife, trust me, we are going to have a long conversation about what he does and doesn't know.

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Unfortunately for me, the concept of "bang for the buck" plays largely here. I can't afford $500 for a mid-range japanese kitchen knife, but I can afford $100 for my personal favorite 6" Wusthof chefs knife (made in Germany) that will likely perform 90% as well as the more expensive laminated steel. (and yes, i have a clue about Japanese metalworking history & processes - white or blue steel woodworking chisels, anyone?)

I can't afford a $1000 scope for my $300 rifle - but if I could, it would likely shoot more accurately than a $100 scope on a $1200 rifle. OTOH, I'm perfectly cool with the idea of a "starter scope" to get used to the characteristics of the rifle and decide how much I like it before shelling out the extra $$ for a better scope.

Erik said:

I can't afford $500 for a mid-range japanese kitchen knife.

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Erik, contact me PM.

Going back to quality products......I don't care if the label says MADE IN CANADA or MADE IN USA. Just as long as its made on this side of the ocean. When I'm shopping for clothes, that's what I look for. I want a quality product that won't shrink two sizes the first time I wash it. You should see my family at christmas. Me, my dad, and my brother are all the same. When we get, say, a shirt or sweater as a present, the first thing we look at is the tag before we even look at what the item looks like to see where it's made.

My wife bought a new couch. She didn’t like leather. They said that they would put her choice of fabric on to match what women think should match. I asked if they made their furniture in Tennessee and they said no, Canada. It takes three weeks to ship it from Canada after it is made.
Now what happened in the furniture industry?
They won’t let us make anything?

We have the same problem in the UK - basically it is Government they seem to be dead set in ruining our industries. Incidentally while I was in the USA I was suprised to find that many things I looked at bore the label 'made in China', in fact I found it difficult to actually buy things that were made in the USA to bring back with me.

Good or bad I have more luxuries today than my parents did. Why, I guess a bit because of technology, but mainly because Australia is flooded with cheap products. If it was not for these cheap products I would only be able to afford a fraction of what I have. Lifes good.

groomerguyNWO said:

I tend to agree on the quality thing. Allot of people out there nowadays don't care as much about the quality of the products they buy. They care more about the price.

I work in a plywood plant. At least I do for another three weeks. We make high end custom plywood for indoor cabinetry. Companies used to buy our products because when they were done making a cabinet or peice of furniture from a sheet of our wood, they'd have a quality peice of furniture. Now, the trend in recent years has been to import the wood from china at a lower cost than what we make it for. But trust me on this one. We got in some of their wood and the quality is not there. One of the main reasons we are shutting down in three weeks is because we can't compete with the low end sutff the chineese are producing and the companies we sell to don't seem to be concerned about quality. They tell us that they still like our product but want us to sell it to them for the same price as what the chineese are selling it for. Allot of the companies that buy the high end wood we make are now turning to that cheap pressboard crap that falls apart as soon as you touch it. The quality is not there anymore in about 90% of the furniture made today.

It's like walking into a mercedes or Lexus dealership and demanding that they sell you the car for the same price as say, a KIA or Hyundai(just using those two as examples of cheaper vehicles). People expect the same quality from the cheaper brands as they would get from the high end quality brands. But they aren't willing to pay for it.

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Hey I own 2 Kia's, nice cars really. Did not want to pay more for more that I dont want or need. I certainly dont need to drive around in a status symbol Lexus..............and be paying for it. I would rather drive my Kia, park next to a Lexus and not worry about getting my door dinged. Seriously, I got what I needed in a car, all the usual toys, for a lot less than I could with ford or chevy...............which are more in line with Kia...........except for price............and I got a warranty that ford cant touch

I've got nothing but bad memories from owning two different Kia's. The first one had a bunch of different problems with it all starting at around 15000km's. The door lock mechanism's would freeze up on us all the time. The wife was once locked inside the car because the door wouldn't open and the windows were jammed as well. We met a transport on the highway and the hood flew open. The painted mouldings on the body were fading and falling off. Finally, the last straw with it was when the rear wheel locked up solid sending me into a 360 skid. We traded it for the sedona van and had nothing but power steering troubles with it. We only had it for three years and every winter, it seemed like it spent more time in the shop than it did out of the shop. In total, 5 power steering hoses and two power steering pumps. I brought it in to the dealership 3 hrs away to have them look at it as the pump was making a grinding sound. They confirmed that the pump was on its way out but they didn't have another one in stock and it would take a week to get in. They refused to give us a courtesy vehicle for the week. So, we proceeded home. The pump failed as I was heading into a sharp corner around a rock cut. It took everything I had just to keep it on the road. I don't know how many days work I lost making trips back and forth to the city for the Kia's I owned in the past.....
And I'm not the only one in town that's had problems with them. Other owners were all having the same kinds of problems. I know the tow truck driver in our town fairly well and he said that he tows at least 3 of them back to the city every week for service.

groomerguyNWO said:

They refused to give us a courtesy vehicle.

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You hit that dead on! You have to customer service your clients, or lose them.

I had to make a call today and eat some crow. A minor problem, we believe a packing slip was off by one digit.

The problem was that I might have over-billed a new client.

Now I'm not defending Kia or brushing past your problems, but that entire incident was handled poorly. Every vehicle has a maintenance jacket, it's probably now on computer and available at the touch of a button. You bought multiple vehicles--and had multiple problems.

A moment of kindness and trust might have saved your account.

I buy a lot of my knives from Japan Woodworker. I have an inside sales/customer service agent named Heidi. This is a great company with excellent products--but things go wrong. Japan is a long way away, and I'm still sitting on some December back-orders.

But Heidi is just one of those diamonds in the rough. She has pulled my chestnuts out of the fire more than once.

So unlike your Kia experience, I'm proud of the way I'm treated by customer service when things go bad.

I have good people.