Harbor freight in trouble

Originally Posted by krismoriah72
Drove past the Chinese restaurant this weekend... all is well.



It's the all you can eat buffet draw ! Thing is when reality pokes it head through is this. Some of those Chinese restaurants have a tendency to use Illegal Chinese aliens as kitchen help. They trade them a term of indentured Servitude in exchange for smuggling them in and housed. Back 15 years or do it was running about $30k to be smuggled into the US so they worked off the bill under the table . A lot of those places are likely have a this cozy setup and seem to make big bucks compared to others in the restaurant trade. 🤔. Considering recent concerns I'd put chinese restaurants on the same list as cruise ships.......
 
Originally Posted by Farnsworth
Walmart sells a lot of USA goods. I am surprised sometimes. Food and essentials too, which HF does not. I would be happy if HF went out of business, definitely not sad.

Unfortunately if they do go belly up there will be a lot of American people working for them out of work. I can easily live w/o HF, however those people might find getting a job tough, and possibly tax the system as well. I'd feel bad for those people.
 
Originally Posted by Driz
Originally Posted by krismoriah72
Drove past the Chinese restaurant this weekend... all is well.



It's the all you can eat buffet draw ! Thing is when reality pokes it head through is this. Some of those Chinese restaurants have a tendency to use Illegal Chinese aliens as kitchen help. They trade them a term of indentured Servitude in exchange for smuggling them in and housed. Back 15 years or do it was running about $30k to be smuggled into the US so they worked off the bill under the table . A lot of those places are likely have a this cozy setup and seem to make big bucks compared to others in the restaurant trade. 🤔. Considering recent concerns I'd put chinese restaurants on the same list as cruise ships.......

Around here they quit using Chinese cooks and use central American migrant workers now.
 
Originally Posted by demarpaint
Originally Posted by Farnsworth
Walmart sells a lot of USA goods. I am surprised sometimes. Food and essentials too, which HF does not. I would be happy if HF went out of business, definitely not sad.

Unfortunately if they do go belly up there will be a lot of American people working for them out of work. I can easily live w/o HF, however those people might find getting a job tough, and possibly tax the system as well. I'd feel bad for those people.


That's the other unfortunate side of it. That $169 tool chest has to be made for like $20 given materials manufacturing shipping and those USA employees, plus profit. What about Sears employees, and the many USA companies out of business because to make that $169 tool chest actually costs many times that? Sears employees count too. And the steel etc etc employees. Just to paint the $169 tool chest costs probably that when done by an American company giving a fair wage social security Medicare etc benefits. Remember what PRC is too.
 
Originally Posted by P10crew
[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

This is what I need for this project.

HF has the ICON version for $1500. Makes the SO price not look so bad.
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff

So you have first hand knowledge of wages in China? Then the wage differential is worse. I was curious and did a search and the $5/hr in manufacturing was common info from various sources. It's no wonder inexpensive items can be made in China and shipped here and sold for a buck or 2.


Yes, I do. I'm working in Asia about 4 months a year. I don't doubt that there's published info out there saying $5.00 an hour, but I know of no manufacturing industries paying those wages. The wages I posted earlier are outside of Shanghai, which is actually the high end of the spectrum. Outside of Shenzhen, it will be similar. The farther you go from those places, the lower they go. So yeah, the wage gap is huge.

The other thing I'll say is take a visit to a place like Ningbo and ask yourself if you really want to live there (a lot of tools come out of Ningbo)... The pollution is epic. Yes, it's getting better. But when you blow your nose, everything that comes out is black.

If you want goods to be produced by folks making a living wage and with good environmental standards, you'll likely be paying 2-5 times the price, depending on the item.

*when I say "living wage", I should mention that the factory works are not leading terrible lives, and compared to China in the '60s... well, it's like the roaring 20's to them. Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. They generally have health care, giant phones and normal clothes (with weird idiomatic English sayings on them). They eat better than most Americans! Transportation is cheap and easy. They also only see what the government wants them to see, and their whereabouts, spending and social connections are monitored to an incredible degree. In short, it's a different place than the US.
 
Originally Posted by Farnsworth
Originally Posted by demarpaint
Originally Posted by Farnsworth
Walmart sells a lot of USA goods. I am surprised sometimes. Food and essentials too, which HF does not. I would be happy if HF went out of business, definitely not sad.

Unfortunately if they do go belly up there will be a lot of American people working for them out of work. I can easily live w/o HF, however those people might find getting a job tough, and possibly tax the system as well. I'd feel bad for those people.


That's the other unfortunate side of it. That $169 tool chest has to be made for like $20 given materials manufacturing shipping and those USA employees, plus profit. What about Sears employees, and the many USA companies out of business because to make that $169 tool chest actually costs many times that? Sears employees count too. And the steel etc etc employees. Just to paint the $169 tool chest costs probably that when done by an American company giving a fair wage social security Medicare etc benefits. Remember what PRC is too.

I feel bad for any worker who loses their job, Sears included.
wink.gif
I was siting HF since that was the topic here. IMO there are going to be a lot of people losing their jobs this year.
 
Originally Posted by OVERKILL
That's the Western way, we have a society whose function is now predicated on the concept of consumption. We've transitioned from a model where products were procured, serviced and repaired, all typically offered under one roof or via dedicated service centres, to one where volume of product, most of it offshore, is what maintains the viability of the operation peddling it and there is zero thought given to those former services or metrics for product quality. Once the product inevitably breaks, it gets landfilled or shipped overseas to be "recycled" and a new one is purchased, driving the cycle. Westerners are little islands of refuse production, set 'top our little hills of existential cycling, driving the economies of places like China whom we'll denigrate while gleefully taking the latest trinket from their hands.


Well said!
 
Originally Posted by JOD
*when I say "living wage", I should mention that the factory works are not leading terrible lives, and compared to China in the '60s... well, it's like the roaring 20's to them. Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. They generally have health care, giant phones and normal clothes (with weird idiomatic English sayings on them). They eat better than most Americans! Transportation is cheap and easy. They also only see what the government wants them to see, and their whereabouts, spending and social connections are monitored to an incredible degree. In short, it's a different place than the US.

Glad you mentioned this part. All too often you see outrage when there's mention of people earning $20/day or $3/hour in other countries. So what ? It's a different country. That could be perfectly acceptable, middle-class income amounts ! You simply can't compare wages and cost-of-living across the board to all countries as if they're 100% equal.
 
my wife and I had to go to two different Tmobile stores to get our iphones replaced.

Two local Tmobile stores had 1 iphone each, and they couldn't figure out how to transfer one phone to another store.
 
Originally Posted by hallstevenson
Originally Posted by JOD
*when I say "living wage", I should mention that the factory works are not leading terrible lives, and compared to China in the '60s... well, it's like the roaring 20's to them. Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. They generally have health care, giant phones and normal clothes (with weird idiomatic English sayings on them). They eat better than most Americans! Transportation is cheap and easy. They also only see what the government wants them to see, and their whereabouts, spending and social connections are monitored to an incredible degree. In short, it's a different place than the US.

Glad you mentioned this part. All too often you see outrage when there's mention of people earning $20/day or $3/hour in other countries. So what ? It's a different country. That could be perfectly acceptable, middle-class income amounts ! You simply can't compare wages and cost-of-living across the board to all countries as if they're 100% equal.


You can certainly talk about wages when you're comparing what it would cost to make that $169 HF toolbox in the USA. Good for them if they can live a comfortable life on $20/day, not happening here.

Many .gov and private entities are advising to be prepared for possible disruptions in your day to day life. It's starting to show up.
 
Originally Posted by AZjeff
Originally Posted by Mr Nice
Bring manufacturing back to the USA.
34.gif

Especially pharmaceuticals.

I don't mind spending more $$$ to have more Americans employed.


It looks like the average manufacturing wage in China in 2018 was $5/hr. Are we willing to spend twice as much for stuff? Unlikely.

I am if it means more jobs in the USA.

I don't like seeing old abandoned American manufacturing facilities..... they look like tombstones in a graveyard.
 
Just talked to my friend that works for CSX. He says freight volume is way down. Some container trains at like 50% of normal.
 
Originally Posted by Mr Nice
Bring manufacturing back to the USA.
34.gif

Especially pharmaceuticals.

I don't mind spending more $$$ to have more Americans employed.

Amen to that!
 
Good HF sells junk products. Over 90% of there products are imported cheaply made knock offs.
 
Originally Posted by hatt
Originally Posted by P10crew

This is what I need for this project.

HF has the ICON version for $1500. Makes the SO price not look so bad.


I've never seen anyone pay retail for Snap-on boxes....There is always a promotion or similar going on.
 
When you see what this project entails you will understand why I want a good low cost side cab.
The bottom of the second to bottom drawer is getting butchered.
 
Originally Posted by P10crew
When you see what this project entails you will understand why I want a good low cost side cab.
The bottom of the second to bottom drawer is getting butchered.

That tin can HF box should be perfect then!!
 
Lol yeah I think it will. IF the width of the drawer opening is wide enough. I have not even been able to measure the front of one yet.
 
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