On 6 Mar 2006 10:34:25 -0800, "Joe" wrote:

Was buying a supposed American toaster when infact he bought a Mexican
toaster.

Just got a recent issue of Fine Steel Crafting. In there is an old
story about
Black & Decker closing plants and moving production to Mexico.

This is rather pathetic and thought such informaiton would
be of interest to this group.


The goal is to put 1300 workers out of work and to eliminate another
choice for the consumer. That choice being the ability to find and
purchase American produced hardware. The thought is that they will
save $100 Million also.


I think it is high time we as consumers make sure that Black and Decker

never sees that $100 million. By that I'm suggesting that each end
everyone one of us commit to not purchasing Black & Decker manufactured

equipment in any form.


Yes I realize that it is hard or in some cases impossible to find
American made tools in certain catagories. But this is a corporate
attack
on the long standing American workers and a product line that has years

of history in this country. Special effort in this case, that is to
boycott all products from Black and Decker, seems to be the least we
can
do.


So how about it - Do you think that we as a community can act to
prevent
Black & Decker from making a profit for the forseeable future?


Thanks

Joe


Two points:

The company that I used to work for is now owned by B & D. They
bought the company in Octoberof 2004. Prior to B & D buying the
company the prior owners (Pentair) were trying to move everything to
China as fast as they possibly could. They didn't care if what they
peddled was junk as long as they could make a bigger profit. B & D is
trying to reverse some of that. They like to keep the machining
operations in the U.S. and just assemble in Mexico. By doing so they
can offer the best of both worlds, a higher quality product with the
cost structure of lower cost assembly labor.

Which do you think is worse, importing junk from china (pretty much
all my old competitors) or leaving the high paying machining jobs in
the U. S. and assembling good product in Mexico. I for one will keep
buying B & D products.

Point two. The last toaster I bought, I went with the intention of
starting with the lowest cost toaster and working my way up to the
first american made toaster which I planned to buy. I never got
there. Out of about fifteen models at Lowes, none were American made.

Some things you will just have to do without if you want to buy
American.