Tired of Chinese products

[Handy Don 12,227]

5 minutes ago, ri702bill said:

Don:

I can relate to the free sample incident. I worked as a technician twice for Brown & Sharpe, first in the Machine Tool division in the early 1980's and again for the Metrology division in the 1990's (at that point the Machine Tool division was dead and gone). We had several of our programmable Machining Centers and programmable Lathes at the large Chicago Machine Tool trade show. The Lathe was turning out samples of what was tauted as the smallest machine screw in the world - made an 0-80 screw look like a 8" lagbolt. A few went to representative of a Japanese competitor. A couple of weeks later, an envelope arrives - no correspondence, just a return address of the supplier in Japan. Our Engineer opened the envelope and inside was one of our sample screws. Upon close inspection under a microscope, our screw had been drilled thru and tapped for THEIR smallest screw that was driven in!

Bill

GREAT story, thanks! It also illustrates that a lot of the capabilities of industries all over are not highly publicized and even less widely cared about. I recall as a kid reading Popular Science and Mechanics Illustrated where stories like this could be found (suffused with a US boosterism, of course).

[lynnmor 7,306]

The US was founded on Judaeo-Christian principles, read any of the original documents forming the country.  Some countries have little in the way of those principles and the population might have no qualms about producing product of poor quality.  While the US may have slipped and the countries in question may have advanced, in my opinion this is the underlying issue. 

[953 nut 55,229]

On 10/18/2021 at 8:27 PM, Ed Kennell said:

Looks like Communism has won the long fought war.  And without firing a shot. 

In the mid 1980s I was part of the management team at a large (24 acres under roof) hydroponic greenhouse farm. The US Department of Agriculter aproched us to see if we would host a group of Chinese "agriculturalists" for three months. USDA would pay their wages, reimburse the farm for housing and transporting them and cover all incadental expenses.

We agreed and a few weeks later they arrived, three spoke reasonably good English and two were fluint in Spanish, that was a big supprise. I spent a good deal of time with them as they familiarized themselves with our operation. They were extremely good workers and became proficiant at any task in shot order. I also accompanied them for their first shoppint trip to Walmart and the Mall. The questions they would ask made it apparent that they had no intrest in hydroponic farming but were very interested in the American consumer.

Turns out they were all government employees who were in the US to learn what motivates our shopper and what aspects of a product would have the greatest appeal. 

[SylvanLakeWH 25,558]

14 minutes ago, 953 nut said:

In the mid 1980s I was part of the management team at a large (24 acres under roof) hydroponic greenhouse farm. The US Department of Agriculter aproched us to see if we would host a group of Chinese "agriculturalists" for three months. USDA would pay their wages, reimburse the farm for housing and transporting them and cover all incadental expenses.

We agreed and a few weeks later they arrived, three spoke reasonably good English and two were fluint in Spanish, that was a big supprise. I spent a good deal of time with them as they familiarized themselves with our operation. They were extremely good workers and became proficiant at any task in shot order. I also accompanied them for their first shoppint trip to Walmart and the Mall. The questions they would ask made it apparent that they had no intrest in hydroponic farming but were very interested in the American consumer.

Turns out they were all government employees who were in the US to learn what motivates our shopper and what aspects of a product would have the greatest appeal. 

We have those folks too… they work for a large “insurance company” just outside of Langley…