Thread: china......

yet the country is short of workers??


sumthin don't add up


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It gurus

I agree, but the most disturbing trend is when you go to buy your Australian made product more and more frequently the only choice you have is Chinese or Chinese

China = cheep stuff, very few care about quality nowdays.

But what can we do about that right?

What can you do? Well you mount your own personal crusade! Each of you knows a (large?) number of people who respect your opinions, so you take every opportunity to explain why high quality is better than cheap. Every person you convince will tell someone else.

One day, there will be enough people who believe it and buy locally made, high quality products.

As usual when this argument pops up, the crucial element of value for money is left out. Quality and price in themselves do not mean much. A Prada handbag that retails for $700 is made by the same people in China who make a ripoff copy that you can buy for $70. Sure, the finish might be a bit rougher, but the design is "quality" and 9 out of 10 people might not be able to tell the difference, and 9 out of 10 people are prepared to cough up $70 but not $700 for a handbag.

Nobody is going to give you a dollar for a dime, but oodles of people will try to give you a dime for a dollar. Buyer beware.

Originally Posted by rhancock

What can you do? Well you mount your own personal crusade!

Yes and its so easy to turn it to your advantage.

I know its no good for the industry as a whole, but as an individual furniture maker its a bonus for me. So easy to convince people that its worth paying a lot more for "local" quality that wont fall apart in a few years and can be handed down to the next generation.

Seems strange to think it, but if there wasnt the huge amount of imports, there would be more local makers and i would be struggling to compete with them. I should feel guilty, but i dont

Originally Posted by Lignum

Yes and its so easy to turn it to your advantage.

I know its no good for the industry as a whole, but as an individual furniture maker its a bonus for me. So easy to convince people that its worth paying a lot more for "local" quality that wont fall apart in a few years and can be handed down to the next generation.

Seems strange to think it, but if there wasnt the huge amount of imports, there would be more local makers and i would be struggling to compete with them. I should feel guilty, but i dont

Actually, Lig, I've had the same thoughts. I doubt that I could have got my business up and running 20 years ago, simply because of the competition from other, more highly-skilled people than me. It's an ill wind...

Originally Posted by Lignum

So easy to convince people that its worth paying a lot more for "local" quality that wont fall apart in a few years and can be handed down to the next generation.

If only that were true.

I have 60 apartments furnished in a mix of Chinese and Oz stuff. The interior supplier paid well over the top for "quality" Australian Sofas, with fabric from probably the biggest and best local supplier. The Sofas have had fabric and foam failures within a few months of very light use, and NO customer support from the manufacturer. It's going to end in tears, with the interior people being sued by owners, and they in turn trying to take on the manufacturer.

The Chinese stuff on the other hand, is of proper commercial quality, a dozen or so pieces were damaged in transit, and replacements were flown in.

So to Aaron I ask, do you pay the premium that's required to keep guys like Lignum and Exador in business? Mostly I do, at least when it comes to personal purchases, although I suspect my domino was not built in Oz.

A few years ago, I would only buy from local suppliers, because I thought it was important to keep them in business. Now I buy from places who provide service, and if that happens to be in China, well the local suppliers know what they can do to get my business!

Cheers,

P

not all Chinese furniture is crap, we have a few good importers in Aus that do very high quality Chinese furniture that demand quite high prices, usually a couple of grand a piece, all there joinery methods are traditional and there finishing is flawless...

...so there not all bad, we just have too many dumb minded consumers, but local individual importers ain't the only ones importing a lot of crap, look at the big manufactures like Free&@m and Ik!A (not really mentioning any names of cause) consumers keep buying there stuff year after year, even though it wont last till the next season, and the prices, well i'm not getting into that, but consumers will still pay big $ for pine board or mdf from one of these stores because of the brand and yet won't pay the same for really quality local craftsman made products...it's lack of consumer education, but they are becoming more aware, with environmental factors coming into play, basically with all this global warming crap going around , people are seeking more natural products, made from recycled and not environment harming materials and so on...

i have a mate in the US, ( a country which i'm assuming buys crap from china too) he makes custom made furniture for individual clients, he is flat out, why, because word of mouth brings him business, there are alway a small hand full of wise people that want quality, and considering there is only a hand full of good craftsman around, things seem to work out just fine...i think it's like that here too, i know designers are moving more towards handmade and so the people will follow the trends...

Over the years we have seen many become unemployed in OZ due to the company starting its factory overseas Asia in particular.
Blundstone a fine example trying to compete with cheap imports.

Midge a few years ago i worked for a few months with a sofa manufacturing company and i was surprised how rugged and slapped up they were. The Chinese imports at a fraction of the cost were just as good.

For me and Exadore and others, its more the solid furniture (Tables and chairs for me)

A chinese imported chair frame i can get for $45 and that same chair in Tas oak would cost $65 in materials alone.

The trendy larger outlets will sell that chair stained and covered, for anywhere between $120 - $200.and some will rip you off and sell them for $299. But they are very poor in construction quality and would be lucky to last 5 years. Most except that quality/price saying "ill get some good ones in a few years"

Luckily for me there are a lot of people out there who want to pay good money, upwards of $400 per chair for quality that should last a few lifetimes

Its part of my spiel to point prospective customers to the outlets that sell this crap (and over priced Aussie stuff like Jimmy P and others) and most come back, so it appears to work well for me anyway


LH you are right about good quality Chinese furniture, but that would make up a very small % of total imports.

HarveyN has one of there assembly factory a few blocks behing me and its amazing the volume of imported furniture they send out

Originally Posted by Lignum

Midge a few years ago i worked for a few months with a sofa manufacturing company and i was surprised how rugged and slapped up they were. The Chinese imports at a fraction of the cost were just as good.

For me and Exadore and others, its more the solid furniture (Tables and chairs for me)

FWIW, my house is full of locally built furniture for which I paid a HUGE premium.

On the other hand, I once bought a new teak table at about a third of the cost of the timber, and cut it up to use in a boat fitout! Made all the door surrounds, hatch handles, and a whole heap of things. I have no idea how that works.

Cheers,

P

Originally Posted by Lignum

its amazing the volume of imported furniture they send out

I understand that the US imports $70 BILLION of furniture from China per year.

That's not a figure I made up, but I haven't checked it either.

Crumbs!

P

An interesting side to this, at least to me, is the part that fashion plays in the life cycle. Its probably quite correct that most of the Chinese cheaper furniture will fall apart in 5yrs of solid domestic use. By that time the style is looking dated and anybody caught up the decor scene who would have bought it originally would be looking to update by then anyway! Its planned obselescence(sp?) in material/construction along with the transient fashion or design.
So to that way of thinking real quality furniture that is designed to last a lifetime has to somehow transcend the fashion or style merry-go-round (timeless design?), or be bought by the discerning buyer who has no interest in fashion cycles.

I still deplore the waste of resource and energy involved in perpetrating this...

Cheers,