So off we went, as we do every five to ten years (used to be the latter, now getting increasingly more usual that it's the former) to the big store out in the industrial suburb where you find this kind of stuff. As we wandered the aisles, we were soon joined by a cheerful fellow called Rakib Khan, who set about advising us on what we should buy and what we should avoid.
Basically, his advice came down to the simple principle that stuff made in Asia is, as he put it, 'absolutely no good at all.' Even Turkey was really Asia, apparently, and out of the question. Only European workers had the skill and the work ethic and the all-round craftsmanship to produce an appliance we could think about buying. China, Korea, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, the workers of all these great nations and many more in the region were swept aside. Only Germans and Scandinavians were worthy of our consideration. We took his advice, shelling out far more than we'd planned to. When I got home, I remembered the stamp at the back of a cupboard we've got that was built in the 1920s:
Some things never change.
You probably have to be over 50 to remember the days when "Made in Japan" meant "cheap and shoddy". Then suddenly they were selling us cars that did not break down and electronics that just plain worked. The US, once it partly got over its surprise and chagrin, investigated and came away with the impression that it could match Japanese quality by bringing in business consultants trained in the proper buzzwords. So far this hasn't worked.
ReplyDeleteThere remain US manufacturers here and there that produce goods of high quality. But the high quality of the goods doesn't mean that the factory may not be shipped east at short notice.
Someone on Twitter sent me some links after reading this post about a town called, I think, Prato in Italy where they used to produce very, very expensive and beautifully made textiles. Rather than sending out to Asia, they now have an Asian workforce living in Prato, producing less wonderful stuff, so far as I could tell. Made me wonder whether buying a Scandinavian washing machine really means you are getting a European made object or merely one made in Europe. Not that I should be accepting the whole concept introduced to us by Mr Khan anyway.
DeleteThese things always happen in threes. So what was the third? Vacuum cleaner or iron? Or haven't either of these been touched for a month or two?
ReplyDeleteWhat? It's got so out of hand that the dust and my pile of ironing are visible in New England? Lord help us all.
DeleteHas it ever happened to you that you've found things in the bottom of your ironing basket that you'd forgotten you owned?
DeleteI've never reached the bottom of my ironing basket. I look forward to that day.
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