Had some family in town for few days, and we went by the “mini mall” to get a few supplies. My cousin loaded up on the Cajun thunder popping corks because he said he was having a hard time finding them locally. Shortly after, the attendant sees he has several in his hand, and proceeds to tell us they have gone out of business. According to this person, even though they assemble them here in America all the parts are sourced from Chyynaa and they weren’t able to get the materials any longer. Also mentioned something about a machine breakdown, so they just decided to shut it down and go out of business.
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Room for some entrepreneurial effort! Those things work well!
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Sorry to hear that… Like many before them, someone has a great idea and brings a new product to market. Actually making it profitable is another matter entirely. I’ll be looking to see what else is around… For some years now a few other manufacturers have been selling something similar, but not as small… I still have a few of the Equalizer corks from years ago - they’re made by the same outfit (I believe) but a bit quieter in action. Yes, they work well…
These guys are a small TX co. and make some good stuff.
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I have been reading up on the whole tarriff impact thing(not going political here, just economics). It is interesting that we have all been under the impression that the reason products were manufactured overseas is because of cheap labor.
Some recent interviews with major manufacturers (Ford, etc) have actually indicated that plant technology is the bigger reason. We havent invested as much in our plants to automate them, so they are more labor intensive. So mot as much about how much you pay people as how many people you pay.
I say this because its a ray of hope for local, American companies who are in the predicament of Cajun Thunder. If the tariff strategy works, and causes a major investment in upgrading/updating plants here in the US, we may have our cake and eat it too.
It never made sense how it was cheaper to ship stuff across the ocean than to produce it here.
If you are interested in this, look at the story of “Sharpie” pens. Pretty encouraging.
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It’s our fault for leaning on so many cheap Chinese goods instead of keeping production here in the US. We are all guilty! Yes, other countries are nearly as bad but China is not our ally and the amount of their goods that we consume here is staggering. We’re all guilty of supporting it but I like to pride my business in buying as much MADE IN USA components as possible and my machinist is in North Carolina. It can be difficult to find goods made here but it is possible in many cases if we just take our time and look.
It’s going to take a while but this is a long game and should force more to start producing/ manufacturing products here. Made in USA products are typically more expensive but if we want to get of China’s tit we have to make these transitions. I like to buy clothes and boots from Origin. They aren’t cheap but it’s time for us to do like our grandfathers and buy quality products that last instead of cheap products that fail in a short time. A lot of my rotomolded coolers are Igloo which are made here in Texas. I do have some Yeti products that I love but if there were options to buy similar products here in the states I’d be all over it. I think we could all do better and buy more from businesses here in the USA that do not BS customers and actually produce everything here, not just assemble it here with “global products”.
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Twill be an adjustment - no doubt. This entire deal has been going on for years and years -and actually encouraged by the folks who’ve lead our country down this path for some years now. To actually have leadership attempting to end this situation is encouraging - but they’ll have to be in place for some time to make much of a dent in where we are now… Take Penn Reels as an example - I was taught to repair their reels at the first shop I ever worked at (that was in 1972…). If memory serves they were located in Philadelphia… at that time. As competition from the orient ramped up, Daiwa came out with basic deep sea trolling reels that directly challenged Penn - and their reels were simply better and a bit more advanced than our US reels… As that situation progressed other overseas manufacturers came along - and the race was on - each year saw real innovation and improvements - while Penn just dogged it from my perspective - only coming out with new models belatedly after those “other folks” gained market share each year. Finally, and not a surprise… Penn went under, sold out - and all of their products - are, you guessed it… made overseas…
The situation is not as simple as the above example - but not far off, in my opinion.
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I liked the Cajun Thunder corks I had. Maybe H & H will buy them, like they did with the Alameda Rattling corks. However, my recent Alamedas have been junk! And, of course, they’re Hecho en China. TJ
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Popping corks and poleskiffing…
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4 horseman are the best popping corks hands down.
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@MaverickMA thats an interesting perspective, but likely true. Amazon recently announced they intend to replace 600,000 American jobs with automation/AI. I also agree that it never made sense to me how it was cheaper to grow cotton in NC, harvest it, truck it to a port, than ship it across the ocean, make a T-shirt from it, then ship it back across the ocean, and truck it from the port to a wholesaler, who then ships to a retailer, before it finally hits a store rack. Seems to me it’d been a lot cheaper and faster to just make it in NC. But unfortunately that isn’t the case. As I’m typing this, it came back to me, that Fruit of the Loom use to be made here, not sure if they still are or not. But when I was in HS in Louisiana in the early 90s they had 2 pretty good sized plants, that I was aware of. One in Abbeville LA and the other in Kaplan.
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There are many reasons and complexities for offshoring products. No one answer fits all.
One of the key reasons is flexibility of capital ($$$). To automate labor intensive jobs in the US requires capital investment in the machines. Labor rates are too high to add head count, so you must automate to compete. Once the money is spent, loans secured to get the equipment, the money is locked in place until the equipment is fully depreciated. You cant use those funds to enter new markets, buy competitors, spend on other needs within the business.
Most jobs sent over seas utilize little/no automation in the cheap labor locations. Human labor is more flexible than a machine in that if there is a market downturn, or you decide to exit a market, the decision to stop the expenditures is immediate, just lay the people off. No need to keep paying loans, depreciation on equipment under utilized, maintenance, risk of the machine within the process becoming obsolete, risk having to sell the equipment for pennies on the dollar, etc,etc,etc.
The US Govt thought (changed its policies) that the way to spread Democracy within the world would it through economic prosperity. Give the people good jobs, and they will aspire to live ina democracy. Tax laws and investment laws were changed to encourage offshoring, at the expense of the US worker. Families earned less, but that was to be offset by cheaper products from abroad, or so that was the strategy. We became a consumer economy instead of a manufacturing economy. ( a whole other discussion)
I have been a part of several industries that made these transitions, both in the trenches and in the decision rooms. I have lived both perspectives. Some offshoring was beneficial, others wasnt with the savings being negative. Quality suffers when human labor is substituted for a machine. It is a very complex initiative to offshore anything, I have never seen it go smoothly in spite of lots of other products practiced on moving offshore. The current Admin is/has changed the tax and investment laws to make it cheaper, more beneficial, for capital expenditures. Lets just hope its in enough time to salvage the long term. Turning the ship it truely revolutionary, but if anyone can do it, we can.
I can go on indefinitely on this subject. Sorry for the length. Did my best to keep it non-political, and thus USA (all of us) centric. My intent was to give a big picture perspective/understanding to those that are interested in the subject. If someone can make money picking up the Cajun Thunder product line, it will happen. If the market is too fragmented with other competitors to make it profitable, it will languish. I like the Cajun Thunder.
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Long story short…we should have kept our manufacturing and production here in the states. Now we have to go through a tough transition to get manufacturing back here but in the end it will be best for us. I do realize we will never see 100% of our consumer products being made here but getting the bulk of it back is definitely attainable as long as we don’t let the demons take hold again.
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They stole Debra’s dildo dipping job. Now she just fights at Waffle House.
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Well that’s cause she’s pissed as she’s no longer being self satisfied every night. Completely understandable.