Whoever High Point is
- Thread starter Dogpatrol
- Start date
I’ve actually watched this series, they are tough. But, UF is threatening in the bottom of the 9th. Still doesn’t take away from HP going in there and taking the series. Florida easily has a crowd currently of 400 folks lol.
I live near High Point. They’ve been good at basketball and baseball recently
High Point is really a cool place. They bill themselves as a Life Skills University. They have a student run steakhouse where business etiquette is taught to every student. Almost exclusive focus on business and STEM degrees. They actively recruit kids of C-suite executives at Fortune 500 companies.
That’s because a businessman has been leading the charge for 20+ years.
Nido Qubein - Wikipedia
Really? Thomas Bus in High Point was one of my Customers for many years. I used to fly into Greensboro and go see them about 4 times a year for close to 20 years. That would have been from early 80’s until around 2000. Used to take the engineers to lunch at a meat and three place called the Rainbow. Also occasionally took them to a b b q place out in “Lick Skillet”. Also had a distributor in Greensboro. Good people. That whole Greensboro / High Point area was really nice. One of my best friends lives in Siler City.
Nido is legendary in the National Speakers Association. Said to be somewhat eccentric, but a driven and accomplished man.That’s because a businessman has been leading the charge for 20+ years.
Nido Qubein - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Well…
I’m sure a bunch of old cogers can explain High Point university.
High point nc
Famous for huge furniture markets where furniture mfgs showed off spring and fall furniture in the 80’s - early 2000
Then changed drastically after china was allowed to import goods in much cheaper than America made furniture.
RIP
La-Boy
Benchcraft
Gentry
Brookwood
I’m sure a bunch of old cogers can explain High Point university.
High point nc
Famous for huge furniture markets where furniture mfgs showed off spring and fall furniture in the 80’s - early 2000
Then changed drastically after china was allowed to import goods in much cheaper than America made furniture.
RIP
La-Boy
Benchcraft
Gentry
Brookwood
Pretty solid in men's soccer lately too. Gardner Webb and High Point have dominated the big south in recent years.
Also RIP to Johnston Tombigbee furniture Company here in Columbus. We manufactured and sold hotel furniture. I retired from there in 2018 and we fought the Chinese every day. We managed to do pretty good against unfair competition but after some of us old timers retired they weren’t able to hang on and the plant finally closed last month.
I absolutely remember JTB in Columbus.
I used to call on a very nice lady in the late 80’s early 90’s there..
Can’t remember her name.
Y’all made a lot of wood furniture there
Yeah, this is what I know High Point for. Those enormous furniture markets back in the day. Tupelo used to have a mini version (may still, but I doubt it)
Yep, made furniture for most of the major hotel brands. I worked for United Technologies here in Columbus most of my career but it all eventually went to Mexico and China. Worked for another electric motor company for 6 years and then worked for JTB the last 13 years of my career before retiring in 2018. I was in American Manufacturing sales and marketing for almost 45 years so when it comes to dealing with unfair Chinese competition and business practices, I could write a book. Sounds like you could probably write a book too.
Could you give some highlight examples? That particular subject just fascinates me....how we sold our souls to the lowest bidder.
I sold to major furniture mfgs for years
1980 - just retired.
Chinese imports greatly changed our business as mfgs started buying furniture kits that included fabric already sewn and just had to be attached to furniture frame.
Thousands of sewing jobs lost late 90’s through 2000’
Thousands of job’s producing fabric from America lost.
It was an advantage for larger manufacturers in the beginning, but became a wash after all mfgs started importing.
In the last few years some major manufacturers tried to get away from kits, but was unsuccessful because the furniture industry lost a whole generation of sewing experience
Much like the garment industry did
1980 - just retired.
Chinese imports greatly changed our business as mfgs started buying furniture kits that included fabric already sewn and just had to be attached to furniture frame.
Thousands of sewing jobs lost late 90’s through 2000’
Thousands of job’s producing fabric from America lost.
It was an advantage for larger manufacturers in the beginning, but became a wash after all mfgs started importing.
In the last few years some major manufacturers tried to get away from kits, but was unsuccessful because the furniture industry lost a whole generation of sewing experience
Much like the garment industry did
It'll be an interesting history when it's written on the whole "China makes everything" era here in America.
The quality is so obviously terrible in a lot of those products, but the prices are just so low.
My grandmother bought a chest freezer in the 1940's. I'm sure it was expensive and a big decision for her, but she definitely used it and it got passed around the family after her death.
It finally died at my sister's house. When we were tossing it we found a manufacturing date and it was over 70 years old. Had been in nearly continuous use all that time.
The quality is so obviously terrible in a lot of those products, but the prices are just so low.
My grandmother bought a chest freezer in the 1940's. I'm sure it was expensive and a big decision for her, but she definitely used it and it got passed around the family after her death.
It finally died at my sister's house. When we were tossing it we found a manufacturing date and it was over 70 years old. Had been in nearly continuous use all that time.
Aside from the low prices, one of the biggest problems was the Chinese copying everything and then selling it under our part numbers and company name. It happened in the electric motors business and then again in the hotel furniture business. I’ll give an example of each. At United Technologies we had a contract to build starter motors for Briggs and Stratton. The contract specified that in addition to the OE production, that all service sales had to go back through them and we were not to sale any service motors for their products through our network of distributors. We were called on the carpet and accused of violating that portion of the contract. A Chinese Company had copied our starters, copied our label, used our part number and Company name. They had done a good job of copying us and we had to tear down one of our starters and the Chinese copy on the conference table and show them the tiny differences between the two products to convince them that we weren’t cheating. An example from the furniture business next. We were doing a trade show in Dallas and right after it started someone we knew came by and told us that another company had a booth set up with our company name about three isles over. So we head over there and they were using our company name and logo. Showing a copy of our furniture collection called “Rum Jungle” with our part numbers and a copy of our literature. We had them kicked out of the show and our company owner attempted to take legal action against them. As is typical with those outfits, they just disappeared and as also typical they usually showed up again later on with a new company name. We pursued legal action for a couple of years but for whatever reason I don’t remember it never went anywhere and we finally gave up on pursuing it. These are a couple of the worst cases but stuff like this happened constantly. We also had similar problems with a company from Vietnam, but mostly it was Chinese companies. Back when I worked for United Technologies they eventually decided to sell off the automotive group, which included the electric motors plant here in Columbus. We got bought by Johnson Electric which sounds like an American company but it was Chinese. They had huge plants in china and most of the labor was young girls. They worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. They lived in company provided dormitories and were provided a place to sleep and all of their meals. In addition to that they were paid a wage that in most cases converted to about 11 cents an hour in US currency. They were also constantly victims of sexual abuse by the supervisors. Now this was a little over 25 years ago and I am sure things have changed since then. Electrical and mechanical engineers cost about $1,500 a year. Where we would have one engineer working on several projects they would throw 10 engineers at one project. This was in the late 1990’s but it gives you an idea about what we had to compete with. In the earlier days the Chinese quality was terrible but as time went on their products were about as good as ours and way cheaper. In both industries we saw the same thing with prices. They left a lot of money on the table. They could have sold stuff for prices closer to ours and gotten orders but they would sometimes be under us by more than 50 percent with the overseas freight included. After we got bought by the Chinese company they wanted me to go over for a visit to meet people and see the operation. I refused to go because I didn’t approve and felt that my support would be un American. I could see this coming and had another job waiting for me when I was ready for it. I stuck around just long enough to get a few things taken care of with some people that reported to me and then I left. These are some good typical examples and I’m sure that others on the board with careers in American manufacturing had similar experiences. I saw more of it first hand because I was on the front line dealing with customers every day.
His first post had paragraphs but someone with a nearly identical user name retyped his, forgot paragraphs, and deleted the original
I’ll add to Pilgrams musings about China. I did a good bit of manufacturing in China. I had a Chinese plant owner tell me to my face once that he and every other Chinese business man that I dealt with would try to cheat me and steal from me. It was my job to catch them and if I didn’t catch them then I was a poor businessman. It’s just the way they do business, it’s nothing personal. That being said, I was involved in three patent infringement cases. All three were with Americans. A patent is like a lock on a screen door, it’ll keep an honest man honest.