MADE IN CHINA

[ianblue]

I walked round two large stores today and found that 90% of the goods , from quite pricey clothes to the cheapest plastic tat was made in China.
It reminded me when I was young, everthing I bought had "Made in England" proudly written on it.
Do these stores only look to China for suppliers?
We have a huge trade deficit with China about 3 to 1. But they have said if they did lend the EU money to save the euro they would want more access to the EU markets. Surely they depend on us to buy their goods and boost their growth.
However is one of the reasons for this deficit not down to our own manufacturers not being aggressive enough in attacking the Chinese markets?

 

[joinerjohn]

Ahh Made in England,,, memories . Nowadays everything is made in China, there's nowt made here anymore. Keep watching the Antiques Road Show,,, In a few years the experts will be Ohh ing and Ahh ing over anything that has those magic words "Made in England." on them

 

[joe-90]

I heard somewhere that the UK has lost 75% of its manufacturing in just 30 years. There's no hope really is there.

 

[wotan]

No hope at all, victims of our own success, resting on our laurels, instead of re-investing in manufacturing.
Giving jobs away to other countries, so we can reduce our own carbon emissions, all for what?

Wotan

 

[Blasphemous]

I walked round two large stores today and found that 90% of the goods , from quite pricey clothes to the cheapest plastic tat was made in China.

Were you walking around them stock taking?

If not, are you telling us that you looked at every single item with these two 'large stores'? No one goes into a store and looks at every single item for sale. How did you come up with the 90% figure?

 

[Corgigrouch]

Or this could be a golden opportunity to start manufacturing again... If China won't help Europe to fund the purchase of Chinese goods, then tell the Chinese to go and swivel, impose huge import tariffs on Chinese goods to the level where home manufactured goods would be cheaper....

I guess that it comes to all great manufacturing countries eventually that they become complacent. Britain, The US, Japan have all become a bit too fat and flabby where they were once lean and mean, this will come to China too eventually....

History has always shown that when times are good, the British are pretty useless and lame but are always at their best when the manure hits the rotating ventilation device.... You guys aint done yet.

I always make a point of wherever possible buying British kit, It is time for British manufacturers to start attaching a union flag sticker to their products again, oddly enough it is becoming quite fashionable again...

 

[Corgigrouch]

Were you walking around them stock taking?

If not, are you telling us that you looked at every single item with these two 'large stores'? No one goes into a store and looks at every single item for sale. How did you come up with the 90% figure?

I do it another way.... When shopping see if you can find something that is British made..... On a recent trip to M&S I found one garment that had been made from cloth woven in Britain.... That was all I could find.

Anyone remember what BHS used to stand for?

 

[hotrod]

British Home Stores. We had one in Blackpool untill about 15-20 years ago IIRC.

 

[big-all]

Or this could be a golden opportunity to start manufacturing again... If China won't help Europe to fund the purchase of Chinese goods, then tell the Chinks to go and swivel, impose huge import tariffs on Chinese goods to the level where home manufactured goods would be cheaper....

unfortunately not they work for around 20 t0 30p an hour [or even less]

 

[Corgigrouch]

unfortunately not they work for around 20 t0 30p an hour [or even less]

The key there is the import tariffs... As soon as the goods hit the EU borders the goods immediately become as expensive as EU made goods...Protectionism? Hell yeah!

There are a fair few things that we can do to make our goods cheaper, reversing the power of ambulance chasing lawyers is one...

 

[raebhoop]

I walked round two large stores today and found that 90% of the goods , from quite pricey clothes to the cheapest plastic tat was made in China.
It reminded me when I was young, everthing I bought had "Made in England" proudly written on it.
Do these stores only look to China for suppliers?
We have a huge trade deficit with China about 3 to 1. But they have said if they did lend the EU money to save the euro they would want more access to the EU markets. Surely they depend on us to buy their goods and boost their growth.
However is one of the reasons for this deficit not down to our own manufacturers not being aggressive enough in attacking the Chinese markets?

It's not our lot not being aggressive...It's the banks not lending to expand and buy new machinery and technology....And that's down to rubbish politicians not having the guts to do anything about them.

 

[enyam]

It's not our lot not being aggressive...It's the banks not lending to expand and buy new machinery and technology....And that's down to rubbish politicians not having the guts to do anything about them.

Its not about banks lending to industry, they can lend all they like but if no one is spending money on what is being produced at the moment then all the lending in the world will not help.Its a vicious ever decreasing circle at the moment.

 

[joe-90]

People want cheap - they don't care where it comes from.

 

[Corgigrouch]

People want cheap - they don't care where it comes from.

Then they should work cheap... Until they realise that buying cheap imports is cutting their own throats then I have no sympathy.

I like quality, I hate stuff that doesn't last...

 

[joe-90]

Even top brands like M&S are all made abroad. If you don't buy Chinese you do buy anything.