There is a great deal of truth in this, unfortunately:grumpy:
It applies to many items and sectors and far from being 'reality' based it's driven by extreme short-term ism. It also adds up to inferior products on the market and an insecure de-motivated workforce.
This is unfortunatly too true in most big business. Short sighted views extending only to the black line on the end of the month proffit chart. Never mind next year, or even a couple years. For too many years American Business models have been very near sighted. I believe this was at fault at Schrade, at Camillus, and GM. AMF did it with Harley-Davidson. I hope the most upper tier of management at Case is not doing the same.
I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I've been stumbling around this rock long enough to learn a few things by accident. I've walked into a few walls, and stubbed my toe a few times, but I try to learn from experiance.
I've learned that things change.
The market in foldiing knives today is nothing that could have been forseen 40 years ago. Used to be, Case knives were sold in creaky wooden floor hardware stores, in big glass fronted cases that held a wide selection of knives. People who bought them were working men who actually dropped them into pockets and used them. A novel idea in some quarters. It was a tool, but it was more; it was an icon. Where working men gathered over a beer, and talked of favorite rifles, or trucks, or even pocket knives, they'd mention Schrade, and Camillus, and all knod. Mention Case and they would also knod, yes, thats a good knife. These were truckdrivers, carpenters, electricians, factory workers, farmers, or even cowboys.
But socio-economic conditions in America changed almost overnight. Post war great migration to cities, the rise of suburban life styles, and the great rise of disposable incomes of young males, not to mention artificial created markets. Case found themselves witha fast changing market, not to mention a client base that was eroding fast. The old hardware stores were gone, replaced by big box stores for one stop shopping for a generation on the move at a high speed. The new generation was not back on the farm fixing a downed fence, they were in office cubicles.
Case has to figure out how to attract customers in this new age. The traditional pocket knife is thier forte, but how to sell it? Increase fit and finish? Raise prices to cover the higher work level? I don't know. GEC and Queen seems to be doing okay, are they a bit more expensive than Case?
Would people really mind if a 40 dollar knife went to 45 dollars, but you knew it would be perfect, instead of buying it thinking maybe it will have to go back to have decects fixed?
Maybe they need to increase prices a bit to cover the added QA people that makes sure all the knives going out are good ones. Or maybe stop doing the Johnny Cash, John Deer, and all the other special collectors knives. In some places, Case has got the reputation of being the Beenie Babys of the knife world, and that's not good. Not good at all. That is a short sighted market at best. You're trading your future reputation for some dollars now. Maybe they have to get back to thier roots. Our roots are a lot of what makes us what we are.
Case has to do something. Last I heard, they had laid off employee's. I don't know if they had hired them back. But if they are not doing well, then it's time for action, not hoping for the best and staying the course.
I just find it passing strange, that the two oldest knife companies in the world, Victorinox and Opinel, are still doing so well 120 years after being founded. No, I know they don't offer the variety that Case does. But threre's a lesson there someplace. I think Boker is about a hundred years old.
My dad had a saying for things like this; "If your nieghbors garden is doing a lot better than yours, sooner or later you have to get over yourself and peek over the fence to see what he's doing better than you."
