More Layoffs at Case

[JD Mandrell]

Find your nearest Case dealer.

http://www.wrcase.com/dealer_locator/

 

[grelcar]

Find your nearest Case dealer.

http://www.wrcase.com/dealer_locator/

I have found this to be really outdated. I travel a lot and find that a lot of these places are no longer in business or no longer carry case knives. I have been to a few that are listed as silver dealers that have only a handful of knives in stock. On the other hand I have found some gold mines with lots of discontinued and SFO knives. YMMV.

Greg

 

[A. G. Russell]

It is sad to see any Americam icon struggling. I think one reason that Case has experienced a decline in sales over the years is the lack of availibility. Years ago you could find Case knives at any hardware, sporting good, drug or department store. Now days there are hard to find at any retail store. I live in an area with over a million people and only know of a couple of places that carry any Case knives and the selection is very limited. Perhaps stores don't carry them because they don't sell as well as the cheap imported knives or the latest tactical designs. Maybe Case could do a better job of marketing their product or producing some products that follow the latest trends. I think the traditional slipjoint market is just a small nitch market and is probably shrinking. Adding some modern tactical designs and perhaps a budget line could generate additional sales. I would hope they can survive without resorting to offshore production, however this seems to be the modern business approach in these economic times.

Greg

There is a lot in what you say about availability, however, I think that you are wrong about the slipjoint market.

 

[texasflyfisher]

You know, I have always wanted a Case yeller handled CV knife so I think today is the day to purchase one. I may also purchase another in a week or so to give to my father-in-law to go with his yeller CV peanut.

 

[A. G. Russell]

Every knife we buy will help the bottom line. I don't think Case itself is in trouble, but the bean counters having to keep labor in line with sales/throughput. Years ago they would have carried a few extra people in production, that just does not happen anymore,corporate loyalty has been replaced with spreadsheets and accountants.

What you say is true throughout corporate American, however, I feel you are wrong about Case. In today's economy you cannot afford to carry extra people. I did for years, until the Carter era nearly put me out of business, I swore that next time I would lay people off before the ship sank. I have been in business for more than 50 years and this year for the first time I laid people off.

 

[A. G. Russell]

That's a great question!

I would answer but Blues would slap my wrist.

 

[Blues]

I would answer but Blues would slap my wrist.

And that was an unnecessary comment designed to accomplish the same thing.


Let's move on A.G. we've been over this territory too many times.

 

[A. G. Russell]

it would be interesting to know if that comment on the article is true:


Does anyone know just how many total employees does Case still have ?

Hopefully they will survive , I will support them with future purchases if it is shown that their layoffs of workers over mgmt is warranted .

154 workers laid off this year from Case.

Assuming the comment on the article was correct , in 90 mgmt position , and 85 actual people building knives , if you add back in the 154 laid off , that comes to 329 , the Case wiki indicates 350+ employees.

If they need 90 mgmt positions to manage 85 employees , they have bigger problems than our purchases can solve.

John,

I will bet you that most of those people are elderly ladies who have worked for Case for 30-40 years and a much, much smaller number are management that does not have the heart to dump them. You have to feel for the folks who are forced to decide, in an economy like this one, who continues to work and who has to go sit at home without work. Bradford is a tiny town and Zippo and Case are a large part of the jobs available.

 

[mnblade]

I think that you are wrong about the slipjoint market.

Does this mean you think there is a vital - perhaps even growing - market for slipjoint knives? That's encouraging. I'd love to hear more from you on this.

 

[A. G. Russell]

Does this mean you think there is a vital - perhaps even growing - market for slipjoint knives? That's encouraging. I'd love to hear more from you on this.

I believe so to the point that i am focusing most of my energy on lockback and slipjoint designs. Of more than 25 folder designs only one is a liner lock and one is a frame lock. The liner lock is a Bob Dozier design called the Tab-Stop. I think that there is a reaction to too many slip-shod liner lock knives in the market.

 

[silenthunterstudios]

Find your nearest Case dealer.

http://www.wrcase.com/dealer_locator/

That listed specialty shops (B and M knife shops) and huge sportings goods stores (don't get me wrong, I love Cabelas, Bass Pro and Gander Mountain, among others). Thanks for the link BTW.

Most of small town America, the people who we want to start buying more Case knives, buys their knives at the local hardware/feed store.

I didn't see any listed .

 

[Blues]

That listed specialty shops (B and M knife shops) and huge sportings goods stores (don't get me wrong, I love Cabelas, Bass Pro and Gander Mountain, among others). Thanks for the link BTW.

Most of small town America, the people who we want to start buying more Case knives, buys their knives at the local hardware/feed store.

I didn't see any listed .

Most of small town America knows where their local hardware/feed stores are and has a pretty good idea as to what they stock. (And they probably don't use the internet to check their inventory.)

For example, in my small town, Harris Hardware is the local shop and has been family run for many, many years. (The owner/proprietor is also the town mayor. It's kind of like Mayberry. )

I doubt Case can keep up with the numbers of individual outlets that purchase their knives through jobbers and wholesalers, etc.

 

[JD Mandrell]

That listed specialty shops (B and M knife shops) and huge sportings goods stores (don't get me wrong, I love Cabelas, Bass Pro and Gander Mountain, among others). Thanks for the link BTW.

Most of small town America, the people who we want to start buying more Case knives, buys their knives at the local hardware/feed store.

I didn't see any listed .

It varies by zip code, for my zip code I got small local gun shops and hardware stores.

I gotta go to Carbondale tomorrow, may stop at True Value and pick up something for the cause!!!

 

[Blues]

It varies by zip code, for my zip code I got small local gun shops and hardware stores.

Good point. I just checked by my zip code and it lists numerous hardware, hunting, outdoor supply and pawn shops in the area most of which are mom & pop stores. :thumbup:

 

[Blues]

I sent a link to this thread to a friend of mine at Case and he just sent back the following which he gave permission to share:

"we're hanging on here at Case - thanks to our dedicated BladeForums supporters. We can't
express enough gratitude...thanks a million!"


Just wanted you folks to know that the good people at Case do value your feedback and support.

 

[Relayer]

There are 3 dealers listed within 25 miles of me: Two Ace hardware stores and a barbeque restaurant.

I hard a little bit of a hard time finding that last dealer because they were listed in the locater by another name that doesn't actually appear anywhere (physically). Just display case near the cash register.

 

[jackknife]

Let's face it; most young people don't even carry a knife these days, let alone a slip joint costing what a tank of gas in in thier Honda civics. If they do buy a knife, it's bought on price point, and usually made in a certain asian country. I think the knife market is going to shrink inevitably, as some culteral values change.

The people here on this forum, and forums like it, are knife nuts. They are way different than the joe averige yuppy person who may just barely realize they need a knife, and buys one at the 'mart. To the regular person, a knife is something along the lines of a screwdriver, or one of the discount store specials. About 4.99 is the level the vast unwashed masses look at. We are the exeption. We are knife knuts, and normal rules of life don't apply to us.

With the great population shift to urban and suburban areas, cultural shift has also taken place. When a great many of us were kids, a gift of that first pocket knife was a epoch event. Now give a kid a pocket knife and he looks at you like 'what am I supposed to do with this?'. They want a cell phone way more than a pocket knife. If they already have a cell phone, then they want the latest video game. I can't begin to count how many times I've taken out a pocket knife to do something, and a kid watching will ask me why I have a knife. I have began to get a pesimistic view of todays youth, and thier parrents. Add into the mess an economic downturn, and you have a company like Case struggling to survive. And they may not make it. Go into too many gas stations and you see 4.95 zytel handled Chinese lockblades. How do you justify to an unwashed peasant that he should spend 35-50 dollars for a Case? For that matter, how do you tell a man who's been laid off, has a mortage to meet, the kids need to eat, his truck needs new tires, and he needs a new pocket knife, to not buy that 5 dollar blister pack knife from Walmart?

Times have changed and not for the better. When theres a storm, you batten down the hatches and make preparations to ride it out. Case needs to do the same, even if it means a re-setting of how they view the market place.

The country is in a hard time right now. Things need to be done a little differently for now. With a company that has 90 suits over 85 workers, they need to get rid of 1/3 of the suits, hire back the workers, and do what the John Russel company did in the mid 1800's when things got a little tight. Turn out a base line of cheap but good cutlery. Saw cut bone like on the early Barlows, plain finish, skimp on the polish, just have a satin 500 finish on blades. Get them out the door cheap. A low cost but good cutting tool for the working man, to hades with the collectors. The Russell company made it up on volume. Maybe Case needs to put away for now the collector knives. Table the blue bone, the Johnny Cash knife, the John Deer knife, and the whole collector thing and go back to thier roots. One of the first things to go in a bad economy is luxury items, like Boyds Bears and collector pocket knives. Too many people I see are turning to Frost's stuff (No not the company from Sweden) and cheap knock offs of Spyderco from asia for about 5 bucks. When markets change, a company has to adapt or go under.

Or they may have to do what Harley-Davidson had to do when AMF dumped the gutted company on the market; the execs at Harley made a big gamble and bought out the company and sent a survey team to tour the Japanese motorcycle plants to see how they did it. They came home and scrapped the machinery and bought a record amount of Japanese tooling and machining centers for fast accurite production. Maybe Case needs to go tour Victorinox.

When Leatherman pocket tools invaded the market, they cut into the sak market very deeply. Victorinox was in trouble. I saw a TV interview with Carl Elsner on how they handled it. Carl, and the other bosses at Victorinox took a record amount of corporate money and invested in all new higher speed machines. Today, Victorinox, along with Opinel, is the most automated cutlery company in the world. They make more pocket knives than anyone else to my knowledge, and they are smooth, great fit and finish, and 99'9% of them are perfect. Somehow Victorinox makes all these complex knives, with many blades, ships them all the way over here, and sells them for a competitive price. Most of the two layer sak's are in the same price range as a Case stockman, if that much. There's a lesson there someplace.

Maybe Case needs to dump some of the top heavy expenses, come out with a line of knives that will use the same frame as some of the present knives, same liners and dies, but use a low cost synthetic handle, and the knife can be quickly rivited together like Vic does. Use a low cost carbon steel in them since its cheaper and easier on tooling. Sell them cheap enough to survive, not grow. The first priority is to survive the downturn in the economy till it gets better. Forget about growth for now. Forget about the nice jigged bone in all those colors for now. It's survival time now, and there's not a lot of time to fool around. With 90 bosses and 85 workers, time is short. How cheap can a two bladed yellow handle carbon steel pocket knife be turned out fast? How much can be saved by eliminating the bolsters? Make it a shadow pattern like the sodbuster. I never heard abut soddies being weak.

The market has changed, and the demand for slip joint pocket knives has faded when there are sak's, plier tools like Leatherman, cheap asian knives costing 5 bucks. There is not a lot of Case dealers because the demand is not there. The mom and pop stores stopped carrying them because they were not selling. Merchants go with what moves, and if something sits in the case too long, it does not get kept in stock. Maybe exept for people like us, there is no market for conventional pocket knives anymore.

The dinasours dindn't change, and look what happed to them.

 

[mnblade]

There are 3 dealers listed within 25 miles of me: Two Ace hardware stores and a barbeque restaurant.

BBQ and Case knives .... now that's my kind of place! :thumbup:

 

[knifeaholic]

You wrote very eloquently as usual Jacknife, and you made good points. But remember, Schrade basically had what you are talking about in the OLD TIMER line (inexpensive well liked durable slipjoints)....and they failed. Maybe their failure had to do with other things.

On the other hand, as you mention, Vic does well with knives at higher price points (as compred to the zytel handled chapies)...so I really do not know.

I am starting to see displays of Frost "Steel Warriors" around here. You can buy a Steel Warrior trapper with bone handles (like the Case 6254) for about twelve bucks. The last time a Case 6254 retailed for that price was about 1974.

 

[knifeaholic]

It is sad to see any Americam icon struggling. I think one reason that Case has experienced a decline in sales over the years is the lack of availibility. Years ago you could find Case knives at any hardware, sporting good, drug or department store. Now days there are hard to find at any retail store. I live in an area with over a million people and only know of a couple of places that carry any Case knives and the selection is very limited. Perhaps stores don't carry them because they don't sell as well as the cheap imported knives or the latest tactical designs. Maybe Case could do a better job of marketing their product or producing some products that follow the latest trends. I think the traditional slipjoint market is just a small nitch market and is probably shrinking. Adding some modern tactical designs and perhaps a budget line could generate additional sales. I would hope they can survive without resorting to offshore production, however this seems to be the modern business approach in these economic times.

Greg

I believe that Case's marketing is sound, at least from what I have observed. It is just tough selling a product like theirs in some areas.

Here in New England, for example....Case's website lists exactly zero dealers in all six New England states combined. Actually we do have one now since a Bass Pro just opened, but that's it. No independendent Mom n' Pop stores. It has been that way for many years around here.

I recall reading in the 1970's that Case had "well over 10,000" dealers. And in those days there were (obviously) no internet dealers and really no mail order dealers, so if you were a Case dealer then you were most likely an indpendent hardware, sporting goods, gun, or pawn shop, or a general store. A very few chains (JC Penneys and Monkey Wards) carried Case knives in those days.

Steve