Time Magazine article pictures Chuck Buck

Ron Andersen

Ron Andersen

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There was a small clip in the Time Magazine cover story article "Where Did My Raise Go?" (note small typo in my picture’s caption) dated May 26, 2003, which addresses Buck Knives (and pictures of Chuck Buck and knives). Image attached.
 
Well Ron what do you think about that article?

I see moving to Idaho and cutting their workers wages 30% just SUCKS!

Before Buck moved some of it's work to China to compete with foreign knife Buck was a good company as far as i know, now with some of their work going to China and a move to Idaho with a 30% cut in wages on average to there own workers i must say Buck will never be the same i'm sorry to say!

To tell you the truth i haven't keep up on Buck knifes of late, they used to be a top knife company back in the day.

I know it's easy for me to say it Sucks, if making the move to tin buck two and cutting it's workers 30% saves BUCK who i'm i to complain.

James
 
Hi James,

The knife industry has been hit very, very hard over the past couple of years and layoffs have been heavy. Rumors I’ve heard of layoffs at Buck, Benchmade, Leatherman, and others have been noteworthy.

You were asking my response to the article: if the choices are no Buck versus a restructured Buck, I’ll take the latter in a heartbeat. It’s called smart business; or more bluntly, flat-out survival. More companies are doing this. Taiwan is getting much more knife manufacturing business (and rightly so because their quality is significantly growing at a noteworthy value) and China is beginning to be recognized for emerging "quality" for very cheap prices. Also, moving companies (of all kinds) from large, expensive metropolitan areas to smaller, cheaper cities to work from have been going on for decades.

I posted this image (which I scanned and edited together—for the image and text were found on different pages of the article) and referred to the Time Magazine article not necessarily to elicit dialog on the topic of the piece (if that was the case, I might post this maybe in Community or Politics), but rather, I posted this more to take note of a knife company and knife icon being referenced in a major media piece.
 
Last night CNN ran a similar story with Buck knives, but they approached it from the angle of a Californian problem.
 
In my view you can't have it both ways.

Expecting Buck to keep paying for it's higher cost of overhead but keeping it's prices down to the same level of foreign made knives is just unreasonable.

Bottom line, if you want to keep jobs in your own country, keep voting with your wallet and support loacally made products. All things being equal in terms of quality, innovation, and design of course.
 
... it seems, will not buy anything from overseas like Taiwan, China, Pakistan, or Japan as they feel it is unpatriotic even though the company may be American in origin. As more and more companies feel the need to compete, outsourcing to foreign countries will be an everyday occurance. In order to meet the bottom line, avoid unions and complex laws, and pay lower wages more and more jobs will leave the country. There are already many foreign companies which use U.S. labour to do manufacturing and provide jobs here. Said products are, also, sold here. Why should companies here not do the same to survive overseas? It is the only good business. Unfortunately, the economy and governing global market conditions will dictate this.
 
Unfortunately the knife biz is just like any other. When you start spending more than you take in, you are out of business. Buck located in Calif. is like many businesses that are weighted down by the Calif. tax structure that the state has imposed to be all things for a minority of the population. Taxes and higher labor cost have a huge effect on the bottom line. It would also be fair to point out that Calif.’s liberal stance as taxed many businesses out of the state. GRAY DAVIS SUCKS
Also, most folks don't care where a knife is made; all they see is the 50% to 25% price difference. If memory serves me right I believe that Trace Rinaldi is moving to Idaho also. I would bet that part of that decision is business driven.

I realize that is not the political forum, but you cannot discuss business and Calif. without politics coming into play
 
I'll tell you guys what I'll do. SINCE I DIDN'T THINK BROADLY ENOUGH OF THE POLITICAL COMMENTS WHICH HAVE SPAWNED IN THIS THREAD WHEN I ORIGINALLY STARTED IT, I'LL COPY THIS THREAD TO THE POLITICAL FORUM AND ALLOW THE POLITICAL DISCUSSION TO CONTINUE THERE. I’ll allow this thread to remain here in the General Forum for its knife/human interest aspect.

To make political comments (as most have been above), click here to post.

Sorry for any confusion.
 
Ron,

Just to set the record straight, my comment regarding the political forum, was in no way aimed at the thread.

It was my own backhanded way of apology for MY political comments in your thread.

Sorry
:(
 
Originally posted by .45acp
Ron,

Just to set the record straight, my comment regarding the political forum, was in no way aimed at the thread.

It was my own backhanded way of apology for MY political comments in your thread.

Sorry
:(
Click to expand...
Zero problem. I didn't forecast where this discussion wanted to go, so I just needed to make everyone happy! :)
 
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