What you are describing is becoming a niche manufacturer, and that is
fine, but understand it will also have to be supported by other industries.
It reminds me of the merchants in town here.
They rail against Walmart all the time. Meanwhile one of them sells
high end men's clothes (pants start at $70) and complain about no
customers or their clients being stolen by Walmart. Get real!!!!
Forget about competing toe to toe with any big box store. Find out
what they do not do well, and do it better. (Computers shops that
actually fix computers and keep a person data etc. instead of replace
components and do not know who you are.)
We have two small grocery stores in town here. (population 13K)
They both make money and stay open. They compete against Walmart in
a few areas, brands that the local store does not carry, and custom
meats. They also tend to have more local produce. It is close so we
do a lot of in between shopping there.
If we need a lot of groceries we travel 20+ miles to a large grocery
store in the next town. (Or we bug our kids to pick stuff up for us
at the commissary - two of my children are commissary eligible.)
But the whole idea is, find niche areas and do it. Your saturation
level is going to be much smaller but it is doable.
Look at Ferrari's, Masserati's, these are specialty cars manufactured
in low numbers and hand made. (Of course we have Salon)
Stewart
At 11:18 PM 10/7/2009, you wrote:
I agree generally but if it can be done better and differently, cheaper
doesn't matter. That's why companies that are world class can
survive. Even with higher labor costs. I'll be honest, most high
end audio companies don't even try to compete with mass production.
Most of them are small, private operations anyway. People are willing
to pay more for the handcrafting, quality and support.
If some of these folks sell 1000 units a year they can be successful.
Sort of like buying a Randall knife, it only costs $350 but you have
to wait five years to get it. If you want it now you'll pay $800. An
example of economics in action: scarcity drives demand. But only if
the product is noticeably superior.
America CAN'T compete in the "just acceptable" category. Not and
pay good wages. We CAN compete in the "best in class" category.
In my opinion that is where we need to be in manufacturing.
*************************************************************************
** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy **
** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ **
*************************************************************************
