Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 213 posts

Re: World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

#151

Post by AJ007 »

UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #40
nextos wrote: post #8

I don't immediately discard an item because it's made in China, as I know of some high quality items made there. Most Apple products, some Xiaomi products or Meermin/Feit shoes. However, I tend to be very skeptical about its quality. Moving manufacturing to China is most often done to reduce cost. The only industry where it's not done due to cost, but supply chain issues, is electronics. And with cost reduction comes…

>Sadly, it's all about price. This is the problem, but not how you are stating it. If CEO's didn't make 300x the lowest paid employee, and "shareholders didn't demand" exponential growth quarter after quarter, then the price to be 'Not made in China' would be reasonable. Fix these problems then the damages caused by seeking "cheapest possible AND cheaper" would be non-existant. *NB: I am a shareholder. I want my inve…

If you have an investment that matches inflation then after taxes you will have a negative return.

Re: World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

#152

Post by dang »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #39
nkozyra wrote: post #2

Amazing to see an anecdote like this trotted out as newsworthy. There are three total data points and two of them are incredibly vague. Honestly, this feels a bit like propaganda.

It's just a click bait title, especially since the last sentence in the article is "If America “decides to remove the 25% tariff, we will move the production back to China right away,” Tu said." Doesn't sound like the era of Made in China is over if they're itching to get back.

Ok, we changed to the subtitle above.

Re: World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

#153

Post by nextos »

Nition wrote: post #148
nextos wrote: post #8

I don't immediately discard an item because it's made in China, as I know of some high quality items made there. Most Apple products, some Xiaomi products or Meermin/Feit shoes. However, I tend to be very skeptical about its quality. Moving manufacturing to China is most often done to reduce cost. The only industry where it's not done due to cost, but supply chain issues, is electronics. And with cost reduction comes…

I have this vague idea of starting a "buy it for life" type store, everything with a 10+ year warranty, plus required maintenance stated clearly for each product. Sell tools, clothing, kitchenware, appliances, whatever. Is there anywhere like that already? I'm in New Zealand but I'd like to hear about international examples even if I couldn't shop there.

I think Manufactum is the most similar thing out there, yet still far from perfect. They focus too much on old looks vs quality.

Re: World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

#154

Post by brodsky »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #63
fuzz4lyfe wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>And you'd never encounter a product that smells formaldehyde with an OEKO-TEX label. These guys will put lead in children's toys but would never be so unscrupulous as to put a fake label on the product? Or lie to obtain certification?

I don't know about manufacturing. But for food products people get prosecuted all the time by trading standards. My friend who works for them has a lot of interesting stories to tell. One story, she visited a local pub and asked for a dairy free ploughman's, the waiter asked if she would like butter on her bread. My friend waited for it to be added, then she put the whole meal, plate and all into a plastic bag and to…

This sounds like someone (your friend?) had a quota to fill by any means necessary, as opposed to actually enforcing consumer standards. Rather shameful, IMO.

Re: World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

#155

Post by atr_gz »

malloryerik wrote: post #122
sasaf5 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Particularly I miss low-spec, high quality items. I want a good laptop for writing, it has to be only powerful enough to run emacs and a browser. but it has to survive being trashed around and the battery must be available 10 years from now for replacement. Good luck finding that kind of product...

I'm very skeptical, but there's supposedly emacs for Chromebooks: https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/EmacsForChromeBooks

I think at this point new Chromebooks can all run Linux software natively - so might as well just use normal emacs.

Actually I have emacs running on Android as well. I don't really use it often - but it works fine. Maybe if I bought a little Bluetooth keyboard I would play around with it more.

Re: World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

#156

Post by ghbvfv »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #72
ghbvfv wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“It’s about price because consumers can’t measure by anything else.” Neither can statisticians so that’s why I don’t put any trust in CPI numbers (“inflation”). They don’t even track amount sold (I.e. did the 355 ml pop become 340ml?) how are they going to track quality???

CPI is difficult and flawed, but they do try to account for size. Soda is pretty consistent in size (12oz can), but, for example, yogurt which can come in a variety of sizes is added to the CPI per 8oz. The hard part is how you measure the quality change. The market is flooded with high end higher quality yogurts. Yogurt shelves in the grocery store look very different than they did 15 years ago before Chobani kicked…

Add starch to yoghurt and the 8oz becomes 7oz is yoghurt

Re: World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

#157

Post by WalterBright »

MrTonyD wrote: post #112
nextos wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A step further, it seems most people's favourite brands tend to be ones which were high quality in the past. Its a rare situation where that quality continues as mass market appeal arrives. Yes, I think this is a typical brand lifecycle. Somewhat niche brand gets famous due to high quality and appealing image. Brand gets bought by big group, with a lot of expertise in distribution and marketing. Quality goes downhi…

I was just reading the book "The House of Morgan" and it describes how companies are purchased when they don't maximize short term profit. The bankers and executives make sure that they make millions in the transfer, and then the brand is cheapened to get more profit, usually at the expense of the customers and employees, and then the company is sold again to get more millions for the executives and bankers. They don…

> it describes how companies are purchased when they don't maximize short term profit

But they evidently did maximize short term profit by selling the company.

Re: World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

#158

Post by rorykoehler »

jakobegger wrote: post #9
jopsen wrote: post #4

This could just be a neat spin on a move towards automation :)

Are there any robots yet that can weld bicycle frames? I thought that was still a job for humans...

I'm sure there are but most elite bikes Giant make are carbon which isn't welded

Re: World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

#159

Post by WalterBright »

obmelvin wrote: post #73
flyGuyOnTheSly wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But it's a lot of trouble to find high quality items these days. I want to own few things and keep most for the rest of my life. I concur on both fronts. Might I suggest you check out thrift or second hand stores? I have a collection of old aluminum cased power tools made in the mid 20th century in North America, and I think the most I paid for any one of them was $12 CAD. They look amazing. You can take them apart…

Any tips on how you identify such items that are worth buying? Those tools sound like an amazing deal.

I'd stay away from used circular saws. The shaft may be damaged, and having the blade come off or shatter at high speeds could be pretty bad.

Re: World’s top bicycle maker is moving U.S. orders to Taiwan factory

#160

Post by WillPostForFood »

ghbvfv wrote: post #156
WillPostForFood wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CPI is difficult and flawed, but they do try to account for size. Soda is pretty consistent in size (12oz can), but, for example, yogurt which can come in a variety of sizes is added to the CPI per 8oz. The hard part is how you measure the quality change. The market is flooded with high end higher quality yogurts. Yogurt shelves in the grocery store look very different than they did 15 years ago before Chobani kicked…

Add starch to yoghurt and the 8oz becomes 7oz is yoghurt

Make yogurt with organic grass fed milk and 8oz of yogurt costs as much as 32oz of plain old starchless yogurt.
Post reply on HN