AND YET ANOTHER AMERICAN TOOL MANUFACTURER BITES THE DUST

[chief38]

I just found out this morning that Vaughn & Bushnell Manufacturing Co of Illinois has just shut their doors after celebrating their 150th anniversary. They manufactured extremely high quality hammers, axes, crowbars and pry bars among other items too. They not only sold products under their own name, they private labeled for Snap-On, Stanley, Craftsman, Klein etc. I believe there will be over 140 employees out of work and the small town they are located in will now feel the effect.

Apparently there was a buy out deal from another corporation and the deal fell apart. The article is below if anyone cares to read it. Their products were top of the line and will be dearly missed in the tool market place.


150-Year-Old Vaughan Plant Closing after Nixed Buyout - Modern Distribution Management

 

[oldbrownhat]

Bad news indeed Time to keep an eye out for old Vaughan tools at the secondhand stores I frequent.

Thanks for the link. I'll pass it on to Stuart Deutsch of Toolguyd.com as I see he hasn't posted this info yet.

 

[fordson]

American manufacturing has declined to the point of national shame. We were a manufacturing Giant, the Arsenal of Democracy, manufacturing enough equipment for a two front world wide war as well as keeping our Allies supplied. Small manufacturing contractors are at the heart of a robust manufacturing enterprise. It’s shameful to see these smaller companies go under……..

 

[CalifEd]

It is not only the small manufacturers, it is all of the medium and small producers of anything that are being run out of the markets. Think family and small farmers.
While the consolidation for the sake of buying and market place power may be good for the survivors of the merger (and their stockholders), is may not be helpful to us, the consumers.
Albertson and Kroeger merger are/were blocked by the FTC, they believed the merger would lead to higher prices, lower quality and harm to the workers of these two companies.
The companies' reason was to keep competitive since the booming growth of Walmart, Costco and Amazon.

 

[sheepdawg]

How could this be, best economy ever.

 

[LVSteve]

This is why fast-food workers want a living wage rather than pin money. Jobs that support a family (or even an individual) are getting harder to find. As I have commented elsewhere, the days of everyone having a job are numbered, and the period of change has started and will only get uglier.

 

[vt_shooter]

This is why fast-food workers want a living wage rather than pin money. Jobs that support a family (or even an individual) are getting harder to find. As I have commented elsewhere, the days of everyone having a job are numbered, and the period of change has started and will only get uglier.

You're exactly right. The amount of money a young couple needs to bring in today to have what historically has been a middle class life style is brutal to achieve, at least it is where I live in northern New England. $100K seems like nothing today, wasn't long ago when it was real money.

 

[oldbrownhat]

This is why fast-food workers want a living wage rather than pin money. Jobs that support a family (or even an individual) are getting harder to find. As I have commented elsewhere, the days of everyone having a job are numbered, and the period of change has started and will only get uglier.

And yet the universities are filling up with what my gf (in WA) sometimes cynically refers to as, "the precious pearls of the future." She teaches molec. biology and genetics. Some have no seeming aptitude for science and therefore do badly and will be in acres of debt by the time they graduate to face an uncertain future. Some, of course, are genuinely suited to the task and will do well but they're in the minority.

My (widowed) neighbour up the street has 3 kids. The oldest is 20, "has brains for days" and is studying to be a doctor and will do well. The daughter is nearly 19, a real "horse whisper" but also has a real talent for finance and is studing to be an accountant. The youngest is 16 with a learning disability but is brilliant with engines and mechanical stuff and will also do well. There is hope for the future there and I think she will be well provided for in her dotage

 

[Rustyt1953]

This is why fast-food workers want a living wage rather than pin money.

Me mum was fond of the term "pin money".

 

[DWalt]

Being a fast food employee has little future. Saw an interesting feature on the news TV yesterday that a couple of California chains are installing automated equipment to replace human workers in response to the new CA $20 hourly minimum. They were demonstrating a new machine that did everything a human could do to fry and build a burger. It was pretty neat. I have read that McDonald's has been prototyping their automated restaurant in Australia for several years. Machines don't get paid leave, sick days, or join unions. Just a little oil every day.

 

[Rustyt1953]

 

[oldbrownhat]

Being a fast food employee has little future. Saw an interesting feature on the news TV yesterday that a couple of California chains are installing automated equipment to replace human workers in response to the new CA $20 hourly minimum....

In Richmond, BC (near Vancouver) which has a v. large Chinese population, "bubble tea" is a big item. One bubble tea shop has installed an android server named Toffee.

YMMV, but gag me with a chopstick.

 

[GaryS]

Fast food were never and are still not intended to support a family. They are entry level jobs for high school kids or pension supplement jobs for retired people.

There are numerous reasons why full time jobs in the US are drying up, but I'm not going to step into the "politics not allowed" minefield so Y'all will have to sort it out without me.

This is why fast-food workers want a living wage rather than pin money. Jobs that support a family (or even an individual) are getting harder to find. As I have commented elsewhere, the days of everyone having a job are numbered, and the period of change has started and will only get uglier.

 

[ladder13]

What exactly is this living wage?

 

[6518John]

Mike—It depends on how much you like fast woman and slow ponies!

 

[Kinman]

The music has been playing for decades, most people just arent paying attention. We are not the juggernaut of spending that we were following WWII, it reached a pinnacle years ago when smaller countries began to flood our market with cheap alternatives, cheap but well made. The auto industry is a good example. I can remember leaving my folks house with a modicum of tools that I had collected to keep my cars running, bought my first house and did nearly all of the repairs, collecting more tools along the way to get the job done. My neighbor kid is in his early 30's, walked into my shop and said "Where did you get all these tools?" Think about it all of the old tool companies have folded over the years and are now collectible, when it comes to axes and such Vaughn and Plumb, etc. were what you bought in order to get quality. I remember when Snap On started selling Blue Point which I think were from Taiwan, excellent tools, just not quite up to Snap On quality. I bought my first set of ratcheting box end wrenches made by Blue Point and have never had a lick of trouble from them.
There isn't nearly the market for hand tools that there used to be following our generation and before, some Millenials are interested but not to the degree we were. Home ownership used to mean work, at least at my income level it did. That was referred to as "sweat equity".
People today want to snap their fingers and get stuff fixed, they don't buy old furniture and repair it, they go to Ikea. Even the new appliances are not built to be repaired, just replaced. I used to change out lower heating elements on our water heater due to the high mineral content about every two years or so. There was a place in town that specialized in appliance repair parts, you could fix anything, they went out of business twenty years ago.

 

[LVSteve]

What exactly is this living wage?

Given the huge differences in the cost of living across the US, YMMV applies big time. The median house price in Vegas is now over $400k, and a search on Zillow reveals that typically means a single family home of 1600 sq ft or less. At current mortgage rates that a monthly payment of ~$2600. Dial in some property taxes, the fact we have some of the highest car insurance and registration costs in the nation, and you can run the numbers on what a family with a couple of kids needs to bring in to live.

OK, so rent an apartment, many might say. In the cheap non-soundproofed ghettos they erect here, good luck with that.

 

[Magnum_PI]

Pretty soon, very little of anything will be made here.

Hoping someone gets back in, tariffs the hell out of foreign produced garbage and forces companies back here because it'd be more cost effective...

The US is in need of a serious revival of American Manufacturing.

 

[pharmer]

Pretty soon, very little of anything will be made here.

America has to be in the top 3 countries that manufacture internet content. Seems like every other “success story” in the media showcases the latest “Whizz-content-creator” worth millions overnite with 20 million followers. Joe

 

[M29since14]

America has to be in the top 3 countries that manufacture internet content. Seems like every other “success story” in the media showcases the latest “Whizz-content-creator” worth millions overnite with 20 million followers. Joe

Producing very little of any real value…