Isn’t almost everything out of such a factory these days?
Chinese stainless steel is actually pretty good. I recently bought some metric threaded stainless rod from China and the same rod (I think from a Canadian source) from Grainger (because I was in a hurry and parallel sources increased my chances of getting it sooner). The fit and finish on the rod from China was better.
I thought ordering a cell phone case on eBay from China would be a clever way to save a few dollars. Two months later, I’m still waiting for the mail to arrive. It may take three months or more. In the meantime, I’ve hacked a secondhand case I found from the thrift store for the same three dollars.
In-depth investigation of the Alibaba-to-Instagram pipeline for scammy crapgadgets with excellent branding
Well, it’s not poetry, but maybe Cory has turned the corner from unnecessarily tortuous writi—
Artist Jenny Odell created the Bureau of Suspended Objects to photographically archive and researched the manufacturing origins of 200 objects found at a San Francisco city dump; last August, she prepared a special report for Oakland’s Museum of Capitalism about the bizarre world of shitty “free” watches sold through Instagram influences and heavily promoted through bottom-feeding remnant ad-buys, uncovering a twilight zone of copypasted imagery and promotional materials livened with fake stories about mysterious founders and branded tales.
Oh. Oh god. Never mind.
I’ve created a French version of this report (with permission from Julie Odell), if you’d like to share it with non-English speaking people: http://www.epinardscaramel.eu/une-montre-gratuite-ca-nexiste-pas/
Yes, and quality control is universally lousy. You’re correct that “hunks of metal” are a pretty safe bet; stainless steel woks, rods, etc seem to be generally good quality and are stamped pretty evenly. But I do business every day with a client that uses multiple Chinese factories, and I’d say 40% of their materials arrive broken or badly manufactured, but the price is so low that they can afford to redo things. And, well, a few years ago my dog almost died after eating treats that were sourced from China and involved in a recall that killed several dozen dogs. So I’m not a big fan of Chinese goods.
I recall when there was a report years ago about Chinese made costume jewelry for kids that used toxic metal alloys, one of the Chinese factory owners was essentially blaming consumers for it because they were only producing inventory that people were willing to pay for. Consumers want cheap shitty jewelry? Don’t be surprised its poison.
The thing about Chinese manufacturing that many American buyers don’t realize is that when they negotiate the price with the supplier, they are actually negotiating the quality. A sample is meaningless if the price is negotiated after it’s delivered. The products made at the new, lower price will have a new, lower quality to match.
Most things shouldn’t have their price points set so low.
It ties into our current culture of easily disposable, “affordable” goods. Spending extra on something that will last you nearly forever is not something most people are willing to consider, they just want a good deal even if they end up spending more money on rebuying junk.
Quality doesn’t always follow price. We had some curtains made in China for us recently; I negotiated the price with the the Aliexpress seller (an interesting experience), who I believe was also the seamstress (Etsy-style), and they were rougly 25% the price we could get from a local shop. The local shop would also have used fabric sourced from the 3rd world, and I can’t imagine the quality being any better. The things that contribute to the cost difference in this case were things like infrastructure and salary, both of which are much lower in China, but so is the cost of living.
Stainless machine tooling, legendarily horrible British plumbing, deceptively commonplace window dressings, land of volcanoes… wait, you’re a supervillain!
Hey, are you building a race of inhuman giant robot monsters to try to take over the world?
Just trying to enjoy a good cup of coffee (machine made in France) without people watching me.
You’ve been talking to my students.
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