![]() It's wholesaling for $100 and can't figure out how the heck able to sell it. There's a dresser that's just come on the scene in the American market and it's a Louis-Philippe dresser. On how the Bassett family tracked down a Chinese knockoff in China because desperate people were trying to steal the copper wiring to resell on the black market. If you drive down Bassett today, all of the factories - just about all the factories - have been torn down, some of them burned. If you look at Henry County alone, they basically. As they did that, the orders still kept disappearing.Īn estimated 300,000 workers lost their jobs in furniture and related industries. Actually, they cut their costs by a third to keep up with the deflation that was going on in the industry. One of the things that Bassett did was they re-engineered their furniture so that they could make it cheaper. And had won a supplier of the year award in 1999 from them, but then their orders started decreasing. ![]() Penney and they sold them $80 million worth of furniture a year. On the decline of Bassett and the rise of unemployment And then it just became this tipping point where what was once early on a blended strategy, all of a sudden then they're closing factories and making very little. It made them less competitive all around. Once they let in, once they started making it, and then once got sort of dependent on this cheaper product, that sort of made the furniture they were still making domestically. they did need some expertise on that end and it just became this slippery slope. let them in because, especially the finishing process - which is what separates a low-end from a medium- and a high-end. On Chinese managers copying the Bassett Co.'s processes and starting factories overseas in the '70s and '80sĬhinese middle managers pictures of the line and to figure out how to replicate it back at home. Macy worked for years as a reporter for the Roanoke Times, has written for national magazines and has received several national awards, including a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard. "It's better for the economy when we make things." "We haven't been on a huge growth spurt since the furniture factories started closing down ," Macy tells Fresh Air's Dave Davies. Macy says that the furniture factories were a boon to the U.S. International Trade Commission against Chinese firms and by making his own company more competitive. She profiles John Bassett III, a determined owner who fought back against the foreign onslaught - both by filing anti-dumping charges with the U.S. Journalist Beth Macy documents the collapse of the American furniture industry and its human cost in her new book, Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local, and Helped Save an American Town. The lamps, maintained by the once prosperous Bassett Furniture Co., are now funded by voluntary contributions from residents and businesses - when they can afford it.īassett is just one of many towns and cities in Virginia and North Carolina where scores of furniture-making plants have closed in the past 20 years, mostly because of competition from China and other foreign countries. In the town of Bassett in southern Virginia, some of the downtown street lights are dark. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. The driver went into the store and bought gas before picking up another man.Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Factory Man Subtitle How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local-and Helped Save an American Town Author Beth Macy The video reportedly showed the gray GMC Envoy pulling into the parking lot at 5:06 p.m. On June 8, investigators checked the surveillance cameras at a nearby gas station on Poplar Avenue. Memphis Police say $491,944 in jewelry was stolen. Five men reportedly got out of the SUV, went into Macy’s, and smashed the jewelry display. Police say surveillance video showed a gray GMC Envoy pulling into the rear parking lot of Macy’s near Southern Avenue. Once on the scene, officers determined shots were not fired, but glass had been broken due to a theft. According to police, officers responded to what was initially reported as shots fired in the Oak Court Mall. Harris is facing several charges, including two counts of theft of property, aggravated assault, and vandalism. Memphis Police say Quintaurus Harris, 33, was arrested in connection with two thefts at Macy’s. ( WREG) - A man has been arrested after millions of dollars in jewelry was stolen from Macy’s in Oak Court Mall. ![]() Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.
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