December 27, 2004

• A New Word Enters My Vocabulary — “Smedley”
  
  It can be used as a noun –”Look at that stupid smedley”–or as a verb –”Almost made the sale, but she decided to smedley.”
  
  It comes from the Smedley family–the mom and dad actually (Peggy and Dave), the kids are smart and want nothing to do with the whole stupid thing.  The parents  decided to buy Amurrikan for Christmas, and specifically, to boycott Chinese-made goods.  (However, they continue to display the Chinese-made Christmas ornaments that they purchased before they decided to boycott one-fourth of the planet, which makes them hypocrites–as well as chauvinistic nitwits–in my book.)
  
  They said that they were surprised to see that some 80-90 percent of all the  merchandise on shelves was made in China.  And these people make their living by publishing a business newsletter–hellooo!  Boy , this does a lot for their  street cred–Wall Street, that is.
  
  Why anyone would want to be a smedley is beyond me.  I run into the occasional smedley at my stand.  When I ask them to explain, they usually mumble something about “human rights.”  Granted, the Chinese have been screwing over the Tibetans big time–almost as badly as the Amurrikan government has been, and continues to screw over, Native Americans.  But the people in China who make the iPods and DVD players and so on are not the people who make China’s foreign policy.   What’s more, the Chinese who make and distribute the goods do not make anywhere near the money that the American importers, transporters, wholesalers, and retailers do.  And I should know, being one of the retailers.
  
  Peggy got the notion into her pointy little head that China was somehow devaluing US currency by  making cheap goods.  If she is so concerned about American labor, maybe she should address the issue of all the big companies who are sending thousands of jobs overseas–ever call a consumer “help” line, only to  spend an hour on hold and end up talking to someone in Bumfuck, Egypt, or Smellbadda, India,  who knows barely enough English to tell you that she can’t do anything about your problem?  I have, more than once.
  
  And don’t let’s talk about quality–anyone who thinks Amurrikan-made stuff is any better than imports is hallucinating.  My area of expertise is knives.  Once, I bought three Camillus folders–all made right here in the US of A–and all three were defective.  I returned them, and two of the three I got in exchange were defective.  Schrade used to make good knives–the Old Timer and Uncle Henry lines in particular–but they went out of business last year–couldn’t compete with the imports.  Case used to be a brand name to conjure with, but the family that used to own it sold out to the Zippo lighter people, and now they mostly make knives for rich but undiscriminating collectors, and yuppie posers.  In all my years in the business,  I have yet to meet a serious knife user who has anything good to say about Case.  Same thing with Buck–they still make a few decent knives in the US, but they are slowly being discontuned.  The best Buck folder, in my opinion, is the Ecco–made in Seki, Japan.
  
  So if you must, smedley away.  But don’t come crying to me when you find that your selection is poor and you end up paying more and getting less for your dollar.
  

  • 4:22 pm
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