Wanted: Finely crafted, well priced American manufactured products
I like options. At least I think I like options. But when I had to scroll through 9 pages of wall scones in more than one website selling lights, I wonder whether too many options is too much. Curiously, I am not sure if I have found the bathroom wall sconce of my dreams, either. I feel that I am obsessed with either home decorating or commercialism, or both. Yet, I don’t think I am alone in my quest for the perfect wall sconce since so many companies have put so many of these things on the web. I like to go on travel sites where they tell how many people were looking at the same hotel. They could be booking a year from now or just daydreaming, but at least you know that three other people within the last hour were checking out the same trip.
But I remember, too, what it was like to not be able to buy a stepstool when I lived in Manhattan, Kansas. I wanted one to access my higher kitchen cabinets. The clerks at the Wal-Mart, the only big box store at the time there, informed me that they only stock stepstools in late August through September when the college students need them. After that there wasn’t much demand. It was March. In those days, I didn’t have the Internet to find 729 step stools on Amazon alone.
My quest for the right wall sconces and everything else to renovate our tiny bathroom caused me to think about (again) why more of these products are not manufactured in the United States. There is an interesting divide in the price of wall sconces: either $50 or less from the big box hardware stores or $99 to $200 from specialty stores. I am proposing that American manufacturers should produce more customized items that fit the niche between really cheap and the high end. They also could put together solid, well-made products at the high end that cleverly solve problems in more elegant ways than currently available.
I have been thinking about this since listening to NPR’s recent report about Silca, the $450 bicycle pump now manufactured in Indianapolis. While I can’t quite imagine buying a Silca, I can think of people who would want one. There’s something about wanting the most reliable object if you will need it quickly and efficiently in an emergency. That’s probably why certain bicycle enthusiasts are willing to pay that much for what seems to most of us to be worth $15 to $20, at most.
What else would some of us pay a lot of money for? There’s an interesting dividing line that I sometimes find myself crossing as I pursue a product that will help me out. Sometimes I go for the low end object because 1) I think I will not use if very often 2) I can’t figure out the difference between a low cost and high cost object, 3) I don’t think the object is very valuable and 4) I decide that if I really want the better version I can figure out with the cheaper version what I want in a more expensive one. Take pans used for cooking. When I bought a $20 frying pan at K-Mart, I quickly learned that perhaps more expensive cooking tools might be worthwhile. They might heat more quickly and more uniformly. They might clean up easier. They might not have so many chemicals in their coating. But it took me months of investigating all the different pan options before I finally purchased one in the local gourmet shop in our neighborhood uptown. The store owner explained to me, “How much do you spend on a restaurant meal? How many meals do you think you are going to make with this pan?” When I added those up, the $100 frying pan seemed somewhat like a bargain. I have used it for about ten years and it finally needs replacing. I specifically went back to the gourmet store because of that conversation. Calphalon cookware, by the way, is made in the U.S.
I used to shop at Circuit City because the sales people were knowledgeable and often treated me with congeniality and respect. The Best Buy staff was far below Circuit City in treating customers. I was furious when the Circuit City management fired the most knowledgeable staff and was fine when the company failed not long after.
Here’s how I pull this together: Once people find out that they really need an object, they want something better (usually) than what is sold at Target, K-Mart, Wal-Mart. They want a product that is better made, more sophisticated, reliable, and successful to use. It’s the difference between a Bic pen that works for a few weeks and Pilot gel pen that works for months or a Levenger ink pen that is a work of art. These objects that fall in the middle could be customized, or sold in smaller batches. I think that’s appeal behind the handmade vodkas and the craft beers. There must be many more products like this, that aren’t necessarily the highest end products, but a lot better than the entry level product. Then, these products need to be sold in an informative, sophisticated, and perhaps fun way through the Internet, and perhaps through stores. I think this is what Warby Parker and Frank & Oak are doing. Maybe it’s what ModCloth is doing, too.
I would like these products either to be the best that they can be. Or to have elements that I can customize and pay a small premium for. Like the wall sconce. I pretty much know what I want and I still haven’t found it. I would pay about $75 to $125 to an American company for something that meets most of what I need. I am probably going to end up pay $45 for something that’s about right, but cheaply made in China. And I will feel bad about it. Maybe 3-d printers will solve some of these problems.
