Globalization and kitchen experiences -- ExUBF's Parlor

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Date Posted: 01:35:15 11/19/04 Fri
Author: Chris
Subject: Globalization and kitchen experiences
In reply to: Joe 's message, "Kennedy, Nixon" on 18:44:18 11/12/04 Fri

And today, China makes virtually all the toys and appliances that Americans buy.

Not only Americans. In Germany it is the same.

Here is a small story from every day life. My wife and I had bought a very cheap toaster, because we seomtimes love toasted bread. After a few months, the toaster didn't work any more. It was a Chinese no-name product. (My parents have a toaster from the 1920s or so, it still works!) So I tried to fix it, but it had security screws and could not be opened. After I finally found a special tool to open the screws, it was really cheap, cheap, cheap inside. I found the problem was somewhere in the electronics that controlled an electromagnet that controlled the ejection of the bread, but was not able to fix it. When I saw how cheap it was I had no real desire to spend a long time with it, either. So I had to trash the hole thing finally. My wife said that next time we shall by a quality product from a renowned company (she uses to say "we are not so rich that we can afford buying cheap things"). A few weeks later, she found one good offer, a toaster from the German company "Rowenta" which had a good name for domestic appliances. But when I opened the box and had a closer look, I found that it was exactly the same Chinese widget we had before, they had only sticked their brand on the housing, and it had a little change in design. So much about "made in Germany." In many product lines, German companies have degraded to Chinese resellers.

By the way, I have the same problem with our microwave oven. The label says it is from an Italian company, but in reality it is a Chinese import, and they only act as reseller again. It sometimes gor broken, one time with a bing bang and the whole mess flying through the kirchen. Nobody would repair it here, and it has security screws again, so you are forced to throw it away even if only the safety fuse inside burned through. (I was able to fix it several times, though, but only because I have special tools now and some skills in electronics and electrotechnics.)

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