Ethical Sourcing & MEC

Financial Meltdown Hits Manufacturing

The global financial meltdown seems to have not hit the outdoor retailing sector, well not yet.  Sales in 2008 for MEC remain higher than 2007. Not that much different from our peers down south.  Informal discussions with them suggest the implosion of the US economy has not rippled to the outdoor trade.  Nonetheless, we're all cautiously watching the market in 09.  

The downturn has hit China.  Exports are down 5.4 percent which means factories are closing and laying off workers.  According to one Chinese report, over 10 million migrant workers have returned to their rural villages because of job redundancies. Only last year our contract factories were lamenting over the difficulty in finding workers.  Today, many are complaining of purchase order shortages.    

Women, Bikes and Manufacturing

We were heading to our next factory visit when our Lexus suffered a puncture on its rear left wheel.  A four inch steel bolt pierced the radial tire leaving its hexagon head jutting from the rubber surface while its body was lodged deep in the wheel.  Lucky for us there was a "mom and pop" tire store 100 metres away.

The tiny garage was deserted except for three weathered looking men smoking and drinking tea while sitting around a card table.  We pulled adjacent to them. One man examined the puncture, make a few "tsk tsk" sounds and then barked for the woman sitting behind a desk in the show room.  The woman came to the car, inspected the flat and proceeded to change the tire.

It was an odd sight.  Here was a women dressed in pink slacks, a blouse and low profile heels operating a lift, hoisting the wheel from the axle, winching the tire from the rim and then reversing all these tasks with the replacement part.  But what stood apart wasn't really the incongruent image of a well dressed woman changing a tire in a garage or performing a traditional male job, but rather it was the singular unhelpfulness of all the nearby men.  They sat, chatted and smoked while she did the work and then when she was done she returned to the office to ring in the transaction.