LEXAR Back from the Dead ! :-)

[combatentropy]

That's pretty bad. In '96 and '97 I worked at Best Buy, in their TV & VCR department. Sometimes older folks would shop with information that was a few decades old: they wanted a good old American brand like RCA or Magnavox. I hated to break it to them that those brands were shells of their former selves and weren't really American anymore. The best were Panasonic and Sony. The best bang for the buck, my coworkers and I agreed, were the VCRs by an up-and-coming Korean bulldozer company named Samsung.

Way too many people bought the Symphonic VCRs, though. Just $10 or $20 cheaper than the others, they were a whole lot junkier. I see, now at least, that Symphonic is part of the Funai company that also makes Magnavox.

 

[DLD]

That's pretty bad. In '96 and '97 I worked at Best Buy, in their TV & VCR department. Sometimes older folks would shop with information that was a few decades old: they wanted a good old American brand like RCA or Magnavox. I hated to break it to them that those brands were shells of their former selves and weren't really American anymore...

A lot depends on how one handles a customer base. A lot of folks - and this would depend on the location of a particular store - related differently to different salespeople. On place where I had worked on the Westside had an older salesperson. When we were in our 20's, he was in his mid-60's. And he had worked at that location for fourteen years by then.

This was a typical conversation he had with customers.

A middle aged male walks in. Our grizzled veteran gets up from his desk to greet him.

SP : Welcome to the store. I remember you. I sold you a big screen before.

C : It was twenty five inches in size.

SP : Oh, that's right. A console.

C : No, a table top.

SP : Stereo, right?

C : Nope. Mono.

SP: Color?

C : Black and white.

SP : We delivered it to your wife in Beverly Hills?

C : No, to my mother-in-law in Palm Springs.

SP : Your name is Bob?

C : No, Jim.

SP : Yes, I remember. Glad to see you again.

------------------------------

And people felt completely comfortable with the guy. #1 in the company and he sold only big brands. Unless they wanted something else. To their wives or mothers-in-law. In Beverly Hills or Palm Springs.

 

[Sttratos]

I guess I just wonder if they're going to use the same employees, products, quality, etc., or have their Chinese employees make new memory cards, while disbanding the American division. If the latter, then how are they better than any Chinese knockoff, except that they paid for and inherited a once reputable brand name? I mean, if they're starting from scratch. As in, Chinese are known for knocking off products, at reduced prices, often because they used cheaper materials (and labor), which generally results in less reliable products. So if they come out with a new memory card, how do we know it will have the same reliability as the level of reliability that the Lexar brand has built up over the years?

Another reason for the Chinese made stuff being cheaper is that they will accept a lower profit margin in order to sell more units. Western companies tend to want larger profit margins.
From the car industry to electronics and anything else. Then to put the Asian brands down and explain why their own company charges way more for what is basically the same thing, they would say the Asian brands are only cheaper because of inferior materials and manufacturer techniques. It's way better than to say they are cheaper because they are also less greedy on a per item basis.

This vitriol repeated itself for years, until the western companies finally ran out of lies and got put in their place. It happened with the car industry when Japanese cars started entering the western world. People would say a Chrysler, Chevy, Ford, Jaguar etc was better and Hondas and Toyotas were inferior and cheaply made. While actually they were much better, better made, more reliable while costing less. With time people saw through the lies of the western brands representatives and embraced Japanese made cars. Now look at what happened to the U.S. car industry. Where Chrysler and Chevy are. Ford is the only one doing kind of ok. Same in the UK. Jaguar, Land Rover and Lotus belong to Asian companies. Compare a Chrysler or even a Chevy or Ford to a Honda-Acura and a Toyota-Lexus today and we know which one is the piss poor quality one. Now Japan has no sweat shop working conditions. But they still manage to make a better product for less. Why is that?

Same vitriol was repeated with the electronics industry, till the point most western companies started having their stuff "secretly" made in China while still bashing the Chinese brands.

These days the only people who still spread the old vitriol are people who work for the competing western companies or people with lots of money invested in things made by then. The old vitriol that Chinese made stuff is all bad is old now. As said Apple and several other companies products are made there. Even Japanese brands have stuff made in China. Most of the stuff around all our houses here are made in Asia. It's just a matter of time till Chinese brands are actually big enough names till they can drop western brands and compete head to head with them. Then western brands will be in serious trouble.

There is cheaply made stuff in China. But the same is true for western made goods. But Chinese products are no longer just cheap low quality knock offs. This is not the 90's anymore.

 

[cpreston]

At this point, I don't think "Made in America" is about quality anymore for us in the US, it is just about keeping work in the US. Most brands are now global: incorporated in one country, designed in another country, and built in a different country. If the brand is big enough and has high enough sales, the manufacturing is outsourced to whoever can make it cheaper which keeps on changing. I remember when Taiwan considered cheapest. It's passed through Korea, Hong Kong, China, now Bangladesh. I read a report that Africa will probably be the next source of cheap labor. I buy quite a bit of equipment straight from China. Some of it is great. Some of it might start a fire. In any case, the only lies that companies now tell when selling their products is that they actually care about the country in which it is manufactured.

All that said, it seems obvious that Micron decided their consumer memory division wasn't profitable enough, but whether than kill it outright they realized they could make a bit of money selling the brand name for which they had built a reputation. As a brand name, Lexar means nothing right now except to the people who don't know it's been sold.

 

[combatentropy]

Yes, I agree. China can make good stuff. It was called fine china for a reason.

And as an American, I will be one of the first to say that we can make bad stuff. In fact our culture is bent on it. While Germany, Italy, and Japan have emphasized craftsmanship for centuries, the American way is about quick, cheap, disposable (see Made in the USA by Paul Graham). There are exceptions: Apple, Lectrosonics, and Sound Devices. Sure, part or the whole thing is made overseas, but that they were even designed in the USA is unusual.

Anyway, I think it's about ownership and control. Bad stuff is made in China not because they can't make good stuff but because you mailed a blueprint and a check to perfect strangers thousands of miles away. The same thing would happen in America if you never came down to the factory to check on things, especially if your only directive was, "Just make it as cheap as you can."