Levi Strauss Closes Last Two U.S. Plants

Fox News ^ | Thursday, January 08, 2004 | AP

[looscnnn]

I would have told Wal-Mart to go F themselves. I would have then aggressively courted K-Mart and all of Wal-Mart's competitors.

[kcvl]

I agree. I don't buy "stuff" anymore just for the sake of buying. I use to do that to the EXTREME. I thought I HAD to have it. Now, the less junk, the better. Simplify.

[looscnnn]

Why do you think that is? Maybe because the HQ is located in SF and AIDS is the only thing that SF really cares about.

[tiamat]

I try not to by "stuff", but I am looking at moving us to a smaller house later this year... Have you got any idea how much crap a 22 year marriage collects? i need to cut the crap by half and I am frankly feeling intimidated! LOL!

Tia

[looscnnn]

Maybe you should go on that show Clean Sweep (or what ever the name is) on TLC. They will help you clear out the crap.

[tiamat]

I don't know that one. Any good?

I am planning on doing a lot of eBay and several garage sales...

Mostly it's a matter of knowing where to start. Does not help that both Hubby and Daughter are pack-rats...they get upset if I throw out "precious artifacts! "

Tia

[kcvl]

Have you seen what the Brittany Spears look-a-likes are wearing and what they are paying for it? It looks like it has been worn for years and it's UGLY and EXPENSIVE. These are the same people who love the Paris Hilton butt-crack look. Oh, and don't forget the tattoo growing from it. These are the people who keep business and profits growing (and it doesn't matter who makes it).

[Redbob]

There's always Wrangler, the cowboy jeans.

I gave up all Levis products several years ago when I learned they are major sponsors of the gun-grabbers group "Pax".

[Kevin Curry]

Levi Strauss, which is privately held, has weathered seven straight years of declining sales after its revenue peak of $7.1 billion in 1996.

A couple of points:

The decline has been in overall sales. That is, the primary problem is not increasing costs of materials or labor. It is that people have been buying fewer and fewer Levis jeans since 1996.

Now, it may be that people have been buying fewer and fewer Levis jeans since 1996 because there are cheaper substitutes. In fact, that's quite likely true (Sam's Club sells a good generic jean for about $10). But is isn't the whole story. Jeans, like most clothing, are still not a pure commodity--at least not in the affluent west. Certain brands can claim a premium based on mystique, prestige, and loyalty. Levis once could claim that premium. People would readily buy Levis brand despite the higher cost--and in many cases likely because of the higher cost.

Flush with success, Levis in the late 1990s made a corporate decision to more visibly and noisily align itself with progressive causes and politics the most notorious being its very public sponsorship of summer camps for gay and lesbian youth. At the same time, it castigated the Boy Scouts of America and made sure the entire world knew it was ending its annual contribution to the Boy Scouts.

It is quite likely that these decisions were made in a corporate meeting suffused with the peculiar stink of leftist progressive self-righteousness. Directors likely slapped each other on the back or embraced in tears and they staggered to take in the full depth and breadth of their progressive goodness and decency as "socially diverse and responsible company."

Sales began to plummet from that point forward.

Now, I cannot say I now for a fact that sales plummeted because Levis Strauss traded its brand loyalty birthright for a mess of progressive pro-gay anti-Boy Scout pottage. I do know that my family stopped buying all Levis products in 1998-1999. I know other families that did as well.

[kabar]

What we need is Congress to get up the balls and pass a bill that says that any company that does the majority of production outside the country is considered a foreign company, irregardless of where the headquarters is located. Then their products will be taxed like all imports. I think this would keep a majority of production in America.

I don't quite understand what impact this will have. Under free trade legislation and the WTO we treat most foreign companies similar to how we treat US companies. In fact, many companies move everything offshore to avoid US taxes and restrictions, e.g., environmental controls, labor and workplace requirments etc. If we started levying import duties, we would start a trade war. Bush backdowned on the steel tariff after pressure from the EU and WTO.

What really needs to be done is to examine the economic impact of free trade. For the first time, companies have the ability to move the means of production to other countries and still sell in the same market. We will continue to lose jobs and the only way we can retain a comparative advantage is to increase productivity (which also eliminates jobs) and/or have a declining standard of living so we can elimiate the current advantage countries like China and India have over us. Moreover, the Internet has permitted the outsourcing of skilled and white collar jobs to places like India. Right now, xrays and mri's are being sent to India to be reviewed and analyzed.

[cruiserman]

So the company is virulently anti-gun, and they moved all their plants to china.

[Right_Handed_Writer]

I never rejoice at Americans losing jobs, but as a long time Scouter, this makes me happy to see them feeling the pinch for their actions.

[GigaDittos]

What jeans manufacturer is American anymore? Wanna bet that Levi's is not alone? Trust me, no one will ever associate Levi's or any other brand of jeans with China, not any time soon anyway. Besides, moving jeans and everything else to China will eventually break the back of communism. What country do you think the Chinese sitting at the sewing machine associates with Levi's, hmmmm? You can bet it ain't China. It's called exporting capitalism.

[GigaDittos]

HELL NO, HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?????!!!!! I want everyone to associate as much as possible with America, no matter where it's made.

[templar]

I gave up all Levis products several years ago when I learned they are major sponsors of the gun-grabbers group "Pax".

Personally, I gave up levis back when they jumped on the homo wagon. They went after a specific demographic (homos) and found out it wasn't as big or as popular as they thought. If they had reversed their position and supported pro-American conservative causes I would have switched back. (or if they had just quit supporting any causes for that matter, I don't feel that a company nescessarily needs to support any causes other than being an American business)

[templar]

If you had to choose between Levi's (import) and Arizona Jean Co. (domestic) jeans and the difference is $3.00, which will you buy?

The tag in my Arizona Jeans Co. jeans states that it is "Made in Mexico of Canadian Fabric". I suppose that qualifies as domestic inthe NAFTA sense of the word. My Wranglers state that they are "Made in USA" of "100% cotton". That qualifies as domestic in the old sense. Both are good jeans, both cost approximately the same.

BTW, I bought the Arizona jeans thinking they were domestic made because of their name (and because I liked the fit as much as Wranglers). The company may be domestic, but the jeans aren't.

[looscnnn]

If we allow companies to keep moving jobs overseas, the economy will become irrelevant. There will be few domestic jobs left for lots of unemployed people. You know how the laws of supply & demand work. If the supply of workers is more than the demand, then the wages will drop to minimal wage. I do not condone what some unions have done to drive wages up and chase jobs away, but we need to keep the jobs here.

If the standard of living tanks here (we become a third world country) to the levels equivalent to China, etc., what makes you think that the jobs will come back? We would have to go way below theirs to give the companies reason to spend money to move jobs back. During the time it takes to do that, no one will be able to afford anything. We will be living like the Russians during the time Communists controlled the USSR, waiting in line for bread, etc. Of course, that could be the goal of some people that are for what is going on.

[looscnnn]

One website I visited said that they were made in the US, but that may have been an older site.

[Destructor]

Levi Strauss is paying the price for their idiotic, and ill-conceived support of gun control! Personally, I wish they'd move their corporate HQ out of the U. S. too!! I hear CUBA is lovely this time of year.

[kabar]

You are correct about what "free trade" is doing to Ameirca. We are separating the economy from the stock market. Multinational companies will continue to move the means of production to places that offer them the cheapest labor and other incentives. At one time, industries like textiles could move to the South from the North and some workers had the option to follow. Today, workers don't have that option to move to another country. Some theorize that the only way you can get an equivalent situation today is to have a global government, which eliminates nation states and international borders.

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