WHO’S SOURCING WHO?

By Carolyn Scott

06/24/12

Earlier on CBS Sunday Morning, a segment was aired featuring Katherine and Jared MacLane, who manufacture Polo shirts.  (Link provided below) The objective of this segment, as far as I could determine, was to justify why their shirts are better than other Polo shirts, & why they can sell their own brand for $155.00 as opposed to the $90.00 price tag other brands retail for.  They explained about the quality of cloth they use (purchased from France), how much it costs/yard, the buttons, thread, other paraphernalia, the paper it’s wrapped in at sale before placed into the embroidered bag given the customer at end of transaction…

Now while the price for the combined materials used was higher than those from say, China, by my not so remarkable math calculations, the retail cost still shouldn't meet $90.00, let alone their $155.00 even after markup.  However, since they were not made in China, but instead here in the USA, I thought about the higher wage base to workers here; perhaps insurance for them; the cost of leasing factory space & meeting US regulated safety standards, etc.   That overhead could indeed dictate a small privately owned business to mark up their product considerably higher.  More so, the fact they were putting Americans to work was somehow ‘settling’ to me, although I will probably never afford one of their shirts unless they have the sale of all sales on them!  That aside though, another reason I feel I may never be a customer of theirs is because of what I saw in the video clips of their factory.  Or better still, what I didn’t see.  As the clips rolled, aside from the blonde haired, blue eyed all American looking Mrs. Maclane, I didn’t see any black, white or American born looking folks aside from her.   I won’t say for sure there were no Americans employed there since I have no idea at this time of the actual size of their operation, number of employees, or status of citizenship of them on the whole, but it still bothered me that the workers featured in their clips more closely resembled the look of those employed by our outsourcers.    

This brought to mind a few questions:   Are their workers natural born or legalized citizens of the USA or are they only working on a Green Card basis?  If it’s the latter, why were they hired over out of work Americans?  Did any Americans apply?  Have Americans lost touch with such ‘hands-on’ type work that they won’t apply for labor jobs anymore?  Even if their employees are legal citizens, are they the only ones who, perhaps gained through our outsourcing to their countries, have the skill for those manufacturing/labor/technical jobs requiring hands-on abilities?  Do they not expect as much from the American business owner as US born citizens do? Do folks who buy their shirts at $155.00 even care about the reusable bag it comes in?  Believe me, I have more questions but I already feel I’m drowning in these! 

While getting in some ‘retail therapy’ last week, I stumbled across a lady’s Izod Polo shirt.  While Izod originated in London, 1922 & launched in the US in the late 1930’s, it, like so many other manufacturers now, outsources to other countries.  So granted, my new Polo was made in India, & it didn't come wrapped in paper inside an embroidered cloth bag, but I only paid $12.99; pretty easy on the change purse.  I even had $$ left for a nice cold ice-tea.  I’m pretty certain that, even if the tea was imported, it was brewed on the spot here in the USA ;-)

CBS Sunday Morning (link) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57459467/how-the-cost-of-a-shirt-adds-up

Another interesting read:  http://www.mddionline.com/article/high-cost-outsourcing-china