MORE POOR QUALITY MERCHANDISE COMING TO AMERICA

ANOTHER WOULD BE SPORTING GOODS RETAILER THAT WE DO NOT NEED

Did you ever hear of a sporting goods retailer by the name of Decathlon? If the answer is no, neither did I until the past two weeks when they announced in the Sporting Goods Business online publication they were going to open stores in the USA after a trial store was located in S.F., CA., apparently this store has been successful or so they believe.

I got online to learn a little more about them. I viewed their product line and their pricing. Initially I read that they are a family-based company in France. In addition, they are the worlds largest retailer of sporting goods with 1600 store located in 69 countries. That tells me they are low priced for every item they sell because all of the countries around the world are at best second world and most are third world and they cannot afford the quality of what we have in our stores.

They have been doing their due diligence about what is going on in the USA with store closings and think that it is their time to now start peddling their Asian made low quality products in the USA.

Last week I wrote to them asking the country of origin of their sleeping bags. They wrote back that all products were designed in their offices in France. I then wrote back I did not ask about the location of the designs but country of manufacture? I have yet to get a response.

What I did read on their web site is that their so-called sleeping bags are made with polyester shells and linings. Why? because it is cheaper than nylon and what they do not know is that polyester is highly flammable so anyone using one of their so-called sleeping bags is at risk if a fire hits the bag.

As I suspected all of their tents are made from polyester fabric. Why? because again it is cheaper than nylon, but it is again highly flammable. I have not been in the S.F., CA. but if they have these tents in that store if the state learns of it, they will have them removed from sale. All tents sold in California MUST BE FLAME RETARDANT TREATED even though the flame-retardant treatment is in and of itself dangerous because of the fumes that off gases and the treatment gets on your hands. Remember the chemical also gets on your hands so you should wear gloves in setting up these tents. All of this information comes from none other than REI. Deep down inside these French probably believe we Americans want to buy cheap goods. I am sure we can buy every item they are going to put in their stores in rei, Walmart, dick’s and numerous other retailers around the country and I almost forgot also on the internet.

Their selling point is that they have designed their products in France and have them made in Asian factories, not that they have country of origin on the web site for products, but made to their specifications, which I believe are poor quality. They probably go into the same factories as the north face who do not use serging machines as I showed in one video when making their sleeping bags.

As I have been writing this, I began to realize that the world economy is at minimum mildly depressed so maybe this company wants to move dormant merchandise from those second and third world countries to the USA. And never forget that there are companies located in foreign countries who open businesses in the USA for one reason, to get US dollars.

I am a firm believer of an undeniable truth; the USA is the “economic engine of the world” and when we get sick the rest of the world gets pneumonia.

What we do not need is another company coming to America with merchandise that is a rip off in my opinion. They are entitled to spend their money with this enterprise, but I do believe that they will fail and when they do, they will start to dump merchandise. This will mean the buyers will get poor quality products and the other retailers will not see these customers until all of the poor quality merchandise is gone and they too.

NEW VIDEO

This past winter I have received numerous calls asking one question; how should i dress for cold weather. I have taken the time to explain what to wear for various temperatures. So I decided to make a video explaining what i believe should be worn by people who go into the field in the colder months of the year. I have read some of the recommendations offered by writers for various magazines such as field and stream or american hunter, generally they are filled with miss information. I will let you know when it will have it up and running on the web site. It will be done this month.