another reason not to buy Dell

[o1die]

I worked in dell's austin plant twice. It's too bad those employees are losing their jobs.

Moved from Motherboards to P&N- Anandtech Moderator DAPUNISHER

Also, a link to the news story Text

 

[bigsnyder]

When did that plant open?

 

[o1die]

I believe it opened in the early 90's. I think Dell is anticipating slower sales and cutting costs. My old Ibm manager works there; this will be the third time he has lost his job due to a plant closing in the austin area.

 

[bigsnyder]

The reason I ask is Dell opened a plant here in Winston-Salem, NC back in Oct 2005. It almost sounds like that their long term planning was not very well thought out. I'm not a market analyst by any means, but seems this could have been avoided.

 

[manimal]

Margins are down industry wide. Knee jerk reaction corporations take to prevent stock from falling in price.

 

[hans007]

well building PCs in america is ridiculous. it just plain costs too much.

you cant have highly paid workers making your PCs and cheap PCs at the same time. All the other companies make their PCs in mexico or china its a fact of life.

Dell was the last to do it, and they have to to stay competitive. PC assembly is not exactly rocket science so they just cant pay $11 an hour to do that with benefits, when someone in mexico will do it for $2 or something.

I worked in an OEM's plant that manufactured HPs in the 90s during the summers in high school and college. And the reason is always that it just costs too much (in CA in particular with the higher minimum wage, workmans comps laws etc).

you can't have your cake and eat it too.

 

[v8envy]

hans007 nailed it. People are getting used to $300 and under family PCs. After paying for national advertising on TV, mailing glossy flyers and other marketing fluff there just isn't much fat left for a 'assembled in the US' feel good sticker -- considering 100% of the parts are made in China anyway.

I'm sure some very highly paid bean counters did some math and figured out people would rather wait another week to get their PC rather than pay an extra $20.

Sorry about the people losing their livelyhood, but that's the harsh reality of being unskilled or semi-skilled labor in the US. The demand for your job could vanish at any second.

 

[woodie1]

The San Antonio TV news said yesterday, according to Dell, that more people were buying Laptops and sales of desktop PCs had slowed. I guess this plant was only building desktop PC.

EDIT: Why is this a reason to not buy a Dell? They have to compete with the marketplace or go out of business. You want everyone who works for them to be jobless when they go belly up!

 

[bamacre]

I'm getting them out of a plant in TN, I think they have opened one or two here.

 

[jpeyton]

I would have done the same thing. Saving $3 billion over 3 years to have the Chinese build them just as well is a no-brainer.

 

[fleshconsumed]

I'm curious how many of those who replied above are against outsourcing of tech/it jobs...

 

[babylon5]

I thought manufacturing in America is still going very strong?

 

[senseamp]

So if you don't buy Dell because of that, what are you going to buy? Everyone builds them in China anyways.

 

[jonks]

Before I started building my own I bought dells and never had a bad experience with the hardware or tech support and shipping was scary fast. Granted I'm probably more tech savvy than the avg dell home customer, but trashing dell has become a sport and they were very good to me for many years. The coupons + no tax for my state (both since abandoned) had me shopping there for almost all my tech needs. Newegg has since replaced them in my rolodex but that's purely for price reasons.

 

[sunzt]

The article says only ~900 people will be laid off in the Austin plant. 8,800 will be laid off globally so it's not just US jobs that will be lost.

I think my next laptop would have been a Lenovo anyways.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: babylon5
I thought manufacturing in America is still going very strong?

Yes, McDonalds hamburger production lines are at all time highs are growing everyday.

 

[OutHouse]

screw you OP, i just got my XPS laptop last week and i love it.

 

[Fern]

another reason not to buy Dell

It strikes me that the Austin plant is closing precisley because people have already found enough reasons not to buy Dell's.

How would further "not buying Dells" help re-open the Austin plant?

Fern

 

[Modelworks]

I never looked at Dell because they were just too expensive compared to building my own.
I know people that did buy from them though and took two years or more to pay off the pc.
But these were just the email, web browsing type of people, not hardcore pc users.

Closing of a plant doesn't bother me. It happens.
Its when they close a plant and open another one outside the usa that I take notice.
example : Whirlpool and Maytag, both on my do not buy list.
http://www.galesburg.com/opinions/x254761129

Maytag ditched Galesburg in 2004 for greener pastures ? more green in corporate pockets, that is. It seems paying union wages kept the company from being ?competitively viable,? despite the quality of the American-made product. So 1,600 jobs in Galesburg were scrapped and the operation moved to a ?maquiladora? in Reynosa, Mexico.

Now, Whirlpool, which bought Maytag in 2005, is moving operations from a plant in LaVergne, Tenn., to Fort Smith, Ark., and from Reynosa to Ramos Arizpe, Mexico.

?These decisions, while difficult, are an important part of our overall operating plans, and will help ensure that we remain competitive in North America,? said Al Holaday, vice president, Whirlpool North America manufacturing. ?The changes are in no way a reflection on our employees at either the LaVergne or Reynosa facilities, whose contributions we greatly appreciate.?

Maytag officials said essentially the same thing when they left Galesburg in their wake. The latest moves will cost 500 jobs in LaVergne and 750 in Reynosa.

But, hey, we?ve already lost our jobs, so why should we care if Whirlpool is saying adios to Reynosa?

The entry-level wage in Reynosa in 2004 was typically $6.50 per day, a huge savings over American production costs. One might assume that the Reynosa pay was reasonable for a Mexican factory worker. You?d be wrong. ?The cost of living in Reynosa is only slightly lower than in urban areas in the United States, making it difficult for a line worker to support his or her family (though many line workers are young and single),? wrote Chad Broughton, a former Knox College professor who wrote a series for The Register-Mail at the time.

And the people working for those paltry wages were migrants in their own country, many traveling from poorer southern states to ?boomtowns? like Reynosa where they could earn something to send home. The average worker?s existence in the maquiladora was a meager one. It will be getting slimmer yet, though Whirlpool officials said workers will receive a severance package.

We have to wonder where it will all end. Broughton reported in 2004 that the work done in Reynosa could be done for about $2 a day in China. ?In part, because of competition from China, the maquiladora industry in Mexico has lost hundreds of thousands of assembly jobs since maquila employment peaked in October 2000.?

Granted, of the two Whirlpool moves announced last week, one is at least staying in the United States and the other is staying in Mexico. But one wonders how long it will be before the lure of even cheaper labor draws those jobs elsewhere, out of North America altogether.

As long as work can be done for less in countries where employees lack the rights they enjoy in the United States, corporate America will continue to ship jobs elsewhere to meet the consumer?s demand for the lowest possible cost and the shareholder?s demand for the highest possible profit. Until we put our efforts into raising worker rights around the world, and thus leveling the playing field economically, we will continue to see jobs leave the country. And that?s why we should care about what?s happening to Reynosa.

 

[Brovane]

This is interesting that they are closing this plant. The Dell Executive Briefing center is in Round Rock and I took a tour of this plant last year when I was there last year for a 3-day briefing put on by Dell for the company I work for. The plant that I toured was touted as the flagship plant for there desktop manufacturing process. The plant seemed incredibly efficient and it was amazing to see the processes they have to make everything as efficient as possible. I guess all future tours will only be of the server manufacturing.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Why hire American workers and immigrants with H1-B visas when you can have it assembled in China or Mexico?

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Closing of a plant doesn't bother me. It happens.
Its when they close a plant and open another one outside the usa that I take notice.
example : Whirlpool and Maytag, both on my do not buy list.
http://www.galesburg.com/opinions/x254761129

-snip-

I'm sure a company going bankrupt because it's competitors are building less expensive products using cheaper labor doesn't bother you either.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Lothar

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Closing of a plant doesn't bother me. It happens.
Its when they close a plant and open another one outside the usa that I take notice.
example : Whirlpool and Maytag, both on my do not buy list.
http://www.galesburg.com/opinions/x254761129

-snip-

I'm sure a company going bankrupt because it's competitors are building less expensive products using cheaper labor doesn't bother you either.

nope, because its not labor that is usually the problem.
Companies like Dell charge a premium for what could be sold lots cheaper, not because they have to sell it at that price to make a profit, but because they are greedy and charge as much as they can get away with.

 

[maziwanka]

god. i say increase tariffs everywhere. keep jobs in fucking america and americans wouldn't complain when prices rise since they can fucking afford it.

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Lothar

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Closing of a plant doesn't bother me. It happens.
Its when they close a plant and open another one outside the usa that I take notice.
example : Whirlpool and Maytag, both on my do not buy list.
http://www.galesburg.com/opinions/x254761129

-snip-

I'm sure a company going bankrupt because it's competitors are building less expensive products using cheaper labor doesn't bother you either.

nope, because its not labor that is usually the problem.
Companies like Dell charge a premium for what could be sold lots cheaper, not because they have to sell it at that price to make a profit, but because they are greedy and charge as much as they can get away with.

By your logic Wal-Mart and Costco charges a premium for what could be sold lots cheaper then. :roll:

Which business on the market do you know that doesn't charge as much as they can get away with?
I'm all ears.