Seth, I admire and support what you are trying to do, but I think it's best to not get too hung up on country of manufacture. Here's why: We sell a fair number of Surly bikes, which is a "local" brand in Minneapolis. People who are concerned about such things tend to focus on the fact that the frames are not actually manufactured in Minneapolis, but in Taiwan. I have heard that the landed cost of the Long Haul Trucker or Cross-Check frameset is around $75, which may be inexact, but seems close enough with the economies of scale. This means that of the $450ish MSRP, less than 20% is manufacturing and shipping to the Surly distribution points. For all the focus on manufacturing country, 80-85% of the money you spend on a Surly frameset goes somewhere else. "Somewhere else" is the designers, customer service people, shipping personnel, and marketing/sales staff, most of whom are local to me, and several of whom are personal friends. Around 40% goes to the LBS where you buy the frame. In other words, 80% of the price of your Taiwanese Surly frameset stays in your own country, and half of that stays with your LBS. I would imagine that Rivendell has a larger percentage tied up in manufacturing their framesets, which works for them because, by and large, there is no LBS profit margin in the equation.
It's sort of depressing to chase your money around after you've spent it. Unfortunately, you can only control the first place it gets spent. After that, it gets complicated, and somewhere in the supply chain is a guy who beats his wife, votes for politicians you despise, eats the wrong food, and blows his cash on slave-made stuff at Wal-Mart. If we follow this rabbit hole far enough, we may conclude that it's better to keep the money in the sock drawer, and ride only scavenged Schwinn Varsities...or better yet, not earn money in the first place, and live as a monk. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rbw-owners-bunch/-/jb2j7zjZWBQJ. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en.
