Why Is It So Hard To Find Quality Solid Oak Furniture Made In The USA?

So, why is it so hard to find real, quality, solid wood furniture in your local furniture store? The law of cause and effect! What is the cause? The answer is very simple!

On Oct 10 of 2000 President Clinton signed a law giving Most Favored Nation Status to the country of China. This law opened up free trade with China. Supported by both conservatives and liberals in congress, this agreement opened up the floodgate for cheap furniture from overseas. Not sure what their goal was. But looking back, it would have been good to have a little ‘gridlock’ back then.

The results were devastating. Labor costs in China were a fraction of the wages of skilled workers in the US. So, within a few months, stores began having the option of buying furniture from overseas wholesalers at no more than 1/3 of the cost of buying from furniture plants in the USA. American companies that produced good quality furniture just could not compete. One after another they were forced to close. Foreclosures and auction notices became the norm. Tens of thousands of jobs were lost. What was once a thriving industry was gone in just a few short years.

Those that remained had some options. Many began producing cheap furniture with processed panels, some of them buying all their furniture parts from overseas suppliers and assembling them here. Most had to radically downsize their operations in order to stay in business.

I chose to downsize. At one time I had 5 full time employees with dreams of growing much larger. Instead, In mid-2007 I let my last employee go (he had a dream of starting his own Networking business, which he is doing today!) That is when I became a one man shop, launched my internet business, and discontinued selling to retail stores.

So here we are in 2015. It is hard to find good, quality furniture makers. However, we are out there, scattered throughout the states. It is up to you, the consumer to find us, buy from us, and help rebuild an industry that the actions of our federal government tore apart!