Many frames appearing on the market today have "Made in China" marked on them. Some are just a sticker,others are printed. Before displaying them on your racks...do you remove the "Made in China" label? Is it legal to do so? Are we required to inform the client from where the frame is manufactured? Do the clients really care about it? What your opinion.
Made in China........................
Optical frames have to be marked by law with the country of origin at the point of import into the USA. If they are not marked they will not pass customs and FDA inspection.Originally Posted by coupe
99.9% of all frames sold these days come from China anyhow, like most other products sold under old American Names from plumbing to whatever.
I believe that you should not even worry about this issue, it is just a fact.
Last edited by Chris Ryser; 10-01-2008 at 01:54 PM.
Removing the fact that they were made in China seems kind of odd. I have people all the time ask me for frames NOT made in China but I do not want to fool them about it.
I take the stickers off b/c they get stuck in people's hair when they take the frame off. I do not alter the engraved marks.
Taking off the markings of where the frame is made seems dishonest to me.
Why not be honest?
Jana Lewis
ABOC , NCLE
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
Joseph Roux
US Customes rules require country of origin to be disclosed by the importer and or seller of goods. It applies to everything from glasses to apples.
remove the little sticky tags for the same reason that was mentioned earlier. (They get stuck in peoples hair or behind their ears.) Other than that why would you go to the trouble??
:cheers:
Days where my gratitude exceed my expectations are very good days!
TRUE! You are going to start seeing signs in the meat and produce sections at the grocery store, that indicate where the products came from. New federal law that just went into effect. Our local stores have them in place already.
I will routinely remove the ugly sticker tags from cases, but none of our frames have stickers - just the screened lettering. I do it for aesthetics more than anything else I suppose. They just look tacky to me in the case with the patients new $700 glasses. One guys opinion anyway...
I have often been asked to remove the Ray~Ban logo from glass plano Ray~Bans and have done so. Have also been asked to put same on Rx Ray~Bans but don't have the capablility. Is this a Sin?
I don't think it is dishonest, but I've never worried about taking the stickers off. I think as long as you aren't replacing it with "Made in Germany" or "Hand made in Italy" it's not lying.
It is your obligation under the law to disclose country of origin. The consumer is entitled to know the country of origin.
For example today, considering the melamine tainted milk in China, would you want to know if your milk came from China or was an unlabeled domestic product.
Why would you not want to accurately disclose all information that helps a customer choose wisely? If you have pride in what you sell, then, disclosure serves your business. If the label is embarrassing, you need to change your source of goods.
Great REPLY!!! :cheers:
Jana Lewis
ABOC , NCLE
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.
Joseph Roux
Odd as we have trouble discerning, there is a lot of difference between tainted milk, tainted drugs and a little lead (which actually probably helps the paint, God knows before the powers that be made us take it out of paint, paint lasted a whole lot longer.) in eye glass lacquer. You are not going to die from touching or wearing eyeglasses with lead in the paint! At least not unless you eat a lot of the frames.
You can take lead bullets, rub them all over your body and you won't get lead poisioning. Now if you get shot with one and it stays in the body for a long period of time, maybe.
The country of origion does not guarantee that solder joints, hinges, or any other part of the construction will be strong and well done in today's market. We have all seen "better" product that fell apart, maybe not at Tiffany's but a lot of commercial stuff it poorly made today no matter where it was made.
Having said all this I do trust stuff made in a lot of places more than I trust anything made by the Chinese.
Chip
Having said all this I do trust stuff made in a lot of places more than I trust anything made by the Chinese.
Chip[/quote]
Chip
You make my point about disclosure better than I do. To paraphrase you " you trust stuff made a lot of place more than China." How about we withhold the fact the "stuff" comes from China. Now tell me which stuff you trust. The issue is not about quality. US Customs regulations obligate us to clearly disclose the country of origin to consumers so we get to make our own choices. This issue is about disclosure not quality.
Additionally, I have spent a fair amount of time in China and find the products sold are made to the specification of wholesale buyer. The Chinese manufacturer is "market driven" selling capacity to build to products designed by other. The American manufacturer is "product driven" build a product and then find a customer to buy it. The reason for this is Chinese manufacturers have less access to capital than American manufacturers do.
I hope we are talking about the little sticker only. Yea, I remove those. They are sticky. I remove them from the cases too.
I don't modify anything. We have one line that has "JAPAN" stamped on one temple and "MADE IN CHINA" on the other. I believe the latter.
I remember a story about NASA having a lot of trouble with it's probes. The problem turned out to be the fact that the government had minimum and maximum specifications. One supplier had everything done to the exact minimum. This would not have been a problem if only a small percentage of components had been at the limit of minimum quality. But when everything was, the end result was failure.
I suspect that a lot of chinese product is made to minimum spec. Especially solder and welding joints.
Most (current) Japanese stuff seems to be well amde. Which probably accounts for those wonderful 84 series Charmants being great till they sold so many they had to make them at thier Chinese factory.
Also concidering some of the scandelous negligence of some Chinese product (drugs, toys, etc.) I am kind of reminded of some of the slave labor factories of the NAZI's. Where the doomed slaves tried to do thier part by making defective supplies. Itching powder in the underwear, that sort of thing.
Not at all sure China reguards themselves as anything more than our enemy, which is just as I reguard them.
Chip
about 10 years ago, a frame rep, trying to sell me his cheap chinese frames, right as China was unundating our market with their product, told me the bad thing is that these frames are made in China, the good thing is that you can peel that "made in" sticker right off the frame. Correct me if I am wrong, I have been buying and selling frames for over 30 years, but the majority of peel off "made in" stickers are from China or Pakistan or name any other country where the general consensus of the public is that the country of origin connotates inferior product. I for one dislike advertising that we carry what the public deems cheap, and so peel the "made in" sticker works quite nicely for me. You see products from germany or italy proudly permanantly imprinted on their temples.
Also, about 10 years ago, 20/20 did a piece on the Chinese government putting people in prison to work for the prison industry at n/c, and then they can undercut price on product from any other country that way. The worst was, however, they showed where they were shooting prisoners, killing them in the best areas so they could cultivate organs to be sent to rich countries. If anyone else saw the article it left an indelible mark on me, as it would have any normal human being. That being said, we have been forced to buy product from there or not survive, but we don't have to advertise it. Just my two cents worth.
Sheesh, the above is something to think about if it is true. I know it'll never happen, but we (as Americans/Canadians) should rethink buying, and selling, such crappy foreign made goods just because they are cheap.
I have a simple solution for those that practice removing the label so the consumer will not know. How about the person that sells the product to you removing the label so you do not know. Would that make you feel better? Most likely you want to know.
I'm really confused here, US Customs regulations are the law of the land and have been for many years. Disclose of country of origin is the law.
Most successful businesses establish their own quality and performance standards for the products they sell. It seems to me, if you have product which is of poor quality and does not meet your standards, you should change you assortment to products that do meet your standards. One needs to ask the sales representative specific questions regarding quality and performance. It's always easier to sell product you are proud of.
sorry, your point doesn't bode well with me. First off, there is a reason they put it on as a peel off, instead of permanent, because it is a selling point, that being, a requirement going through customs knowing point of origin, but I have never been told not to peel off the "made in" sticker for fear of reprisal from the feds, but like I had mentioned in my above thread, I had a rep tell me that I could peel it off, his selling point to me to buy the product and none would be the wiser. It isn't like that pillow you have at home that says do not take off tag or we will come and get your first born. Secondly, since I have the abilty to peel it off, I always will, not so much because I feel the product is inferior, but because of my philisophical and moral differences between myself and the Chinese government. My little Tianamin Square, if you will.
I find it hard to believe that you don't have a financial reason for sticking up for not peeling the "made in" stickers off the frames fresh off the slow boats from China.
Wow,some interesting answers. So lets go a little further. Some Luxottica frames have "Made in China" on them and they are selling at all LC etc stores for upper crust pricing. Therefore why are indepentdents afraid of the MIC label and no LC.
How do you feel about the wholesale grocer removing the country of origin before you buy milk? Or is ok for you to know the origin, so only your customers are misled?
The issue of disclosing the country of origin is the same if it comes from Italy, Canada, Brazil or France. It applies to all imported products. US Customs regulations require a seller to disclose the country of origin. It is the law.
Generalizing about product quality from one country is no different than saying all people from Mississippi are red-necks. Clearly, that is not true. Quality is a function of individual factories and the standards established by the wholesale buyer that in turn sells it to the retail store.
Last edited by LKahn; 10-02-2008 at 04:52 PM. Reason: spelling
Honesty is always the best policy to customers!
I dont take off the tags. Quite frankly, "made in china" cannot be directly associated with cheap. A lot of chinese manufacturers are under strict supervision of the company making the frames. On that note, "made in italy" ican no longer be associated with "good quality". It really depends on who is supervising the plant. And I tell my customers that.
Its like cars...Made in Japan used to be cheap and bad quality, but with strict supervision, they are better quality now. (this is just a comparison, Im not trying to stir anything up with who is better than who) my 2 cents
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