Will Predator engines be $99 again ?

[Skol8480]

Now we pay more for cheap Chinese tools. It drives me up the wall. Our dependency on China is a scary thing.

I miss the days of quality, American-made products. The people of this country want everything "right now" and they want it cheap. They don't care that nothing lasts like it used to and everything is cheap, Communist-made junk.

Greedy Corporate America would rather sell their souls for cheap labor and cheap manufacturing than use American labor because millenial workers think they're entitled to $25 an hour with benefits because they wake up in the morning. To make matters worse, Unions and certain political groups feed these idiotic employee mindsets and are constantly making it more expensive and difficult to employ American labor.

Greed, laziness and entitlement. It's here to stay folks, and quality is dead as a result.

 

[dlundblad]

Now we pay more for cheap Chinese tools. It drives me up the wall. Our dependency on China is a scary thing.

I miss the days of quality, American-made products. The people of this country want everything "right now" and they want it cheap. They don't care that nothing lasts like it used to and everything is cheap, Communist-made junk.

Greedy Corporate America would rather sell their souls for cheap labor and cheap manufacturing than use American labor because millenial workers think they're entitled to $25 an hour with benefits because they wake up in the morning. To make matters worse, Unions and certain political groups feed these idiotic employee mindsets and are constantly making it more expensive and difficult to employ American labor.

Greed, laziness and entitlement. It's here to stay folks, and quality is dead as a result.

I agree with many of your comments, but this really has nothing to do with American jobs and has to do more with inflation combined with high demand and low supply. Could be one or another or a little of both.

This engine is a copy of a Honda. The US tried making a reliable small engine and just couldn’t do it like the Japanese. The Chinese copied the design and now we have the “Chonda.”

A company raising their prices has nothing to do with the company not doing well, their business model etc. HF will not be like another Sears.

 

[skyactiv]

It will end if it hasn’t already. Just like you can no longer buy a new push mower for $99. The Dollar Tree will go through a change, too.

 

[skyactiv]

Now we pay more for cheap Chinese tools. It drives me up the wall. Our dependency on China is a scary thing.

I miss the days of quality, American-made products. The people of this country want everything "right now" and they want it cheap. They don't care that nothing lasts like it used to and everything is cheap, Communist-made junk.

Greedy Corporate America would rather sell their souls for cheap labor and cheap manufacturing than use American labor because millenial workers think they're entitled to $25 an hour with benefits because they wake up in the morning. To make matters worse, Unions and certain political groups feed these idiotic employee mindsets and are constantly making it more expensive and difficult to employ American labor.

Greed, laziness and entitlement. It's here to stay folks, and quality is dead as a result.

I’ll respond to this later today when I have time. I’m busy making $39 at my UPS Teamsters job.

 

[Skol8480]

I’ll respond to this later today when I have time. I’m busy making $39 at my UPS Teamsters job.

Yeah, but if you're a skilled worker and you want to work and your abilities deserve the pay, that's fine. It's the lazy folks who get $25/hour when they're barely worth $9/hour that I'm referring to.

I'm not taking a political stance against unions. I'm sick of cheap, Chinese-made products dominating our market. It's as much a Union-made problem as it is a Corporate-greed problem

 

[supton]

I'm guessing the days are gone now too, but it was unlikely to have lasted anyhow. Those engines are probably sold near cost, right? Lots of metal plus shipping. Maybe HF doubles the price from those two items, so as to cover running stores and whatnot. But all of these items get hit by inflation. Which goes up slowly in most years, and right now in much bigger leaps. Quick look shows that a buck in Jan 2011 is worth $1.25 now.

Greedy Corporate America would rather sell their souls for cheap labor and cheap manufacturing than use American labor because millenial workers think they're entitled to $25 an hour with benefits because they wake up in the morning. To make matters worse, Unions and certain political groups feed these idiotic employee mindsets and are constantly making it more expensive and difficult to employ American labor.

Millennials are the problem? I thought unions pushing for wage increases was a century old problem...

 

[ragtoplvr]

There is a Tariff, when it goes away you can expect the price to drop.

HF is now big, and big often is inefficient.

Hopefully Lambert does not buy them.

 

[JTK]

Even without the current conditions I believe the $99 HFT OPE engine was a thing of the past anyway. Things like the little ~900 watt 2-stroke powered portable generator 3-4yrs ago went from $79 on sale to ~$139 and never on sale.

I've not bought anything from HFTs in more than a year. All my tool related purchases and OPE parts have been mail-order. If I needed something in a pinch, I'll buy from a HFT store. I think that's going to be their niche.

 

[Skol8480]

I'm guessing the days are gone now too, but it was unlikely to have lasted anyhow. Those engines are probably sold near cost, right? Lots of metal plus shipping. Maybe HF doubles the price from those two items, so as to cover running stores and whatnot. But all of these items get hit by inflation. Which goes up slowly in most years, and right now in much bigger leaps. Quick look shows that a buck in Jan 2011 is worth $1.25 now.


Millennials are the problem? I thought unions pushing for wage increases was a century old problem...

It's both.

 

[Rochev]

I don't think it's fair to mark an entire generation as a whole as being an issue. I'm a "millennial" and do not know anyone (in my age group) who isn't a hard worker and doesn't deserve what they are paid. My wife is a nurse practitioner. With two kids, that was incredibly hard for her to go through and get that career.

The majority of Millennials will also not get to retire, let alone buy a house. We make an honest, decent living but unless we are well off enough to spend $400k on a tiny 3 bed ranch, we have to rent.

I guess some of the younger millennials don't tend to work hard from what I've experienced, but are the only people who haven't had a good work ethic born between "1981-1996"? It's also hard for many people nowadays to want to work so hard for so little. Not that I'm justifying them, or care. Just my .02 cents.

-rant over.
Also, very happy with my Predator generator. Starts up first pull after 4 stale months.

 

[Ronsant]

What I see in my business where we import a lot from Europe, Australia, NS yes, some components form China-
shipping costs are double or more what they were before Covid. Supply is down and lead times are way up.
Even when a container hits the US, it takes weeks to get a truck to haul it to our facility.
So it’s no wonder that HF prices are going up.
If I can get a better price online for a similar or better quality tool, that’s what I’ll do.
if I need it right now, I have a HF store up the road.
I wish we had more choice in US made tools and products, but manufacturing can’t be turned on like a light switch. It takes months and more to set up a manufacturing plant. Then you have to compete with cheaper stuff from overseas.