Are We ‘Made in America’ Dreaming? News-filled Monday ‘Made in US’

This Monday in news brought much awareness to the “Made in USA” product beginning with an article in the morning from MarketWatch explaining the findings that consumers will pay more for American made goods, and CNET reporting that Samsung could “beat Apple with Made in the USA,” and at night, still on Monday, USA Today spotlights a $25 million dollar makeover project in Minneapolis for the Hyatt Regency Hotel, which will “revamp with an interesting ‘Made in America’ theme.”

Is this a [American] dream? All on a quiet, sleepy March Monday, a tidal wave on conscious consumer updates and budding socially aware businesses like Samsung and Hyatt have designers like Michael Suomi saying, “We had a specific goal of bringing as much of the manufacturing and sourcing back to America to promote job growth, increase speed to market and celebrate American craft” (USA Today). Is this real? Are the “big guys” starting to take another look at malpractices overseas with instead supporting and promoting local businesses with strict moral and lawful codes? That’s not to mention the reward in the feeling of buying something organically handmade from your local area; a point Suomi seems to make with USA Today, “We designed Hyatt Regency Minneapolis as a modern homage to the local heritage, culture and economic history of Minnesota, as well as the proud history of American manufacturing.” The bathrooms they report will be redone with “granite that is quarried locally and purchased from Cold Spring Granite, a 113-year old Minnesota company” (USA Today).

Manchester Wood's founder Clifford Pierce's great grandfather's sawmill in Red Bank, NJ in the early 19th century.

The locally mined granite from an historic 113-year old company reminded me of Manchester Wood’s Slate Top furniture, which is produced in historic collaboration with our family’s wood crafting history of 121 years with a slate top surface mined from local quarries in our area on the Vermont-New York border that began right along the same centennial mark.

The media, big business, and economists, are starting to take a bigger look at the hidden gem back home. ‘Made in America’ is far beyond patriotism; it carries the same benefits of buying local organic foods from the farmer’s market. We give thanks for this un-hatching of a bigger and brighter day in consumerism.

Manchester Wood designs and produces quality, affordable, eco-friendly solid wood American made furniture in the Green Mountains of Vermont and Adirondack foothills of New York.

References

De Lollis, Barbara (2012, March 12). Makeover Monday: Minneapolis hotel’s ‘Made in America’ redo. USA Today. Retrieved from http://usat.ly/yXQgf7

Matyszczyk, Chris (2012, March 11). Could Samsung beat Apple with ‘Made in the USA’?. CNET. Retrieved from http://cnet.co/yzauKW

PR Newswire (2012, March 12). Consumers Will Pay More For a ‘Made in the USA’ Label. MarketWatch. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/xKlEcE

Introducing Our Tray Top Coffee Table!

Manchester Wood's NEW Tray Top Coffee Table!

As a featured item from a yet-to-be released collection, the Tray Top Coffee Table is the newest unique and beautifully designed American made solid wood furniture piece from Manchester Wood. With a slatted tray top that can be easily carried off, or placed back, large shelving space at the base for magazines, books, or collectibles; the Tray Top Coffee Table adds diversity and style in your home or vacation cabin.

Home furnishings designer Michelle Lamb recently told The Kansas City Star (source) that coffee tables, and their uses and functions are constantly increasing in this new age of technology. “Not only is it a place to set your drinks and the remote, it’s a place for laptops, tablet computers and smartphones,” Lamb explained.

The coffee table is entering a ‘golden age’ as an extremely useful and practical item in the modern day household, and we believe our Tray Top Coffee Table provides the same basic functions with diverse and portable qualities for its many current uses.

This handcrafted, Made in USA product is priced at a reasonable $299.95, and that includes FREE Shipping. Today, take home this prized piece of furniture designed, milled, and made from the Green Mountains of Vermont and the foothills of the Adirondacks.

To view the new Tray Top Coffee Table, click here.

Are Coffee Tables On The Rise Due to Technology?

A recent article by Stacy Downs of The Kansas City Star explains just that. “Not only is it a place to set your drinks and the remote, it’s a place for laptops, tablet computers and smartphones,” Michelle Lamb, a home furnishings designer told the reporter.

The article, entitled Coffee tables enter a ‘golden age’ explains how the “Seinfeld era” in the early 90’s found coffee tables used mostly for drinks and food, the 50’s referred to them more as cocktail tables, with less wood in the design and more chrome. Each era has had it’s own appeal to this key piece of furniture.

It’s now “a place to work,” Lamb continued in The Kansas City Star interview. Lamb travels all over to trade shows and studies how furniture makers, like Manchester Wood, respond and adapt furniture to changing lifestyles.

Manchester Wood's Slate Top Coffee Table, beautifully hand-split slate tiles mined from nearby slate quarries along the New York-Vermont border.

“It’s combining sculptural art pieces with multiple functions,” Rick Janecek, a creative director and designer of Global Views, a home décor wholesale company told the Star.

The coffee table is evolving into a further artistic expression in the home, as well as its design in supplying the many functions we now desire in this age of technology. With laptops, iPads, Kindles, the uses stretch as Lamb said for “a place to work,” not just for setting a drink and the remote, while watching your favorite show.

In this era of multitasking, the coffee table is arriving as an impromptu desk with a fresh demand and need to be met. Manchester Wood, your American made solid wood furniture retailer is unveiling many designs this year for the coffee table, including one very soon that plays into the mobility and simply technical lifestyle the world seeks to find.

To view Manchester Wood’s coffee tables, click here.

References:

Downs, Stacy. (2012, 02 28). Coffee tables enter a ‘golden age’. The Kansas City Star. Retrieved from http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/28/3456531/coffee-tables-enter-a-golden-age.html#storylink=misearch

March’s Gratitude Giveaway!

It is with great pleasure that Manchester Wood is offering this month’s free product giveaway with a gift in gratitude. The month of March is about feeling grateful for you, the customer who buys our products, and keeps our jobs and business producing quality, handcrafted American made furniture. Our customers are what Manchester Wood feels most grateful for, and that got us thinking about what everyone else was grateful for… So… what are you grateful for?

To enter our FREE March giveaway email service@manchesterwood.com with a response to the question, “what are you grateful for?”

You’ll then be entered for a chance to win.

Manchester Wood's NEW Serving Tray!

The giveaway item this month is the Serving Tray from our new $64 Gifts for U.S. Jobs category supporting the statistic that if every American spent $64 on Made in USA goods there would be 200,000 new jobs created (source). It might be a bit ironic to have the Serving Tray as the giveaway with gratitude, but it is a symbol of our service to you, and our knowing of your service to others as well, perhaps this time by surprising someone sick in bed with this new Serving Tray?? …

As with all our products, FREE shipping will be provided.

God bless you always,

Manchester Wood: American Made Furniture

Manchester Wood offers this monthly giveaway series as a token of gratitude and thanks to their loyal consumer base that knows the quality and craftsmanship of our furniture Made in the USA.

Ps. we may compile your responses at some point for an amazing post filled with your gratitude, but we promise to only use your first name.

President’s Day Special: Our NEW Campaign Desk!

Manchester Wood's Campaign Desk

In honor of the many great presidential and political leaders who have helped America, both past and present, in this day of their celebration, Manchester Wood is announcing a new historically designed Campaign Desk!

Our Campaign Desk is a variation of a conveniently designed traveling desk from the Revolutionary era of the early Americas. The likes of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and other forefathers of the United States penned on a similar desk that filled with letters of love, war, and ideas of independence.

The Campaign Desk was also used many times on the battlefield for officers to write their plans or orders during the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

Work from a solid wood desk that is handcrafted in both historical and contemporary Americana design. Like all our furniture, proudly Made in the USA.

Manchester Wood designs and produces quality, affordable, eco-friendly solid wood American made furniture in the Green Mountains of Vermont and Adirondack foothills of New York.

Manchester Wood announces collection “$64 Gifts for U.S. Jobs”

Manchester Wood Announces "$64 Gifts for U.S. Jobs"

A recent study by ABC World News with Diane Sawyer around the holiday season showed that if each person spent $64 dollars on Made in America items we would create 200,000 new American jobs (source). In support of this finding, Manchester Wood is offering an affordable and unique gift collection that allows you to bring home an heirloom quality American made product for only $64 dollars, which includes free shipping. This is a great opportunity to support the Made in USA cause, own a quality piece of furniture at a very affordable rate, practice conscious consumerism, and help create more American jobs.

The collection is currently offering a Lap Desk, Serving Tray, Tea Cup/Mug Stand, Folding Table, and Step Stool. All American made and entirely of solid Northeastern hardwood, milled and crafted in our manufacturing shop in Granville, New York.

View our new $64 Gifts for U.S. Jobs collection by clicking here, or read the product descriptions below for more info:

The Lap Desk is ideal for working while sitting in a chair or on the couch, perhaps upright in bed. It allows mobility, comfort, and an old-fashioned style using a laptop computer while also keeping harmful rays and unwanted heat away.

The Serving Tray offers someone sick in bed a meal, a child a snack, or a Mother’s Day morning surprise. The Serving Tray is also good for while you watch TV in bed or on the couch, perhaps while paying bills or working in a more leisurely manner.

The Tea Cup/Mug Stand is perfect for your coffee or tea while enjoying a nice read. Perhaps while basking in peaceful solitude on the porch or in the sun room. Bring this antique style stand with a refreshed Americana twist into your home today!

The Folding Table under our TV Tray Table category has been a customer favorite for over 35 years, and now you can bring home this item at a more inexpensive rate. We imagine it’ll give a great preview to the quality of our TV Tray Table sets.

Need a few inches to get something around the kitchen? The garage? Maybe for the little ones to reach the sink? The Step Stool is an inexpensive way to own a nice American crafted solid wood item that’s hefty and durable, which is important for its many uses.

Manchester Wood designs and produces quality, affordable, eco-friendly solid wood American made furniture in the Green Mountains of Vermont and Adirondack foothills of New York.

Stores Desire Made in America

Photo Courtesy of The City Wire

“I think people want to buy USA made. I want to be the proof in the pudding — yes, you can buy American made [here],” Beth Cook told The City Wire a Business, Political, and Cultural News source in Northwest Arkansas this past Monday about her store “B LaRue,” a boutique retail outlet in Rogers, Arkansas now carrying Made in the USA products. “I just want to encourage small business in America…We make quality products. And we need jobs.”

The City Wire’s article entitled “Rogers store looking for Made in America” continued with a report that shows the greatest impact outsourced goods have are in furniture and household equipment, which mainly derive from China.

“In the last decade, manufacturers rushed to China to take advantage of low wages there, which meant U.S. job losses… according to a recent report by the Boston Consulting Group, a global-management advisory firm” (The City Wire).

It’s reading articles like this every week on our news feed, whether local coverage somewhere in America (like Arkansas) or national that puts Manchester Wood and other American made manufacturers in a growing ascent towards domestic consumer justice. And for the furniture world we’re one of the few proudly left standing.

Beth Cook, The City Wire these are some of the many Americans helping raise that kind of consumer awareness on Made in USA products, and Cook’s support for Made in America in her store shows her dedication to the cause. She knows for a small store in a small town in Arkansas it’s “not likely to help the economy overall, but she hopes maybe her decision will help save one or two jobs for Americans” (The City Wire).

Cook, like many store owners beginning to stock Made in USA items not only can see the clear picture of helping create more jobs here, but also the quality and craftsmanship of Made in America “that carries a lifetime guarantee…there’s a lot of pride in American products,” she concluded.

It’s great to see people not only acknowledge the support of their fellow person by purchasing something they made, but also realizing the quality and longevity of the products like ours entirely American made solid wood furniture at Manchester Wood. These are not landfill, cheap throwaway pieces of furniture that last a few years, but a nice solid Northeastern hardwood piece to give your grand-kids. Buy American. And if you’re looking for American made furniture, buy Manchester Wood.

Manchester Wood designs and produces quality, affordable, eco-friendly solid wood American furniture in the Green Mountains of Vermont and Adirondack foothills of New York.

References

Sims, Scarlet. (2012, 02 06). Rogers store looking for Made in America. The City Wire. Retrieved from http://www.thecitywire.com/node/20249

Win a Manchester Wood Chairside Storage Table!

Manchester Wood's Chairside Storage Table - Top Selling Item of 2011!

This month’s FREE item from Manchester Wood, an American made solid wood furniture company who runs a monthly giveaway series is offering this February their top selling item of 2011, the Chairside Storage Table.

With its amazing hidden storage design and Americana flavoring, this sturdy American crafted Chairside Storage Table is a customer favorite priced at $199.95, but now you can own it for FREE!

To enter the drawing for this prized piece of American made craftsmanship, invite 10 friends to “like” Manchester Wood’s Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/ManchesterWood).

Then, email service@manchesterwood.com the names of the friends who liked the page, your name, and your shipping address. This will enter you into the select raffle drawing! As with all our products, FREE shipping will be provided.

Manchester Wood offers this monthly giveaway series as a token of gratitude and thanks to their loyal consumer base that knows the quality and craftsmanship of our furniture Made in the USA.

God bless you always,

Manchester Wood: American Made Furniture

Helping the New American Consumer: Sales, Giveaways, and more!

The many reasons why Manchester Wood is the best American made furniture provider.

When it comes to classic Americana solid wood furniture with ranges in design from Adirondack, Shaker, Contemporary, Slate Top, Glass Top, Mission, Cherry, and more, Manchester Wood is a leading manufacturer of quality Made in USA furniture. Our small “mill,” as our 50-odd craftspeople would claim it, is just West of the Green Mountains in Vermont, and rests at the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in New York.

With major press outlets such as NPR and ABC World News with Diane Sawyer discussing Made in the USA products and the dire need of re-growing in the marketplace for the countries well-being as a people, both monetarily and ethically. Manchester Wood is happy to say that we’re at the forefront of affordability in the quality of our heirloom furniture that is important to us, and we plan for everybody to participate and own American made solid wood furniture produced from our plant.

In order to see this plan actualized, to see Wal-Mart or Target consumerism enter more towards a world of smart shopping and ethical consumption of products, Manchester Wood is offering an extension of gratitude and thanks for our amazing customers with monthly giveaways, more sales on items, and other prizes and raffles as we continue the year in offering incentives towards the pursuit of higher consumer understanding.

This month (January) we have two great offers available with a FREE cutting board for ANY purchase, and 10% off ALL Outdoor Furniture! Simply type “FREE” for cutting board, “Early” for 10% Outdoor Furniture discount in the coupon code box at checkout.

Sign-up on our mailing list to receive these updates on all our deals by clicking here, or by visiting our website, ManchesterWood.com, our Facebook, Twitter, or Blog.

We thank you for being on the cutting edge of the new rise in American consumerism! God bless you!

MLK Day: How It Stands For Us All

The past is transitory. It’s hard to place any thought on the past and fathom it as the real, true happening to be equated to this very moment. It’s due to growing and changing as a people, as nations, at an alarming rate. However, Martin Luther King, Jr., and his day of celebration next Monday is a past historical remembrance of a Great Soul where no doubt real changes and shifts in consciousness took place to bring us to a time to where, even not so in the distant past that it was, is hard to believe such hate ever occurred.

America has made countless moral mistakes in it’s past and current, through slavery, American-Japanese concentration camps, unnecessary wars, segregation, the treatment of Native Americans, and most recently, it’s disconnected spending in Government, banking systems, and their corporate conglomerates with using the very people who make it run.

1966. Martin Luther King Jr., along with his children, addresses a crowd.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was a man of the people, beyond his race. He stood up at a time in the name of God in Peace and Love on a topic that alarms us just to think about it ever existing. It shows how far we’ve come, and how much his work matters. Dr. King sought justice for a people being unjustly viewed and ruled by a system due to the color of their skin. In today’s issues by removing the skin color and adding your bank statement, you’ll find the universal Truth that Dr. King stood up for with us all.

He was a man of awareness. A clear voice and heart, and when he yelled, “I have a dream…” we listened, because God spoke through his very core.

At Manchester Wood, we open the discussion on Martin Luther King, Jr. a little shy of a week from this day of celebration to open the conversation. What this man stood for, and how can we continue to apply it today?

We’re growing as a nation, we as a people are becoming more aware, through shopping American Made products, occupying our hearts in demonstration for a brighter future, and growing to an age of empowerment.

I believe Dr. King would be proud, and would ask us to keep having dreams for a brighter day for all of God’s inhabitants.

God bless you Dr. King, and God bless the consumers of our justly made American furniture, and God bless the power coming to the American people.

May our past escape us, and our future amaze us!