Top 3 Reasons to Buy Made in USA Solid Wood Furniture

 1.     Consumer Quality

There is no question the furniture we make at Manchester Wood is ‘built to last.’ That’s a major slogan you’ll find in much of our marketing materials, let alone the resources we use in crafting our furniture. We’re antique shoppers and thrifters at heart – we strive to make our furniture destined for a great find many years from now; and some of our products have already been found in such places! There is no question our furniture – for its heirloom quality – is affordably priced. Our value is in the dedication to solid wood when most competitors moved to cheaper resources like plastics and lower grade wood (like particle board). We’ve remained American hardwood; that’s the kind-of solid wood that makes a grown man able to stand on a Manchester Wood TV tray table without anything happening. Try that at a box store emphasizing cheap short-term quantity over long-lasting American quality!

2.     American Jobs

We all remember fondly when we started out as a solid wood furniture manufacturer under the name Manchester Wood that Cliff’s mission was never profit based but job based. “The more jobs we can make, the better,” he’d often say. Today we follow that same principle the best we can while still competing with corporate agendas under different ideals. Manchester Wood is a family-run business that operates as families do, not as a corporation. As American furniture manufacturers we recognize the importance of things made in America – here – at home. We stand in a new America and say, “we want quality, affordability, and a sense of where things we support come from.” Made in USA furniture is our pride and creed; it flows through each part of the work process and each material used here at the mill. Our product proves that, and you’ll find that when it arrives at your door.

3.     Corporate Ethics

Whenever we’re at a corporate event and someone recognizes we’re still 100% made in the USA the reaction almost always is, “Wow! How do you still do it?” And the response we usually give is something like, “It’s been hard…” but we believe as the quality of life and the demand for it rises in China we’ll be stronger and more competitive again. We believe when you purchase American made furniture, or other made in USA items you support just that: a healthier work environment for everyone with higher pay, labor laws to protect people, health benefits to save and strengthen, and reasonable work hours to get you home for dinner. You’re doing your part in re-structuring corporate ethics and how we reflect in business globally and domestically when you purchase from us, or other entirely made in USA companies. 

Those are the Top 3 Reasons we think you should buy ‘Made in USA,’ what are yours?

Top 100 in Home & Kitchen on Amazon.com!

Portable Folding Work and Laptop Desk

Our Portable Folding Work and Laptop Desk is Top 100 in Home & Kitchen on Amazon.com at #24 for portable tables!

Shop now: http://amzn.to/17XSBb2

Find out what people are saying about this customer favorite!

Amazon.com Customer Reviews (as of 6/4/13):

5.0 out of 5 stars
Great product, perfect for Laptop desk or TV table.
May 13, 2013
By C. Dillman

“This is one of the my best purchases in recent memory. Well built – all hardwood, shop crafted in USA. Perfect size for all kinds of uses, easy to carry, store, and set-up. Bit more money than some others but will definitely outlast anything else you might find. Only wish the sold them as a multi-desk set to use as TV dinner tables.”

Read more »

100% American Made Furniture All Ways, Always

“These days, “Made in America” isn’t as clear-cut as it used to be. Most Americans are aware that products branded with American labels may be made in overseas factories or assembled here with parts made overseas. Three-fourths of consumers say being manufactured in the U.S. is crucial for them to consider it ‘made in America.’ Half say being made by an American company or having parts manufactured in the U.S. is what matters. Only one-fourth cared whether a product was designed by an American.”

– Small Business Trends, Why Made in America Still Matters

Manchester Wood has had a family tradition in woodworking since 1891.

At Manchester Wood we adhere to the concerns of all the percentages listed above, large or small that consider the design, manufacturing, assembly, and shipping, which in totality at Manchester Wood is done locally in the U.S.A. at our mill in the foothills of the Adirondacks in the “Upstate” New York countryside, resting along the Vermont border. We stand by our brand namesake, “American Made Furniture” through all our thorough practices with the company founder’s vision always in mind: create jobs in the US.

We all remember fondly when we started out as a solid wood furniture manufacturer under the name Manchester Wood that Cliff’s mission was never profit based but job based. “The more jobs we can make, the better,” he’d say. Today we follow that same principle the best we can while still competing with corporate agendas under different ideals.

Made in USA furniture is our pride and creed; it flows through each part of the process and each material used here. Our product proves that, and you’ll find that when it arrives at your door. We’re pleased to find in this recent Small Business Trends report that regardless of politics, and the divisions among us, united we stand under the principle of ‘Made in USA’ products with “Perhaps surprisingly, three-fourths of both Republicans and Democrats [saying] buying American is important.”

Check out our $64 Gifts for U.S. Jobs Collection which aims to boost job creation based on a study by ABC World News with Diane Sawyer that showed if each person spent $64 dollars on Made in America items we would create 200,000 new American jobs.

Spread the Word June Giveaway!

This month’s FREE giveaway is our brand new Montauk Chair designed with wooden slats; a simple two-piece item for easy transport and storage. From indoor to outdoor, lake house to sandy beaches; or for a day in the park for a little league or soccer game; the mobility and design of the solid wood furniture that is the Montauk Collection is a prized possession for all who seek classic affordable fashion in indoor/outdoor furniture.

Spread the Word June Giveaway!

For this month’s free giveaway we’re asking you to promote our furniture through your social media! This will be your entry into the raffle drawing!

Link us on your Facebook wall and/or Twitter page (instructions to do so below) and you’ll be entered to win our brand new, handcrafted solid wood Montauk Chair; a $199.95 value. The winner will be selected at random the end of the month.

For Facebook:

In your personal status box leave a comment on your wall about us; some love, a suggestion, anything you’d like! To tag us simply begin typing @Manchester Wood (no space between @ and Manchester Wood) and select our company page when it appears below your text as shown in example below. If it doesn’t show up be sure to search for it and ‘Like’ us! By creating a link back to our page on your status update we’ll see it and you’ll be entered into the raffle.

If you have no ideas for a post, try this: Check out [page link] Manchester Wood: American Made Furniture’s Quality Made in USA Home Accents! Free Shipping Always! www.manchesterwood.com

For Twitter:

Be sure to mention us @ManchesterWood on your tweet to enter raffle; like Facebook comment anything you’d like!

If you have no ideas for a tweet, copy this: Check out @ManchesterWood’s Quality #MadeinUSA Furniture! Free Shipping Always! www.manchesterwood.com

As always, continuing the family tradition, richest blessings to you,

Ed & Priscilla Eriksen

Manchester Wood: American Made Furniture

To view our online catalog, visit ManchesterWood.com

Top 100 in Home & Kitchen on Amazon.com!

Contemporary Folding TV Tray Table Set of 4

Our Contemporary Folding TV Tray Table Set of 4 is Top 100 in Home & Kitchen on Amazon.com at #65 for folding tables!

Find out what people are saying!
http://goo.gl/fR9O7

Amazon.com Customer Reviews (as of 5/30/13):
5.0 out of 5 stars
Folding TV Tray Tables, May 23, 2013
By Barbara A Johnson

“We love our new TV tables. Made from real wood, they are sturdy, the correct height and carefully designed to contour to your body – less chance of spills. Easy storage. Highly recommended.”
Read more »

Beyond the Adirondack Folding Chairs: The Montauk Collection

Montauk, New York is known for its fishing, surf, and beautiful beaches along the Atlantic Ocean. It’s also in the Hamptons, the epicenter of cutting-edge east coast vacation fashion for metropolitan New Yorkers. So it’s no wonder as woodcrafters from the Adirondack foothills of New York – the “North Country” – with a fashion sense all our own, we looked towards Montauk as another representation of coastal living with a heightened sense of metropolitan appeal. And that’s just what the Montauk Collection at Manchester Wood provides. With wooden slats, a simple two-piece design for easy transport and storage. From indoor to outdoor, lake house to sandy beaches; or for a day in the park for a little league or soccer game; the mobility and design of the solid wood furniture that is the Montauk Collection is a prized possession for all who seek classic affordable fashion in indoor/outdoor furniture.

The collection carries an almost 1920’s aesthetic, a day at the horse track esteem. Yet it has a softer way of showing its hard-earned craftsmanship; drawing a timelessness found only in Manchester Wood solid wood furniture; entirely made in the USA as our brand declares in its namesake.

Montauk Double Seat

The Montauk Collection includes the Montauk Chair, the Montauk Double Seat (Love Seat), the Montauk Side Table (End Table), the Montauk Coffee Table, and Montauk Youth Chair, fit for children 3 to 8. All pieces operate as great stationary furniture for any part of the house or outdoor activity. When it’s time to go or to stow-away, simply pull apart the two pieces and slide them together, transforming into a carrying case and storage unit of quality, handcrafted design.

As American furniture manufacturers for the better part of 36 years we take pride in our USA made furniture and the community that provides them for you. Wherever you are, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, North West to the South East, the Montauk Collection is home. You’ll enjoy this new collection as much as we have.

Continuing the family tradition, richest blessings to you,
Ed & Priscilla Eriksen
Manchester Wood: American Made Furniture

To view our online catalog, visit ManchesterWood.com

Approaching Memorial Day Weekend

In uniform leaving for Korea, Manchester Wood’s founder Cliff Pierce, his wife Evelyn, and their son, Cliff Jr.

Next Monday, May 27^th is Memorial Day- a very special day for many Americans. This coming weekend leading in is one typically of celebration, shopping deals, and the bustling spirit of a summer kicked-off under hopefully sunny clear skies. Aside from the coming festivities, we wanted to take a moment beforehand to honor and pay tribute to all the veterans of the armed forces that brought upon such a celebration.

Cliff in Korea 1953

Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the Union and Confederate soldiers who died in the Civil War. As we entered the 20th century Memorial Day became extended to honor all Americans who have died while in military service.

At Manchester Wood several of our employees have served, and fortunately are still here today proudly crafting our solid wood furniture made in the USA. Our company’s founder Cliff Pierce enlisted in the Army and served in Korea in the US Armored Artillery from 1951-53 as 1^st Lieutenant after graduating from Officer Training School. He received two Purple Hearts and was awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious achievement in ground operations against the enemy. He was Honorably discharged in 1953; soon after he began his career in American furniture manufacturing, which would later create “the mill” and the Manchester Wood we know today.

To all our servicemen and woman, and especially to those we’ve lost in military service, past and present, we humbly thank you. And as Cliff always said, “God bless you.”

Organic Food & American Furniture Manufacturing

At Manchester Wood we stand behind 3 Principles – Value, Honesty, and Community – and today we celebrate those three core ingredients in our family-operated business by announcing a partnership with another like-minded family-run business in quality and value, the Kilpatrick Family Farm.

Although we are an American furniture manufacturer by trade, this partnership is outside the activities taking place inside the mill, and instead applies to 10 of the surrounding 23-acres we inhabit, here, in the Adirondack foothills of upstate New York. We have plenty of land, most of which in the past has been rented out to farmers for corn. But we’ve decided this year to instead have the local organic Kilpatrick Family Farm transform it into organic soil. They will work the fields to grow and raise all sorts of organic produce on our behalf. As a furniture manufacturer and soon-to-be organic food provider for our employees, we more deeply align with our eco-friendly, eco-conscious solid wood furniture efforts; which hold a valued direction in how we manufacture our furniture made in the USA.

To learn more about the Kilpatrick Family Farm, CSA Farming (like this), as well as all the other benefits of organic farming and its process visit their site: kilpatrickfamilyfarm.com

The Price for Solid Wood Furniture

Luke Eriksen here, I’m a grandson of Manchester Wood’s founder Cliff Pierce, and the 3^rd generation at work at the mill. I had a moment I wanted to share with you… I was taking photos this morning for an instruction manual on a new solid wood bookshelf. It’s a very basic piece of furniture. It has a bottom shelf, a top shelf, and a middle adjustable shelf. We had just pitched it to a strong wholesale client of ours and they felt it was out of their price range. And I got thinking… here is a basic, simple, beautiful piece of handcrafted wood furniture, and I know we’re not asking too much for it – we’re really just covering our bases in expense here – but the question swirled “why can’t it be cheaper?” Then I quickly realized, yet again, ‘it’s solid wood!’ I often forget the quality of solid wood furniture when discussing Manchester Wood’s furniture.

Mike, an employee since nearly day one 36 years ago, sanding a piece for finishing.

We only use the highest quality resources here from the highest quality timber companies providing you (and us) the best wood to produce the solid furniture that I know my kids and grandkids will see at antique shops for years to come. That’s just the price we pay for making quality. That’s just the kind of ‘Made in USA’ item you receive when you buy from Manchester Wood. It has become increasingly hard to sell the larger items to wholesalers because of the competition, but we shouldn’t be silenced, and we won’t be. There is no question our furniture – for its quality – is affordably priced above and beyond competitors. However, for the most part we make simple American shaker style furniture that might sell quicker if it was cheap not affordable. But that’s not our business, that’s not our model, or the message of our leader who built this company we rest our hat on today. Manchester Wood is a family-run business that operates as families do, not as a corporation. We operate using 3 Principles – and you’re going to hear them a lot from us – Value, Honesty, and Community.

Our value is the dedication to solid wood when most competitors have moved to cheaper resources like plastics and lower grade wood (like particle board). We’ve remained American hardwood; that’s the kind-of solid wood that makes a grown man able to stand on a Manchester Wood TV tray table without anything happening. Try that at a box store emphasizing foreign quantity over American quality.

Our honesty speaks for itself. Including this blog and all the others we’ve ever written. From our mailers, product copy, site copy, instruction manuals, it’s all there. When you buy from us you’re buying ‘Made in USA’ furniture; you’re buying a piece of home, and that’s beyond the stamp. 

Luke and his dad, Manchester Wood’s President, Ed Eriksen.

The community aspect is with this being a family business, not a corporation, and how it’s run like a family. It has ups and downs, twists and turns, emotions of all kinds. It’s life; and we strive to develop a loving, open environment for our employees and partners in making timeless solid wood furniture. Aside from our regular celebratory events at the mill we have a lot of other exciting news developing in the community we’d like to share with you, and that’ll come in due time as plans unfold.

So there it is, just my thoughts for today. To me, regardless of opinions, this is the price for buying solid wood furniture made in the USA from our family-run mill and retailer, Manchester Wood.

Much Gratitude,

Luke Eriksen

Manchester Wood: American Made Furniture

The Pride of Made in the USA Furniture

‘USA Made’ furniture is Manchester Wood furniture; and as American furniture manufacturers we recognize the importance of things made in America – here – at home. It provides a level of rootedness in tradition and stability, remembering who we are and what we can do as a people with our own hands. It’s not a flag-toting nationalist perspective, a “rah-rah” thing…it’s about not losing sight of each other. Not forgetting the craftsmanship and resources so bountifully available to us through products made in America.

Instead of deals and steals, chopped down prices outsourced to sweat-shops to make due for America’s overzealous consumption hunger, we stand in a new America and say “we want quality, affordability, and a sense of where things we support come from.” This revolution in thought touches on all aspects of our lives, and even with those who supposedly run it in Washington. By touching on tradition, by remembering each other, we reconnect with the pride of who we are – as people of earth and as family of America. In this family, as both a country, and as this business, Manchester Wood now being a 3^rd generation family-run business (excluding our woodworking history outside Manchester Wood since 1891) we take pride in what we make. We produce solid wood furniture, American made furniture in fact, as our brand claims. And we wish for nothing more.

May the desire of quality ‘Made in USA’ furniture run forever more; and if you’re contemplating the extra few dollars it may take, or where it’ll fit in your home – we promise it will, because this type of quality solid wood furniture is made from your home. Born, raised, and produced in America; from a tree seed to a TV Tray Table; Desk, or Adirondack folding chair. It’s all here for you. Keep it Made in America today.