Steve Kraus, CJF in gray, deletia
I guess you have a lot more time then I do to carry on your rants. It looks like you do it as a way let steam off.
Retirement has its advantages. That said, should you eventually tire of the ad hominem stuff, you might consider addressing the issues at hand.
I would much rather have this conversation face to face because you really do not know what you are talking about and you would need to call me a liar to my face.
Do you have a problem with my pointing out the realities of the way multinationals do business on a public forum? As to calling you a liar to your face, if you're trying to tell folks the price per nail didn't go up with the advent of unit packaging, you're lying and I don't have any problem with pointing that out here or anywhere else.
I'll draw you a map if you would like to come and do that and maybe even give you dinner.
I'll pass on the dinner invitation, but if you're ever down this way, anybody in Ledbetter can tell you where the Stovall place is.
It's too bad you can't figure out the nail packaging change, sure the price went up, it had to, Capewell was not profitable, which is why their quality went down.
The salient point is that the price per nail went up!
Right now I don't have the energy to explain how unit pricing is more accurate then weight.
Is it your contention that horseshoe nails are not packaged by weight at present, as are nuts, bolts, washers, etc.?
Did you know that Cooper originally sold their nails at 40% below their costs to destroy Capewell? People like you are never going to understand what it takes to produce a good stable supply of nails. I know that no matter what I say you are going to try to twist it or find a way to not believe it.
A skeptic like me will probably point out that your accusing one multinational of trying to "destroy" another with below-cost pricing is not exactly news, it happens every day. Pot. Kettle. Black.
The undisputable fact is that I was there , you were not.
Wrong! I was there. I was shoeing horses every day when nail packaging was changed from weight to unit, paying more per nail, and listening to folks like yourself try to tell me the price of nails hadn't really hadn't gone up and the increase in the cost per nail was somehow for my benefit. Then, as now, I find such arguments specious because they are obviously illogical.
You make accusations based on your narrow, bitter view point.
Reality without corporate spin may not be palatable to you, but it's nevertheless reality. Perhaps you'd like to explain once again how Mustad's acquisition of Simonds and moving that operation to Columbia was based on some factor other than the typical avarice of a multinational.
I am not an apologist for Mustad, but I am willing to tell you the truth as I have experienced it, you just won't listen.
Do you remember the old saw on the identification of ducks, that begins, "If it quacks like a duck..."?
That's the way you want it, otherwise you might not have as much to complain about, which seems to be your hobby.
If you find my comments about Mustad's corporate behavior to be offputting, you might try explaining the rationale for that behavior instead of parroting the corporate line and wondering aloud how anyone could have the audacity to question Mustad's behavior.
I am truly sorry that you feel this way and you think Mustad is the bad guy.
Mustad is a stateless multinational corporation that has gained an effective monopoly and the de facto control of the farrier supply market in the United States: What's to like?
I guess Cowboys need bad guys to go after, even if they have to invent them. Our great friend Burney Chapman didn't think Mustad was the devil like you do, in fact he felt just the opposite, and he said so many times. I suppose if you didn't here him, it can't be true.
Funny, I met Burney in 1978 and in our many conversations, he never once mentioned Mustad.
Enough for now, maybe I'll explain the nail packaging to you if you are ready to listen.
You'll have to do lots of "explaining" to convince me the price per nail didn't go up with the switch in packaging because I was there and I did the math.