Would you pay more to see Made In The USA

Well, I think we (LHS) have a real-life answer to this question....

Yesterday we received our first MIA (Made-In-America, not Missing-in-action) Lionel car, a Timken flat with load, 6-81205.  It's in a really fancy box with Old Glory waving amidst the orange and blue.  Makes for an eye-catching display, for sure.

However....

A customer today picked it up, looked at the price, and..."YOU"VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME???!!!  $64.99 FOR THIS!!!!"  I referenced the item in the RTR catalog, page 69, to show that the MSRP was, indeed, as Lionel cataloged.  

Then the customer paged further into the catalog, coming across the traditional regional cars.  He spied the B&O Depressed Center Flat Car With Transformer Load on page 80....at $44.99, $20.00 cheaper.  His jaw went slack, he stared at me, looked back down at the B&O car, picked up the Timken Flat box again, ....and said "THERE IS NO WAY I'D PAY $20 MORE FOR THIS FANCY BOX!!"

I offered to discount the MIA car, but the savvy customer knew that I would've discounted the regional car, too.  There's no way I could achieve pricing parity. 

Well, it's only the first day.  Maybe the real value of this first MIA car will be as a market measuring tool....monitor the reaction, interest level, patriotism(???), saleability....and adjust future orders accordingly.

Ours is a town once dominated with union workers.  Most of the industry (automotive-related) is gone now.  The city has lost half its population in the past 20 years.  Across the street is a car dealership that still advertises and caters to the benefit of union employees, cars 'Made In America'  (yeah, right), and they seem to be busy....I guess.  Of course, Walmarts are more busy than most other stores around here, too ()! 

This will, indeed, be interesting.  Talk about an in-your-face demo!!??

Oh, I know....its just a bad case of triskaidekaphobia!

KD

This seems much more like a money grabbing gimmick then an actual attempt at producing competitively here in the states. If I were more of a collector than operator, the box and variation might be worth the extra $20 to me, but Im not so.... Unless most or all parts were made here, painted here, and assembled here, I don't believe the $20 dollar difference is anything more than a gimmicky money grab with a higher profit margin in mind. It would be tough to add $20 worth of anything to a flat car by anyone. A real test should not have the company competing against itself with virtually identical items at a different price. I.e. would the car sell, if all the flatcars were only made here, and were priced accordingly. Instead, test if an item made here can be profitable, on its own, competing against the "other guys" versions.

 Lionel probably cant wait to chirp "it didn't sell", so they can return to business as usual, sans complaints of where production happens. 

"Lionel probably cant wait to chirp "it didn't sell", so they can return to business as usual, sans complaints of where production happens."

I don't agree with this statement in any way. Most US manufacturers are at a significant disadvantage as they are not on a level playing field when it comes to competing products produced in the Pacific Rim. The pricing of the products you refer to in your post is an excellent example of this fact.

Regardless of the price difference, at the very least give Lionel some credit for giving us product made in the USA.

This tread has pretty well covered why there are such price differences, and until we as a country get smart and elect individuals who have the courage to do something about this un-level playing field, we can only expect more of the same. This is not just a Lionel problem, it effects just about every US manufacturer.

I would like to think so, however it really has to be something I want that matches my layout.  Things like the presidential cars are nice, just not for me, so despite being made here, and a willingness to pay a bit more, I will not buy them. 

The key point of returning manufacturing really has to do with how much labor is in the product, the cost of labor in places like China and how much transportation cost rise to get the goods here.  Generally electronics component cost are pretty global, so a device cost in the US is about the same as the same part in China.

The bigger cost driver in most cases, isn't the actual cost of manufacturing, it is the multiple levels of distribution, each with their own markup that drive the selling price up

 Its like offering an American made 19" black and white T.V. today.

Good call RickO