Stack On Safes south of the border
They closed their US plants and moved to Mexico:
A spokesman for Alpha Guardian, parent company of Stack-On, told the Chicago Tribune that the move is due to new tariffs imposed on raw materials imported from China.
Trump’s tariffs are not very good for certain businesses.
Of my two safes, one is a Stack On.
October 23rd, 2018 at 6:16 pm
I like my stack-on, as well. Businesses gotta business, I guess.
Unfortunately for law-abiding Mexicans, they’ll have no use for stack-on’s Product line.
October 23rd, 2018 at 6:44 pm
Well,i guess next time i buy a safe my choices just got narrower
October 23rd, 2018 at 7:58 pm
Junk. Gotta make ’em cheap to sell ’em cheap.
One of several narrowly negative effects of the Trump Effect on some businesses, but a leveled playing field on trade is ultimately good for all, even if there is some shaking out. That’s life in the big leagues of capitalist biz.
October 23rd, 2018 at 10:28 pm
Meh. I don’t believe it. The steel is the least expensive part of the safe. They’re moving to Mexico for lower wages, fewer workers’ benefits, laxer workplace regulations, likely “incentives” from the Mexican government, and they probably needed to re-equip their U.S. factory anyway (metal-working machinery wears out quickly), is what I think their real reason is.
October 24th, 2018 at 12:42 am
Not gonna help ’em, because the “new nafta” taxes Chinese steel content even when used in Mexico or Canada production. This was a major flaw in the old nafta
October 24th, 2018 at 5:29 am
NK you have an interesting point about equipment wearing out. I don’t think it was the primary reason, but the paperwork indicating a move to Nevada was being considered earlier this year seems to endorse your observation.
October 24th, 2018 at 11:19 am
Neither of my safes are stackons… My safes are REAL safes. Real serious safes.
October 24th, 2018 at 2:46 pm
Chad is spot on.
Steel made in China and ushered across our northern and southern borders duty free was THE main problem with the old NAFTA.
Me thinks the spokesman for Stack-On should be tested for TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome).
October 24th, 2018 at 2:47 pm
Yeah, I was a newb with the first one. Didn’t make the same mistake a second time.
October 24th, 2018 at 3:38 pm
What nk and Chad said, I think.
At most it’s “moving for cheaper labor to maintain price points”.
But since steel tariffs are on wholesale prices of the raw steel (not on the retail of your final product), the price increase doesn’t seem like it’s that significant if the product is superior.
Especially as the competition has the same price problem.
October 24th, 2018 at 5:32 pm
so Terry, what kind of safes do you have?
Most so called gun safes are listed as Residential Storage Containers:
“UL LABEL – RESIDENTIAL SECURITY CONTAINER (RSC)
Performance Requirements
Indicates the ability to withstand 5 full minutes of rigorous prying, drilling, punching, chiseling, and tampering attacks by UL technicians.”
October 24th, 2018 at 6:42 pm
If government could simply stay out of the way of all honest endeavors we’d all be better off. Well, all of us, that is, except for a few million bureaucrats, cheaters, hucksters, and low-level freeloaders.
That’s never going to happen of course, but it’s worth pointing out on occasion.
October 24th, 2018 at 8:16 pm
Meh, my first safe was a Stackon, now it’s just an ammo cabinet. Got a real one now.
October 24th, 2018 at 11:49 pm
If you do want a real safe, that UL rating that Ron mentions is key, but you might want to bump that RSC rating to a TL-15 or TL-30. Expensive to buy new but available from closing sales for jewelry stores etc. for a fraction sometimes. Find a big TL-30 the size of a large refrigerator and it will weigh about 4000 lbs; now you’ve got yourself a gun safe. Total including moving cost of about $1500. Not cheap but you can spend that on a regular gunsafe easily these would be $5000-plus new.
October 25th, 2018 at 11:13 am
When do the tariffs go into effect? Not yet, I think.
October 26th, 2018 at 9:17 am
Tariffs have nothing to do with it. It’s cheap labor, pure and simple. Stack-On is just joining the tariff dog-pile like so many others.
Yeah, tariffs suck. Trump’s goal is not permanent tariffs, but to make certain trading partners heel under the weight of our economy in order to get better terms for US makers.
The US economy is the most effective weapon in the history of the world, for those who wield it effectively. It’s a brutish thing though, because it’s power is essentially that ‘we can absorb a lot more hits than you.’ It’s a bare-knuckles, steel-cage match fight where we get bloody and the other guy gets crushed.
I see so many conservative free-traders getting their panties wadded up over tariffs, completely ignoring the point of it all (Charlie Gasparino, ahem).
October 26th, 2018 at 5:12 pm
Stack on is a cheap bs safe anyways.
Safe can be opened with any off the shelf grinder.