[cptskippy]

Maybe premium is the wrong word. Levis and Huffy were never designer brands, they were the standard in quality. Like Tide Detergent, Heinz Ketchup or Coca Cola, they were brand to beat.

The pattern seems to happen many brands over time that sell out or fail. You see it across markets with brands like Packard Bell, Kodak, Polaroid, Martha Stewart, Kate Spade, RCA, etc.

50 years ago if you had a Zenith or RCA TV it was a sign of quality, 10 years ago you'd be mocked. Before the turn of the century Philips was known for consumer electronics and even made videogame consoles, now they make lightbulbs.

[johnvanommen]

True, but this isn't Wal Mart's fault, it's China's fault.

For instance, half a dozen Japanese electronics manufacturers tried to sell televisions, a business that the Japanese have dominated for 40 years.

Half of them threw in the towel. People buy on price; nobody was going to pay a 25% premium for a Pioneer or a JVC TV.

At the same time, Chinese companies like TCL began gobbling market share.

I'm typing this on a "Silo" TV that I bought at Fry's about five years ago. When I bought it, I figured it would be junk, but it was so cheap I couldn't resist.

Five years later, it's still going strong.

Silo is still selling TVs (cheaply) and Pioneer is gone from the market.

[josefresco]

I had my projection TV fixed by a local repairman about 10 years ago. He told me the new Chinese TV's were not repairable as most don't have any parts, or mechanisms available to facilitate a repair.

A few years later we bought a "premium" LCD TV rated highly on Consumer Repots which broke less than 2 years later. We replaced with a cheapy, for 1/2 the price and it's already lasted longer. Even if it didn't (which was expected), I could buy 3x the cheap TVs for the same price.

[cptskippy]

> True, but this isn't Wal Mart's fault, it's China's fault.

It was Walmart that drove manufacturing to China. Walmart wanted name brands and dictated the price point at which they were willing to buy those brands. When the manufacturers did the numbers they realized that they could only service Walmart if they outsourced.

The companies setup factories in China and basically showed the Chinese how to make the products. Eventually the Chinese started to produce competing products that were at first inferior but have gradually gotten better.