tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65874397707965584282024-03-19T00:31:46.684-04:00International Ordnance Tech. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770795478316934651noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587439770796558428.post-62952413658044141462016-04-27T12:29:00.001-04:002016-04-27T12:29:44.029-04:00Take from the Poor and Give to the Rich<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Take from the Poor and Give to the
Rich</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For
as long as we can remember the media has portrayed the Republican Party as
supporters of the wealthy and Democrats as advocates for the economically
challenged. Recent administrative actions have suggested otherwise. Society is
constantly told that small business is the “backbone of America” and that we
were founded on the basis of those ambitious ideas. We are now in 2016 and it
doesn’t quite seem like that’s the case does it? Recently administrative restrictions
tend to aid the side of big business as opposed to the smaller local businesses
when it comes to policies, especially those related to firearms and parts.
Unnecessary amounts of restrictions and regulations with large fees leave small
business owners no choice but to pull out of the market and close their doors
simply because it’s no longer profitable nor feasible to keep them open. Now the customers, who chose to support the
small businesses, no longer have that option. They are forced to support large
retailers, a perfect example of “Taking from the Poor and Giving to the Rich”.
When drowning small businesses with restrictions and regulations does our
nation’s government stop to consider the effectiveness of the legislative
orders they are passing and what impact they are actually have on gun control
and safety. Legislators should be forced to ask themselves the questions, was
the legislation effective in improving gun safety or did it just put the poor
man out of business? Perhaps the only impact the legislation had was satisfying
public perception that we are part of a progressive movement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770795478316934651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587439770796558428.post-48491426819996477392016-04-15T12:42:00.000-04:002016-04-15T12:44:29.995-04:00The Wal-mart You Dont Know*Article ORIGINATED, RETRIEVED, and PUBLISHED from http://www.fastcompany.com/47593/wal-mart-you-dont-know<br />
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The Wal-Mart You Don't Know</h1>
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The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?<br />
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A gallon-sized jar of whole pickles is something to behold. The jar is the size of a small aquarium. The fat green pickles, floating in swampy juice, look reptilian, their shapes exaggerated by the glass. It weighs 12 pounds, too big to carry with one hand. The gallon jar of pickles is a display of abundance and excess; it is entrancing, and also vaguely unsettling. This is the product that Wal-Mart fell in love with: Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles.<br />
Wal-Mart priced it at $2.97—a year's supply of pickles for less than $3! "They were using it as a 'statement' item," says Pat Hunn, who calls himself the "mad scientist" of Vlasic's gallon jar. "Wal-Mart was putting it before consumers, saying, This represents what Wal-Mart's about. You can buy a stinkin' gallon of pickles for $2.97. And it's the nation's number-one brand."<br />
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Therein lies the basic conundrum of doing business with the world's largest retailer. By selling a gallon of kosher dills for less than most grocers sell a quart, Wal-Mart may have provided a ser-vice for its customers. But what did it do for Vlasic? The pickle maker had spent decades convincing customers that they should pay a premium for its brand. Now Wal-Mart was practically giving them away. And the fevered buying spree that resulted distorted every aspect of Vlasic's operations, from farm field to factory to financial statement.<br />
Indeed, as Vlasic discovered, the real story of Wal-Mart, the story that never gets told, is the story of the pressure the biggest retailer relentlessly applies to its suppliers in the name of bringing us "every day low prices." It's the story of what that pressure does to the companies Wal-Mart does business with, to U.S. manufacturing, and to the economy as a whole. That story can be found floating in a gallon jar of pickles at Wal-Mart.<br />
Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest company—bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric. The scale can be hard to absorb. Wal-Mart sold $244.5 billion worth of goods last year. It sells in three months what<br />
number-two retailer Home Depot sells in a year. And in its own category of general merchandise and groceries, Wal-Mart no longer has any real rivals. It does more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined. "Clearly," says Edward Fox, head of Southern Methodist University's J.C. Penney Center for Retailing Excellence, "Wal-Mart is more powerful than any retailer has ever been." It is, in fact, so big and so furtively powerful as to have become an entirely different order of corporate being.<br />
Wal-Mart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers. At Wal-Mart, that goal is never reached. The retailer has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas.<br />
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Of course, U.S. companies have been moving jobs offshore for decades, long before Wal-Mart was a retailing power. But there is no question that the chain is helping accelerate the loss of American jobs to low-wage countries such as China. Wal-Mart, which in the late 1980s and early 1990s trumpeted its claim to "Buy American," has doubled its imports from China in the past five years alone, buying some $12 billion in merchandise in 2002. That's nearly 10% of all Chinese exports to the United States.<br />
One way to think of Wal-Mart is as a vast pipeline that gives non-U.S. companies direct access to the American market. "One of the things that limits or slows the growth of imports is the cost of establishing connections and networks," says Paul Krugman, the Princeton University economist. "Wal-Mart is so big and so centralized that it can all at once hook Chinese and other suppliers into its digital system. So—wham!—you have a large switch to overseas sourcing in a period quicker than under the old rules of retailing."<br />
Steve Dobbins has been bearing the brunt of that switch. He's president and CEO of Carolina Mills, a 75-year-old North Carolina company that supplies thread, yarn, and textile finishing to apparel makers—half of which supply Wal-Mart. Carolina Mills grew steadily until 2000. But in the past three years, as its customers have gone either overseas or out of business, it has shrunk from 17 factories to 7, and from 2,600 employees to 1,200. Dobbins's customers have begun to face imported clothing sold so cheaply to Wal-Mart that they could not compete even if they paid their workers nothing.<br />
"People ask, 'How can it be bad for things to come into the U.S. cheaply? How can it be bad to have a bargain at Wal-Mart?' Sure, it's held inflation down, and it's great to have bargains," says Dobbins. "But you can't buy anything if you're not employed. We are shopping ourselves out of jobs."<br />
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The gallon jar of pickles at Wal-Mart became a devastating success, giving Vlasic strong sales and growth numbers—but slashing its profits by millions of dollars.</blockquote>
There is no question that Wal-Mart's relentless drive to squeeze out costs has benefited consumers. The giant retailer is at least partly responsible for the low rate of U.S. inflation, and a McKinsey & Co. study concluded that about 12% of the economy's productivity gains in the second half of the 1990s could be traced to Wal-Mart alone.<br />
There is also no question that doing business with Wal-Mart can give a supplier a fast, heady jolt of sales and market share. But that fix can come with long-term consequences for the health of a brand and a business. Vlasic, for example, wasn't looking to build its brand on a gallon of whole pickles. Pickle companies make money on "the cut," slicing cucumbers into spears and hamburger chips. "Cucumbers in the jar, you don't make a whole lot of money there," says Steve Young, a former vice president of grocery marketing for pickles at Vlasic, who has since left the company.<br />
At some point in the late 1990s, a Wal-Mart buyer saw Vlasic's gallon jar and started talking to Pat Hunn about it. Hunn, who has also since left Vlasic, was then head of Vlasic's Wal-Mart sales team, based in Dallas. The gallon intrigued the buyer. In sales tests, priced somewhere over $3, "the gallon sold like crazy," says Hunn, "surprising us all." The Wal-Mart buyer had a brainstorm: What would happen to the gallon if they offered it nationwide and got it below $3? Hunn was skeptical, but his job was to look for ways to sell pickles at Wal-Mart. Why not?<br />
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And so Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles went into every Wal-Mart, some 3,000 stores, at $2.97, a price so low that Vlasic and Wal-Mart were making only a penny or two on a jar, if that. It was showcased on big pallets near the front of stores. It was an abundance of abundance. "It was selling 80 jars a week, on average, in every store," says Young. Doesn't sound like much, until you do the math: That's 240,000 gallons of pickles, just in gallon jars, just at Wal-Mart, every week. Whole fields of cucumbers were heading out the door.<br />
For Vlasic, the gallon jar of pickles became what might be called a devastating success. "Quickly, it started cannibalizing our non-Wal-Mart business," says Young. "We saw consumers who used to buy the spears and the chips in supermarkets buying the Wal-Mart gallons. They'd eat a quarter of a jar and throw the thing away when they got moldy. A family can't eat them fast enough."<br />
The gallon jar reshaped Vlasic's pickle business: It chewed up the profit margin of the business with Wal-Mart, and of pickles generally. Procurement had to scramble to find enough pickles to fill the gallons, but the volume gave Vlasic strong sales numbers, strong growth numbers, and a powerful place in the world of pickles at Wal-Mart. Which accounted for 30% of Vlasic's business. But the company's profits from pickles had shriveled 25% or more, Young says—millions of dollars.<br />
The gallon was hoisting Vlasic and hurting it at the same time.<br />
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<div class="footnote">
Charles Fishman (<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">cnfish@mindspring.com</a>) is a senior writer at <cite>Fast Company</cite>. Andrew Moesel provided research assistance for this story.</div>
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<i>A version of this article appeared in the <a href="http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77">December 2003</a> issue of Fast Company magazine.</i> </div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770795478316934651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587439770796558428.post-37981790996181469772016-03-18T12:35:00.000-04:002016-04-15T10:45:22.381-04:00Who Controls Online Shopping?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbE2dYmWBgBKy5rALSMiviniYtl6PTKszWWPGwPePx2qDoXccZsYm6PXwxczHiT-wOEaJBLQS6WwsLddrIqqE3HXlupa4jpvIMyr0F8vreCRvObcMypDOsYpYErLn2VSfJsOC-DR730aXq/s1600/iot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbE2dYmWBgBKy5rALSMiviniYtl6PTKszWWPGwPePx2qDoXccZsYm6PXwxczHiT-wOEaJBLQS6WwsLddrIqqE3HXlupa4jpvIMyr0F8vreCRvObcMypDOsYpYErLn2VSfJsOC-DR730aXq/s1600/iot.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Who Controls Online Shopping?</span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In
recent years the promotion of gun related sales on the internet has steadily
increased. That is until recently when Amazon, Facebook, and Instagram banned
the sale of guns or gun related parts within their websites. Reports have come
out saying that the Obama administration pressured these online moguls into
implementing these bans. This leaves us to ask the questions, who controls our
online shopping? What’s happening to free commerce?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to the most recent census consumers
continue to trend to online shopping, as 15% of all sales are online. Therefore
by stopping the sales of guns and gun related parts on websites like Amazon,
Facebook, and Instagram will substantially impact many manufacturers,
distributors, and retailers financially. That being said the larger and
wealthier corporations can withstand this loss, but nevertheless the small
businesses don’t stand a chance due to the lack of alternative avenues to
market their products through ecommerce. So one would ask the question again,
who really controls Online Shopping? If it’s not “We the People” then who is
it? </span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnJCgeUjwc6ItPnl2oIkF82lW5Myc0KXRIJCpsNn1j9hbilscFNi5YNHez6V7dH4yb8rvUXQyVbphVkEk4GVrXsY3Afbi1B3DRH5Np9vFip3J2Wm13INjtI4o-RdMEJwmRs-xnYqdUzVV/s1600/iotsmall.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmnJCgeUjwc6ItPnl2oIkF82lW5Myc0KXRIJCpsNn1j9hbilscFNi5YNHez6V7dH4yb8rvUXQyVbphVkEk4GVrXsY3Afbi1B3DRH5Np9vFip3J2Wm13INjtI4o-RdMEJwmRs-xnYqdUzVV/s1600/iotsmall.png" /></a></span></div>
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770795478316934651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587439770796558428.post-33996847220248015292014-03-10T14:19:00.001-04:002014-03-10T14:19:49.144-04:00New Business Article<span class="commentary"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Business article posted about International Ordnance in the Jamestown Post Journal, written by <span data-li-tl="tl/shared/profile/mini_profile_shell" data-li-url="/profile/mini-profile-with-connections?_ed=0_2MZDSRL3TZnOwVljzvjnGE5HeSBBN88EPFJ_29auGQl_gEBxweVoXlB5k5DWo-sV6R3Tr1uvklqArP6dDgfnGL"></span></span><span class="new-miniprofile-containerprofilemini-profile-with-connectionsed02mzdsrl3tznowvljzvjnge5hesbbn88epfj29augqlgebxwevoxlb5k5dwo-sv6r3tr1uvklqarp6ddgfngl"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=165426871&authType=name&authToken=1RSx&goback=%2Eabp_5848478383524442112_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=MENTION_MEMBER_NUS_SHARE">Elizabeth Cipolla, SPHR</a></span></span></span><span class="commentary"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">: view article to gain insight about our company </span></span><a href="http://goo.gl/ZLZ2yD">http://goo.gl/ZLZ2yD</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770795478316934651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587439770796558428.post-1278002730356018442014-01-13T12:52:00.001-05:002014-01-13T12:54:54.089-05:00IOT Launches Brand New Heat-treat Austemper Furnance and Increases CapacityInternational Ordnance Tech., Inc. (IOT) is proud to announce the launch and First Article Approval of our new Austemper Heat-treat Furnace. The week of 1/6/14, Olin Winchester, ARDEC and DCMA performed First Article Testing on IOT small caliber links (M9, M13, M27), which doubled our capacity and certified our new heat-treat process. Final approval will come after the firing tests are performed at Olin Winchester in the near future. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770795478316934651noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587439770796558428.post-23315747124925404402013-06-19T16:41:00.002-04:002013-06-19T16:41:34.141-04:00International Ordnance Launches New WebsiteInternational Ordnance Technologies, Inc. (IOT) has recently launched its new website. The site was developed to provide more extensive information as to who we are as a company, our quality standards, and present the range of products and services we offer.<br />
<br />
IOT is now offering the opportunity to request product samples and RFQs via our site.<br />
<br />
<i>Please bookmark our site to keep up-to-date with the latest from our company. </i>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11770795478316934651noreply@blogger.com