The manufacturer of 90% of the world’s surfboards has gone under. I’m sure the reprecussions will ripple through the industry.
This sucks. Clark Foam is close to my house, and has provided damn near every shaper in the world with high quality blanks.
Board prices have gone up an average of $150 per stick since the news broke.
I enjoyed working there (Telephone repair) Goodby Grubby!
No, boards are damaged by use and must be replaced periodically. They can also break.
Also, different shapes and styles of boards are used for different wave conditions.
So, this guys works his butt off, and using ingenuity and industry, becomes succesful supplying something that meets a demand. Then, he goes out of business, not because of his own lack of drive or market forces, but because government and government lawyers drove him out of business, adversly affecting thousands of people in the process. Lovely. Just lovely.
Yeah, pretty much.
Clark may not be entirely blameless.
What puzzles me is that this about a business that controls about 80-90% of the market.
If someone was controlling that much of the market, wouldn’t that business being doing well, financially?
Could it be that difficult to find the capital to bring everything up to code, and keep your business running? As well as your customers.
Wouldn’t that be a sound business decison?
I’d have to see some details.
There’s “leaving a 5-gallon can of lacquer thinner near flammable materials” improperly storing a hazardous chemical and there’s “leaving open containers of red fuming nitric acid in the employee refrigerator” improperly storing a hazardous chemical.
Why doesn’t he re-locate the plant out-of-state, & just sell the things in LA-LA land?
Consider that he has three former employees on lifetime disability, and a fourth dead of cancer:
More forboding is the information in this article:
TDI is not particularly pleasant to work with as it’s a known carcinogen, and if his company handled it incorrectly, then what happened should be no surprise.
The puns in the OP are insurferable.
Because it’s not just state officials, but also federal ones, who are putting pressure on him. Presumably, they would do this no matter where in the US he relocated to.
Anyhow, particularly after KeithT’s post, i’m going to hold off on final judgment until i hear more about the situation at Clark’s factory. If someone’s unsafe workplace is killing people and/or represents a hazard to the community at large, then something should be done about it. The simple fact that they constitute a virtual monopoly, or that people buy their stuff, is not an excuse for shoddy health and safety practices.
…and then there’s another side to the story. According to the Washington Post:
And, from the San Francisco Chronicle:
Interesting.
I must say, i’m surprised that one manufacturer holds such a near-monopoly in an industry like this. Where’s that great competitive spirit of capitalism that, according to the free marketeers, leads new competitors to jump in and try to wrest business away from dominant producers?