I Ask You How: These prices are so darn low

For the last few months I’ve been checking the price of air compressors and nail guns (my oldest son said I’d be able to bang birdhouses together faster if I parted with some hard-earned cash) and I’ve noticed the combined price has come down just about every time a Canadian Tire flyer hits my door step.

Believe it or not, in the last four or five months the price has dropped at least by half - to an all-time low of $99.99.


How can Canadian Tire (and other stores, I’m sure) sell the items so cheaply?

The one I’m looking at is sold by Campbell Hausfeld (a company founded in 1836 and headquartered in Harrison, Ohio), and I’m pretty sure the men and women of Harrison couldn’t survive on the wages that result from sales of fairly complex machines (that now include the nailer/stapler kit and other accessories) for a hundred bucks.

Are the compressor and nailer manufactured in another country perhaps, one that pays paltry wages and powers its factories with coal-fired furnaces?

My money says the products are made in China, just like my two-in-one sander that had to be repaired recently.

I know many in North America are in love with low, low prices, but isn’t there is a higher price to pay farther down the road?


[Photo taken from Campbell Hausfeld website]

For example: Just like I had to wait 3 - 4 weeks for a very simple fix to be made to my broken sander (poor workmanship and design: I’ll look more closely at my next purchase), we’ll all be waiting a long time before good jobs return to North America if we search for the lowest price overseas.

For now, I’ll recycle the latest CT flyer and stick with my old-fashioned hammer and nails.

It’s good exercise (yeah, I need it) and I’ll breathe easier.

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Does the ever-present ‘Made in China’ label present you with a problem on occasion?

How so?

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