Posted on 03/15/2003 12:23:10 AM PST by sarcasm
Molly Marking has just about had it. She's gotten to the point where she's going to put a sign in her shop window, saying, "American-owned."
"If our computer was working, I'd be printing one out now," said Marking, the owner of Mais Oui!, a French home-furnishings store in Bellevue.
Over the last few weeks, she's heard more anti-French comments and lost business as some customers boycott French products to protest France's resistance to a war with Iraq. Her business was down 50 percent last week and she's projecting a 20 percent drop this week.
"This is misplaced patriotism," she said. "This is not doing anything to the French; it's hurting American businesses. And if it's hurting my business, it's going to hurt my shippers and everyone else down the line."
Other businesses have felt the bite. Dan McCarthy, co-owner of McCarthy and Schiering Wine Merchants, said one customer canceled a $7,000 order of 2000 Bordeaux wine, considered by many the best vintage in years. Another half-dozen customers have said they're not buying French for the time being.
But McCarthy, who carries 15 to 20 percent French wines, says he's not expecting any overall change in sales. "I'm still planning a trip to France in April, and this is not going to affect my plans or orders," he said.
Other wine stores, like Pete's Wine and Esquin Wine Merchants, have heard customers say they won't buy French wine, but it nevertheless continues to sell briskly. "There has been so much demand for the 2000 Bordeaux that I wish I had more," said Chuck LeFevre, owner of Esquin.
French-theme stores and restaurants are having to deal with the occasional political statement.
At Yves Delorme, a Paris-based home-furnishings chain, people have come in to the Seattle store to make anti-French comments and then leave. "I think people just want to make a point and feel like they're doing something," said Natalia Gugel, the store's regional manager for the West Coast.
"We're having more interesting conversations than anything else," said Pat McCarthy, co-owner of DeLaurenti's Specialty Food and Wine. "We've had people come in and say they want a cheap, runny cheese, but it can't be French. And that's fine, because there are plenty of other options."
At Le Pichet, a French restaurant in Belltown, only one customer has called to say they wouldn't return until the French government changed its position. "Our clientele tends to be very supportive, and business has been very good," said co-owner Joanne Herron.
While Sur La Table, a Seattle-based cookware chain, hasn't heard anti-French comments in its stores in Seattle and Kirkland, it has heard them in other parts of the country, said Carol Nockold, manager of the Seattle store. Yesterday, employees received an e-mail about how to answer questions on the store's French name and the European products it carries.
But Nockold said the dollar's drop in value against the euro might generate more comments.
"We're starting to feel the rise in the euro, which is driving prices up on copper cookware," she said. "We'll probably get more of an outcry on rising prices than anything else."
I've been saying this all along about the boycott effort - that it'll hurt American business & workers long before the French - but I don't think too many accept the reality of that...
That's the foremost problem, a number of 'French' products sold in America - say, Dannon yoghurt, by example - are made, shipped, and sold in America, not France.
France will " feel it ", when their products remain on shelves, get heavily discounted, to get rid of the stuff, and NO reoders are forthcoming.
France will " feel it ", when President Bush wins the war, Saddam is vanquished, and the " not worth the paper it was written on " oil deals, for France , are no longer valid.
There are consequences for all actions; some just take a wee bit longer to manifest themselves, than others. :-)
Instead of Michellins we get Bridgestones.
Wine can be found elsewhere easily.
In particular, certain defense products I'd prefer to have manufactured never in France, such as the SNECMA parts for the G.E. jet engine business; parts which should really be made in the U.S.A.
I'm a little bit more inclined that our allies will benefit.
Now, given the noise from North Korea, I especially like the idea of our sending more business toward Japan --- and frankly, I'd like to see more of that, though it is true, they subcontract more now, to Red China; I wish they'd send more of that to Central America and South America.
In general, I'd expect some job movement for some American workers, but that will fit into the randomness of such seas already choppy.
I'd like to add, that it is the French who deny us airspace, and are conspiring to deny us other countries' air space, while the U.S. has not denied France any airspace.
The French, as usual, are only hurting themselves by their foreign policy.
That "incident" back in 1870, where Germany ended up in Paris, all started when France objected to the Germanic states taking it upon themselves to form a unified nation; so, France invaded Germany, which was all that Germany needed to cement its union.
Prior to that, after the American Revolution and before the American Civil War, on two separate occasions, France actively attempted to overthrow the territorial government of the United States. We kept our cool; we did not go to war against France.
I have personal reasons for admiring the French Resistance fighters of the Second World War; that includes their wine and some other consumer products. Yet, I will no longer purchase what I can avoid, of French products.
By the way, I don't recommend flying aboard the Airbus; the latest models are better, but the maintenance is costly and management types "hate" maintenance costs. Furthermore, I no longer trust such critical French-made products.
There are some really great French men and women, but the socialists in France have been winning the cultural civil war over there, ever since Robspierre.
God Bless the Free French and the French who would be free; and may God protect the remainder from themselves.
Yep.
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