Hershey Closing Peppermint Patties Plant in Pa. (moving to Mexico)

Business Week ^ | 2/20/09 | AP

[Dr. Scarpetta]

A flag is flying at half-staff outside The Hershey Co. plant in Reading where production of York Peppermint Patties is ending.

After 23 years in Reading, the chocolate maker is closing the plant Friday and moving production to a new factory it has built in Monterey, Mexico.

It will mean the loss of 300 jobs in the southeastern Pennsylvania city. The plant also makes 5th Avenue and Zagnut candy bars and Jolly Rancher hard candies.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Those here who say “no more Hershey’s for me” are also saying they support the ongoing harm of excessive union demands, excessive regulation and excessive taxes.

They may also just be expressing their frustration that another US company is opening a plant in a third world country...

[bert]

They can not have it both ways.

[Netizen]

So your source is post #16 and a cafe owner and a lab worker that THOUGHT the contamination MIGHT have come from China. I think I might need a little more before I started with the fireworks friend!!!

Hey friend, you said you had never heard such a thing and asked for a source, I gave it to you. Don't like it? TS!

[Netizen]

They may also just be expressing their frustration that another US company is opening a plant in a third world country...

They might also be expressing their concern that a third world nation may not make sure that the product is safe for consumption.

[ontap]

Perhaps I never heard of it because it does not exist. The proof of the real cause can be found in post #7. an impeccable source using your standards!

[Netizen]

Somebody else posted the link. I commented on it. You wanted a source for my comment. I gave the source for my comment. You don’t like it, take it up with the paper that wrote the article.

[Netizen]

Here's why the prices of sugar are high.

And while total U.S. cane and beet acreage has declined dramatically over the last few years, cane has dropped most precipitously. Hawaii alone has lost more than 60 percent of its cane fields over the last five years -- victims of urbanization and conversion to better-paying crops like macadamia nuts and coffee, says Roehl Flores , director of marketing for C & H Cane Sugar Co.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

They might also be expressing their concern that a third world nation may not make sure that the product is safe for consumption.

Exactly right...

The baby formula scandal is a classic example.

[ontap]

You presumed wrong. I'm talking about the rogue company that imported their peanuts from Argentina/China (last I knew they weren't part of the USA),You presumed wrong. I'm talking about the rogue company that imported their peanuts from Argentina/China (last I knew they weren't part of the USA), I guess you didn't READ the article.

You used the non existent source as support for this lame argument. Without that this is a clueless statement.

I guess you didn't READ the article.

This is the swarmy comment you made. The answer is ,yes I read the article, but unlike you I DID NOT read into the article what was not there!!

[ontap]

The price of sugar has been artificially high for 40 years!!Due to the sugar lobby.

[Colvin]

I think the unwillingness to relocate has to do with family ties, connections to institutions such as churches and schools, and the ownership of property.

As for me I had moved 3000 miles 2 years before to get the job that ended. (I got to become programming department manager just in time to lay off over half of the department.)

I would also say, having been in India, that I would gladly trade the India hell hole for the USA.

[spintreebob]

In IL I see too many situations where distance to family is not the excuse.

A co-worker had a 2 hour commute from Chicago’s far south suburbs to the far north burbs. Subsequently I ended up at an IT shop 1 hr south of her ... only half her former commute. She was whining about no good jobs. I suggested she take one of the six figure opportunities among the many in this shop that was desperately seeking IT workers from the ‘90s to Jan 2009. She rejected the six figures because it was in the cornfields.

Another far south suburb friend had the excuse that when her unemployment comp ran out, her husband would go on unemployment and she would work.

Another in the far south suburb said he had just spent big bugs on training in a new unproven technology. He wanted a six figure job in that technology where he had no experience, and where the employer couldn’t possibly be profitable. He refused to go back to his former skill set where he had experience and could easily get $150,000.

In the Chicago burbs, a 1 hour commute is common ... but only if it goes to the loop or a tony suburb and not to the high paying jobs in the cornfields.

Many similar anecdotes can be given for construction jobs, and janitorial/maintenance jobs in both Chicago, suburbs and the cornfields.

[Cronos]

The anti-immigrant sentiment has just hastened offshoring.

you would mean primarily legal immigration, I guess? Because getting citizenship in the US is amongst the most difficult things even for a highly qualified, productive individual. And you're right -- in many states like CA, the laws are anti-business, so business seeks to make a profit and they either say "let's hire more people" or "let's just move everything offshore and not have to comply to all of these crazy laws"

[Cronos]

Borders should be controlled and only immigrants that add value to our country and are willing to assimilate into this country and take it as their own should be allowed.

And those immigrants get frustrated by the internecine process of getting citizenship legally and how it can sometimes just be a lottery. They then pack up and go back to their place of origin, set up shop and compete for business here, while having all the jobs there. Illegals, on the other hand.....

[Cronos]

Spin is right -- tariffs on steel meant steel costs were too high for it to be viable to make say washing-machines in the US. The cost of these w-m's is more than that manufactured in a place where steel doesn't cost so much. Hence the manufacturers had to shut down because they couldn't compete. Hence the steel makers lost their customers and lost business and are shutting down.

You say to increase the tariffs on importing W-m's. That's a valid argument, but then it will increase the cost of each w-m, whether it's made here or there. Perhaps people will stop buying w-m's, will wash by hand or keep their old machines a bit longer. Net result is that the w-m industry has no need to innovate (w-m's that use less water, have a shorter cycle yet clean better, are more silent, use less electricity, cost less, etc, etc).

And then, someone in another country that has no tariffs develops a far cheaper W-m that uses less electricity, so when he exports it to the US, it costs less than the US W-M and uses less water and less electricity (net result= more money in the consumer's pocket), then the US w-m industry not only loses the revenue, it also loses any chance of catching up as it's so far behind the game.

Don't believe this? Well, for much of the decades before the 90s, that smart manufacturer in a country with no tariffs was the US manufacturer. The US manufacturers had competition and a large marketplace to develop ideas, so they innovated and no one else could compete. But then gubbmint thought they could get more gold from the goose.... and we know what happened.

[Cronos]

ted’s ded and castro’s next :-P

[Yaelle]

Mexico is a country where EVERYTHING can be settled with bribes, and we are supposed to trust their quality control???

My kids love Jolly Ranchers. The watermelon Jolly Rancher could just be the best hard candy the world has ever seen. Alas, Mexican candy is recalled all the time here. No thanks.

[Yaelle]

"Hasta la Vista, Marcie! You will have to call me Senor from now on!"

[dennisw]

Good post

[dennisw]

‘nother good one