Hobarts being made in China?!

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breadman_nz on 20 Apr 2013 at 03:09

Check out this auction - when did Hobarts start being made in China?! Or, is this a knock-off?

http://www.trademe.co.nz/business-farming-industry/retail-hospitality/kitchen-equipment-supplies/other/auction-584852445.htm

EDIT: Picture of name plate saved for posterity once the auction closes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mypr117bq3cyyo1/264232802.jpg

From the Hobart Corporation's website:

Hobart has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom. It also has the industry’s largest service network with more than 200 sales and service locations worldwide.

Our headquarters are located in Troy, Ohio, a northern suburb of Dayton, Ohio.

Toast

breadman_nz on 20 Apr 2013 at 06:33

I knew about the UK ones - seen quite a few of them in this part of the world - but that's the first time I've seen one here in New Zealand which was not made in the US or UK.

Brave new world I guess.

You may be aware of one of the great 20th Century novels entitled "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. It's a satirical take on a dystopian (or possibly utopian) future. It is a somewhat known turn of phrase to use "a brave new world" to highlight a change from established social and societal practices to ones which may be dystopian, or utopian, depending on one's perspective and whether one is being satirical or not.

To wit - by referring the production of Hobarts in China, I may have been referring to the progression of our world to a more egalitarian utopia, where trade and borders are broken down, ensuring prosperity and happyness for all, as Das Kapital triumphs and we are provided with consumer goods at the cheapest possible price amid mass availability. Alternately, as many in the manufacturing sector in the 1st world would have it, such a move results in only illusory happiness, and we are in fact in a collective race to a bottomless well of our own making. From these depths, we will soon no longer be able to afford any of the marvels that capitalism is able to produce.

Yours to decide, really ;)

 

(one ref: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/brave+new+world)

Interesting perspective :-). I don't know if I've ever thought about mixing equipment in such terms. Origin aside, hopefully whoever buys that particular machine finds it sturdy and reliable.

 

No, I was absolutely not offended! I'm sorry if I came across that way. If anything I was in the wrong. I made a bit of a political comment or commentary and this is not the place for that. My apologies to all.

Hobart has a facility in Tianjin, China...,

Wild-Yeast