Its Web site assures interested parties that the Chocolate Shoppe will remain open through 2007 and 2008. That's because operations are heading south--to Mexico. The news of the plant's impending closure hit hard, and no wonder: the factory has employed a substantial percentage of the Smiths Falls population. Smiths Falls is approximately a 45-minute drive from where we live, and a choice destination for many Ottawans with house guests. (House guests, like lawn mower, is another one of those terms that, in my opinion, really should be a compound word. Cdn Oxford purports that it's two. Gage doesn't even acknowledge the concept. I guess I could just commence writing them as compounds and see if it takes off. Want to join me? Strength in numbers and all that.)
When I telephoned the number on the Web site late last year, I was told that three of the Smiths Falls lines were still in production. I've heard there used to be eleven at this particular plant. Maybe it's because we toured on the weekend when the only employees on duty are staffing the Shoppe, but I wonder if even three lines are open now. Through the large windows of the second-floor observation deck, we saw only one vat of churning chocolate, and all too many signs of equipment being dismantled and packed for shipping. The displays on either sides of the four hallways contain fun facts and interesting artifacts, but none of us lingered too long because of the chocolate waiting for us at the end of the trail.
It's not that Hershey's chocolate is the best chocolate ever. I mean, it's all right as chocolate goes; I'm just saying, it's not Swiss or German chocolate, it's not on par with the smoothness of Godiva. Still, that did not stop us from buying $50 worth of goods. (You do not want to know how much of that we've already eaten.) And it certainly wouldn't stop me from returning with or without houseguests in tow.
mmmmmmm, chocolate!!!! The smell must have been heavenly!!! $50 is a A LOT of chocolate...unless it's Purdy's about 2 mouths full. I wonder how much it costs to move an entire plant to Mexico???
ReplyDeleteShauna - I remember a Shauna! I am struggling to remember if there were TWO Shauna's...I know one lived on or just off Wicklow St. Fun!!
Siobahn, It probably costs a fair bit to transport all that heavy equipment down to Guadalajara, Mexico (if I recall correctly, that is where Hershey was going to move the Smith Falls plant to)....
ReplyDelete...Which is exactly why it caught my eye, because the previous company I worked for in Winnipeg, Solectron Electronics (now Flextronics) also shut us down and "reallocated resources" from the Winnipeg plant down to Guadalajara in an effort to "streamline escalating manufacturing costs in an effort to remain competitive in the global market", "add to the value stream", "reposition the company to leapfrog ahead of the competition", while "increasing and maximizing shareholders profit potentials".
Shortly after they shut down and moved the contents of the Winnipeg plant (which was but one of many many Solectron plants around the world), the entire corporation merged with Flextronics. So much for remaining a competitor in the global market I suppose.
Translation...it's cheaper to pay the labour in Guadalajara the equivalant of 2 Canadian dollars a day (not sure how many pesos or whatever that is) instead of paying labour up here in Canada 15 bucks an hour to do the same work.
It's only a matter of time before the large publicly traded companies pack everything up and move it out to communist China, where they can get away with paying child labour about 2 cents a month per person, and take advantage of forceing the labour to work 7 days a week, 18 hour days, with stiff penalities and severe personal consequences for not producing x number of widgets per second.
Corporate buzz words such as "outsourcing", "lean manufacturing", "5S", "Kaizen", and implementing cr*p like a belt system to indicate ones individual level of "effeciency prowess" within the corporate structure are all the grave signs and last ditch efforts of the corporate a** clowns who have their million dollar golden parachute contract clauses shoved so far up their rears that they don't gave a rats behind about anyone or anything except themselves.
Apparantly (to the corporate money grubbing world), human beings are expendible assets, to be used up and tossed away into the trash, much like a broken paper clip or bent staple.
Anyways, I'll get off my soapbox. I just feel sorry for the Smith Falls people who worked at the Hershey plant there.
And I am also wishing that my 2 week vacation from work was not over so soon.
Stupid working for a living job. :)
I opened a can of worms there!!
ReplyDeleteI hear ya, Perry. And I fantasize about living on a remote island with just my computer to write stories on and sell photos of flowers and scenery from and living happily ever after with no government or world disasters.
Speaking of, I must go test out my new camera...
Heh heh. Naw, the can of worms was already wide open, and I think my family heard a little of my discontent regarding the Hershey plant closure on the way to Hershey, and also on the way back, after visiting the plant. Although I held back at the time. It was vacation time after all. :)
ReplyDeleteI figured now was the perfect opportunity to unload in a reasonably worded fashion.
I really am upset at Hershey for closeing the Smith Falls plant near Ottawa, even though I have nothing to do with it, nor do I work in the chocolate industry.
It's more Canadian jobs going away.
I don't like that.
But anyways, it was fun visiting the Hershey plant and get some chocolate (I personally only bought a box of chocolate covered raisins and a small brown Hershey "matchbox toy type" delivery truck, though not really MatchBox, just some cheap China knockoff brand....and I found out later that the cashier had thrown in a Hershey OH Henry bar for free!!! Yay!!!). :)
...I like Cadbury brand chocolate better anyways. :)
Cr*p, I re-read what I have posted here, and I sound like some kind of union oriented teamster or something, which I am not. I actually don't like labour unions for the most part (though in certain instances they do have their place at certain times, and definitely have had their place in the past).
ReplyDeleteI'm just pro-Canada, that's all.
We have to look out for our country and our people in Canada. And still remain amicable, eh?!! :)