Reality Check

These are pictures of the factory worker's dorm room. For many, the factory is their whole world, they sleep there, eat there, and of course, work there. The size of their room is the same as your typical college dorm room, which often people will complain is too small for two people. REALITY CHECK, each room in a factory is shared by eight workers, eight.

Day 4

Day 4 was now two days ago, I was unable to blog because the Chinese government blocked it. Also, when Osama Bin Landen was finally killed, we turned on the news to hear what had happened and the sound on CNN would not work. We tried the TV in another room, thinking maybe ours was defective, but no, the government had blocked the sound! That way they can say oh no no we didn't block the channel something just must've gone wrong with their server. So that was pretty annoying.

Two days ago we left Hong Kong for Shanghai. There is a Coach flagship store in Shanghai, so we went there to meet with the manager. This store is rather new, along with the gigantic Apple store located right next door. Many people had thought that this would be a prime location because the traffic from the Apple store would attract more Coach customers, but that hasn't really been the case; this was a hot topic of conversation at the buisness dinner that night. It felt like econ class all over again, so I was able to join in on the discussion... I said maybe this was because when people buy something from the Apple store it is usually a very costly purchase and they are not looking to buy a new expensive leather hand bag right after. I also suggested that the manager of the Coach store collaborate with Apple so that in the Apple store there could be signs like "Check out Coach's cool new ipad covers right next door" and in the Coach store there'd be signs like, "do you like this ipad cover? the ipad 2 is just around the corner."

While in Shanghai we also visited a few factories, there was one hat/glove/bathing suit factory and two jewelry factories. Coach is really hard on the factories when the working and living conditions do not meet their standards because most of these factories have been with Coach for years and so what the company expects should never come as a surprise. After the factory visits we flew back to Hong Kong, that is where I am right now. Shortly I am meeting Wendy for lunch to interview her for my Writing Communications paper.

Day 3. buddha statue!

Today we did not have to see any factories and went to see the buddha statue. We had to take a cable car up to the statue, which was pretty cool. You get a sick view of the outskirts of hong kong. Then we did some shopping, I got a hello kitty night light, water bottle, coffee mug and alarm clock. I also got a tote bag and a polka dot back pack to use next year at college, WEIRD. After shopping we stopped by a chinese candy store called okashi land and got these really yummy gummies and pocky sticks. 

These are some cool pictures from today and yesterday

Day 2 and pictures of the factories

Yesterday, Wendy, Philip, and my dad and I visited 4 different factories. It was really intense, the factory workers work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, and they are not allowed to talk to one another or in some cases take bathroom breaks. Day after day they sit in an over crowded, humid room, sewing, gluing, cutting, and packaging various products. People in America have no idea how much goes into manufacturing a handbag and all the little pieces and parts to it. Next time you purchase a new bag, take a second to really look at it, the stiching, the hardware, the inner linning---it's all hand made by factory workers---there is no fancy machine that can do what they do. Something to think about is the fact that just because a brand is very high end doesn't mean the production side of it was. Prada and many other european brands will say "made in italy"to make their products seem more luxurious and expensive, when all the work is done in china in these factories (by kids our age and younger may I add) and the only thing that is done in europe is packaging.

There were piles and piles of bags everywhere you looked, like Prada, to Marc Jacobs, to Juicy Couture, and of course lots and lots of Coach. With all those designer labels and expensive leather, the factory workers are surronded by materials/products worth millions of dollars. Yet most of them will only make about 300 dollars a month. Kind of a slap in the face don't you think?

Day 1

大家好
that means hello everyone! pretty neat huh?
last night--after many hours of flying-- we finally arrived in Hong Kong...we took off from New York at 4pm on Wednesday and arrived Thursday evening at 7:30 pm. Then we drove through the Hong Kong border to get to Shenzhen where I am writing to you from. In Shenzhen, facebook along with my blog cite was blocked, but we figured out a way to go on the internet from the coach homepage or something...pretty bad ass i know, in your face communism.

So, anyways, my day began at 5:00 am...after sleeping for 10 hours on the plane I was really surprised to even sleep as late as 5. My dad, Wendy and Philip (who work for coach and live in china and will be traveling with us to the different factories) keep on asking me if i am jetlagged and honestly i don't really know. I simply feel extrodinarily disorientated like not really sure the time or date, so does that mean i'm jetlagged? ...ok back to my day...after ordering some breakfast from room service my dad and I went to the hotel's gym, it was really nice and the fitness trainer there did an abe work out with me for about an hour. His name was George. He wanted me to come to the gym and work out for an hour everyday "to stay fit and be in good health, unlike many americans" i told George that would be very nice but we had to leave tomorrow. He also offered me mandarin lessons in exchange for english lessons, this is as far as we got on the mandarin--- Xie Xie means "Thank you." Miao Tiao means "slim." Qian Zhuan means "strong." Jian Mei means "healthy and pretty." Then I told him how one would greet a friend in America which consisted of, "Yo man whats good," no just kidding.

The afternoon portion of my day, which was the Annual Coach Compliance Meeting, was very educational and interesting. Most of the people who attended the meeting were factory managers or people from HR, and different executives of companies. I won't tell you all about it because it was a 4 hour meeting but the speech Wendy and my dad gave was truly fasinating. They spoke about China's booming target population and economic opportunities and how in the next 4/5 years there will be a growth of 10 billion dollars in the luxury handbag market. The purchaser population of Coach is expected to grow to about 7 million--many of which will be 1st time purchasers. However, Japan's market and population is shrinking. Apparently in 2050, 40 percent of the population will be 65 years of age and up. Also, this past year, China over took Japan from a GDP stand point and is only expected to increase. Another major point of the presentation was to discuss the high expectations Coach has for the factories they employ, and how failure to comply will result in significant penalities. They mentioned how in the last 3 years they have been very accomodating because of the financial crisis but no longer will violations be tolerated. The minimum wage has been updated and must be met, social insurance is not an option, and health and safety requirements (like annual water/air tests) have to be enforced. This is only a taste of what i learned from the different speeches and i took lots of notes-- not because i have to hand them in when i get back or anything--it was just pretty interesting material about stuff I had no previous knowledge of.
k im done for now, it is 10 pm on friday here but 10 am friday by you, goodmorning america!

Trip Schedule

SUN	MON	TUES	WED	THURS – 4/28 Todd and Zoe arrive HK from NY CO 0099 19:05hrs Terminal 1 Paul car pick up from the airport to SZ at 19:30hrs SZ Grand Hyatt	FRI – 4/29 Factory  1 10:30am Kelvin – Pungkook 11am    Lunch at coffee shop 12:30pm – registration 1:00pm – Opening speech by Martyn 3pm – Mr. Liu 5:00pm – Closing speech by Todd (TK, ZK, MJ, WC, PL) SZ Grand Hyatt	SAT – 4/30 Company car pick up from hotel (8am) Fashion Factory 9:30am Fashion Factory 11:00am Lunch with Superl Factory 3 1:30pm Factory 4 3:30pm (TK, ZK, D, WC, PL) Company car send PL to SZ Paul car pick up at 4:30pm and back to HK Grand Hyatt HK
SUN – 5/1 Free Day Big Buddha Repulse Bay Stanley Grand Hyatt HK	MON – 5/2 Fly to Shanghai KA 876   1000/1230 Hotel car to airport at 7:45am (Jacky) Shanghai hotel car pick up from Pudong airport (Andy) Lunch by the Bund Flagship store visit ( Huai Hai Road ) Dinner with Mary & Grace at 7pm, at 100 Century Ave Rest inside hotel Park Hyatt Shanghai	TUE – 5/3 S. Sense car pick up at 8am Shanghai Factory 9:30am S. Sense car send to Shanghai  Metallic  11:00am Pack lunch Metallic car send to  Metallic 1pm (TK, ZK, WC) Fly back to HK KA 5369 1735/2010 Hotel car pick up from airport Four Seasons	WED – 5/4 Meetings in HK Todd Dinner with Mike Devine Four Seasons	THU – 5/5 Taxi from hotel to TST Pier at 6:45am Ferry to Lian Hua Shan at 7:50am Factory car pick up from pier / PL to Panyu by company car Factory 10:30am Lunch Shoes 1:30  Shoes 3pm (TK, ZK, JH, WC, PL) Company car back to DG Dinner with Jim / Pullman Dongguan	FRI – 5/6 Company car pick up from Pullman 7:45am Factory 8:15am Factory 9:00pm Factory 10:45am Dim Sum Lunch at Richwood Factory 2:15pm (TK, ZK, EH, WC, PL) Company car to Shek Kou 3:15pm Ferry to Macau Taipa Dang at 17:30pm Hotel Car pick up from Pier 6-seater (5mins) Grand Hyatt Macau	SAT – 5/7 Hotel car send to Gong Bei Border at 8:00pm S. Seas car pick up from border at 8:45am Handbags / (Zhuhai) 9:45am Lunch with S G car pick up12noon G 1:15pm (TK, ZK, JH, WC, PL) Fty car 1 to pier Ferry to TST at 4pm Fty car 2 send PL back to DG Grand Hyatt HK

tomorrow's take off....i'm very excited and very nervous.