Oneida had been headquartered in Sherrill, NY. They filed for bankruptcy in 2006, were passed around between a bunch of hedge fund managers and private equity groups who kept the brand name alive but all but gutted anything that made them unique. The “real” Oneida that was founded in Oneida, NY in 1880 and grew to become the world’s largest flatware producer is no longer around, at least not in any meaningful way. Today you still see the name Oneida on flatware, but they are Oneida in name only. Is there any flatware still made in the USA?īelieve it or not, yes. It seems that corporate greed knows no borders. I’ve literally gone through hundreds of flatware sets from all the big brands and can’t find one that consistently avoids China, even among vaunted brands like Lenox, Mikasa, and Pfaltzgraff. They’re even getting savvy by pricing their flatware sets at premium prices, knowing that a portion of the American consumer automatically assumes that “expensive is better”. This is because unlike countries like Vietnam and Indonesia that respect intellectual property laws, companies in China will not think twice about copying a product (sometimes literally running it from the same production line), creating a shell brand (complete with a fake Web site and fake reviews), and cutting out the American middleman by selling direct to consumers.
You’ll notice that a lot of these “brands” have patterns and materials that closely resemble the famous brands. Search for “flatware” and you’ll see brands like PHILIPALA, LIANYU, DANIALLI, Acnusik and other gibberish names ranking at the top, complete with thousands of fake 5-star reviews that Amazon has no intention of policing. Apparently some of them do, from time to time, switch to other countries like Vietnam or Indonesia, but somehow all roads seem to go back to China.
However, if you look through Amazon product listings for Mikasa, Oneida, Lenox, Zwilling JA Henckels, Pfaltzgraff you’ll see (by reading customer reviews) that practically all of them outsource to China. And as long as companies seek out countries that are honest about their business practices and have a government that isn’t corrupt and seeks for the best for its local communities over its own power, then outsourcing can be a great thing. So if you’re looking for a fork or a spoon or a butter knife, you’re at the right place.įlatware is one of those industries that in a perfect world it makes total sense to offshore: it’s a product that’s commoditized and has a relatively cheap price point. In other countries, this is referred to as “cutlery”, but in the US that term only refers to knives. First, to get it out of the way, we say “flatware” in the United States we’re talking about forks, spoons, and other silverware that goes into a table setting.
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