Dumb Questions.

Well, that is kind of a long story but it boils down to me being a 13 year old boy scout who wanted some special custom gear made. I designed it and found the materials. I took them to my mother who was a wonderful stitcher and asked her to make them for me. She said..... No.... make it yourself. 25 misguided years later I am still at it and eternally grateful that my mom taught me to fish rather than giving me one.

25 misguided years later I am still at it and eternally grateful that my mom taught me to fish rather than giving me one.

You bet we do. They are our bags and we take their quality and durability very seriously. When they come back for repair the same people who made them are fixing them. New hires have to work their way up through other components before we let them work on building bags.

Sadly we must say no. The costs compared to the return never balances out on these and even if we could we couldn't because we don't have extra production capacity. Thanks, though.

Not anymore, and we are sorry if this catches you by surprise. My knee jerk is to give the discount but there are a couple of good reasons we don't anymore.

First off it is a dirty deal for our retailers. They are buying our bags to sell in their stores and expect them to sell for a standard price. When we give a discount we undercut them and erode their trust.

We also don't know of any industry that regularly reduces its price to its regular market unless it is an artificial price. Phony discounts are everywhere. Ours isn't phony though. Our margins are already thin and the Pro-form price isn't healthy for us. We are sorry if this hurts you or puts us out of reach. But it was only $20.

Of course you can. We just ask that you do not use the bag before you send it back. It must be in unused condition and be able to go back on the shelf. We will happily refund the purchase price.

Boy I hate that question.

There are a number of reasons. First and foremost is that they are OUR bags. I don't like using domestic contractors let alone offshore. What makes a BaileyBag such a good thing is you can feel the quality. You have the sense that the person who made it takes pride in their work. We work very hard to make each and every bag that goes out of here will last for years and take good care of you. Contract work can't possibly hit that standard. Why should it? The people making it are just making whatever is on the line today.

Secondly, the economics of scale don't yield until you are considerably bigger than we are.

Thirdly, I have no idea how the people building the product are being treated. They may be getting a good deal. More likely they are getting treated poorly and paid miserably. Few communities would tolerate a sweatshop in their town that worked the way these outfits do. Why is it okay when it’s far away and in another language?

Not to make myself out to be some kind of a saint. I run a sweatshop myself. I have been known to fire my employees 5 or 6 times in a single day. I use it as a motivational tool.

Until the people building them somewhere else have a similar deal to ours here we will keep doing them ourselves.