Kia is rescuing a Georgia community with plans to open a massive car factory in the town by the end of the year, reports CNN:
A community that seemed on the road to becoming a ghost town has taken a turn toward prosperity despite the recession, thanks to an automaker.
Korean car manufacturer Kia plans to open a sprawling automobile factory in tiny West Point, Georgia, by the end of the year. The boon has already spurred economic growth — and just plain excitement — among residents, said Mayor Drew Ferguson.
“We jokingly call it Kia-ville,” said Ferguson, a 42-year-old dentist helping to oversee expansion of West Point, population 3,500. The announcement is drawing workers and businesses to the community about 80 miles south of Atlanta.
The town is already changing to welcome in their new saviors — the Koreans, that is, not Jesus:
On Main Street, residents are sampling new flavors that have come to West Point since the announcement.
Asian restaurants and businesses are popping up. The old Pizza Hut has transformed into a Korean Bar-B-Que, and the southern staple KFC is now a popular Korean eatery called Young’s Garden.
Hate to see what happened to the Piggly Wiggly.
(HT to reader)
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
meanwhile, back in Seoul, more Pizza Huts and KFCs have been reported taking over popular Starbucks and Coffee Bean locations…
I’m happy for the people of West Point, Georgia, but heartbroken for America.
How did America go from the world’s manufacturing powerhouse to a source of cheap labor for one of our protectorates, who, we should remember, kept its markets closed to our products for decades while its defense was subsidized by us?
#2. Answer: we turned our nation over to trial lawyers and labor unions. (I know, an oversimplification!)
Protests, setting old tire stacks ablaze and mayhem were how American investment was greeted to save Daewoo motors. I and a bunch of other Americans got to witness it first-hand from a company bus driving by the Daewoo plant in Bupyeong. Most of the passengers who witnessed this were first-time visitors to the RoK and were quite perplexed by the disorders:
“Aren’t they grateful for GM’s investment to save their plant and their jobs?”
My reply: “Rule One in Korea is xenophobia”
What a contrast with the article!
I guess no one told them Koreans would eat more often at a Pizza Hut than a K-BBQ
Kia had to do this not for the cheap labor but as part of their plans for expansion into the U.S. market. This investment is the least they could do given economic and political realities.
Although GM is restructured and debt-free now, this is the type of investment remains difficult given that they are already overbuilt.
I would hope that Kia would also contract with US suppliers as well. That would be the right thing to do and the smart thing to do for all involved from an economic perspective.
USA just elected a champion of labor unions and a former trial lawyer.
Noh Moohyun was also a lawyer. He was also a champion of of labor unions.
Xenophobia and buy American is also a strong lobby voice for the Democratic Party.
I would not be pontificating about Korea’s ‘ungrateful’ manners, if I were you.
The 1950 Korean War did not have to take place. All the US had to do was leave the Koreans with a heavy endowment of artillery guns. True mismanagement and incompetence at US Presidential leadership resulted in a war that devastated and killed mostly Koreans. In that respect, the US has an obligation to ‘subsidize’ South Korean military defense. Hey, we’re not as ungrateful and unproductive as the Iraqis and the Vietnamese. You should be proud of us. Along with western Europe and Japan, we are your success stories, but even more special than that, because we rose from less infrastructure and intel resources. No need to get bitter about the auto world. It’s ultimately your US consumers who made Toyota and Honda surpass GM, Chrysler, and Ford. Korea had nothing to do with that. Korea could have bombed out of the US market, in fact. Around 1998, they made a do or die offer. 10 year warranty. Imagine if they actually spent so much money on honoring warranties due to shitty quality cars. They wouldn’t be offering a car buy back if you lose your job program in 2009. Blame your own United Auto Worker’s union. The current US President and his allies in Congress managed to keep Chrysler and GM going WITHOUT killing the UAW. They can’t. Their major supporters are lawyers and labor unions.
Why is California bankrupt?
1/ they provide a lot of social services, to people who don’t pay taxes. An illegal immigrant program that nobody cares to address. They can’t. 2nd, 3rd, 4th generations from Latin America are the major politicians advocating the 1st generation border deniers.
2/ they made a series of shitty investments with taxpayer money. Enron was 10 years ago. California state a major stock holder. Housing booms were particularly strong in the last 5 years in where else but California as well. Like the Federal Reserve is doing now, California is also printing money to cover its expenses. But, too bad for California, they technically cannot print money like the US Federal government. IOUs is the best they can do, and all forms of governing bodies in the US are calling on corps and debt holders to imagine it’s cold, hard cash. OK, I guess. Can I get a written guarantee like they did for my checking account, please?
what is the US govt doing? The CIA, FBI should look for a guy named ‘Jing’ in California. He is a spy of the People’s Republic of China.
I’m gonna take a wild guess and guess that North Korea is using Japanese porn websites to seed potential bots in South Korea, using those bots to attack South Korean and American websites.
Wangkon, lay off the Japanese porn for 2 weeks.
Thanks.
What happened to the Piggly Wiggly?
H-Mart.
bar-b-que?…..barbecue
The city is not without corporate history. The once grand West Point Pepperal manufacturing company, borne through Pepperal manfucaturing, J.P. Stevens manufacturing, and West Point Manufacturing have modern roots in West Point, Ga. dating back to about 1880. At the time the textile industry in the South was beginning to carry the fnancial burden of post civil war reconstruction through mergers, acquisitons, and exports to England. Ir’s likely that some of the canvas and bedding used during the Korean war was manufactured at a West Point Mill.
Textiles are now dead in many aspects. Perhaps, I find it odd that a former textile town is finding revitalization from a foreign company in an industry, that while not dead, certainly doesn’t seem to be doing so hot.
Piggly Wiggly still going strong.
I’d dare to say there are white/black southerners who haven’t even heard of nor seen a H Mart in their lifetimes, but do know what a Piggly Wiggly is, even if they can’t remember who was President in 1988.
Jun Doohwan janggoon has used his Swiss bank account wealth to provide US Koreans a public service, and they locals used to call it
HanAhReum.
To appeal to more people, it’s called H-Mart.
To the Chinese,
Han for the Korean clan.
Ah for Asia.
Ryong for Dragon.
But the Chinese fickle that they can find cheaper groceries elsewhere. Sure you can. When does quality become more important than quantity is the question I ask the China man. Usually, he likes quantity. Pretty rigidly.
in Flushing, NY, a Chinese H-Mart competitor in size and volume and surely in price, offers Korean grocery items and foods, written in the Korean language.
They are situated on Northern Blvd, Flushing, New York. Used to be a now seemingly bankrupted and defunct NY pharmacy chain.
Chinese like prices and Korean groceries, too !
Koreans are doomed.
Singapore’s Chinese ruler once said,
The Korean is all about solo work. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me…
The Chinese about clan work.
The Japanese actually care about their country as a whole.
at the pace, H-Mart in New York can be replaced by a Chinese supermarket chain selling Korean items. Not even General/President Jun Doohwan’s powers can help. For starters, Koreans abroad, start working together instead of building 10 different churches, all Presbyterian in a 10 mile radius. It’s an insult to God.
That explains some of the Korean flight to Englewood, NJ, wjk.
But I never knew about the Chun Doo Hwan HanAhReum connection.
If it’s any consolation, I still shop at HanAhReum and other Korean markets in places like Baltimore and NJ. In Pittsburg there are only a few very small Korean marts. By contrast, while there are some Chinese marts, the quality of the vegetables there are lousy and the stores seem dirty.
I notice that a lot of non-Koreans shop at Korean marts these days. The prices and quality are often better than the other supermarkets, and they are usually upkept well.
So I don’t think Koreans are quite doomed.
“I guess no one told them Koreans would eat more often at a Pizza Hut than a K-BBQ”
=> Hey, do the math – why don’t you look at the # of a Pizza stores incl. a Pizza Hut in Korea against the # of a Korean BBQ restaurants.
If you still insist on your argument, see the frequency of visit, the revenues, etc.
I love a pizza because it’s a great food, too. But I also never forget it’s way cheaper to be stuffed!
“Rule One in Korea is xenophobia”
=> Why don’t you visit South Dakota or Missouri?
Remeber, many compact or mid-size sedans from GM or Suzuki (GM used to be the biggest stakeholder of Suzuki with 17.4% shares until Nov.2008) in the US are originally designed and manufactured by Daewoo. I’m not a big fan of Daewoo’s products though.
I, for one, welcome our new Korean overlords.
KIA would build cars in Ethiopia if it thought it could make (or save) money doing so. Back in the 80′s Japanese car manufacturers opened plants in the deep South (and Ohio) because the yen was so high and Congress was always threatening to slap huge tariffs.
The Japanese or Koreans have no special love of the deep South… other than it’s non-unionized workforce…
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