Originally Posted by
The Golden Boy
For whatever it's worth, my father was Asian.
I just found out this year, before my father's funeral, that people that were well-meaning friends and neighbors of my maternal grandparents were apologizing to them for their daughter marrying an Asian.
Why didn't Japanese stuff have cachet? Because of ****ed up attitudes like that.
It didn't take too long for that to change and for Japanese products to be the benchmark in each category. In the Schwinn dealership that I worked at in the early '80's, Fuji was our top line. No one bought a Paramount, Super Sport or Superior, but they did buy Fuji. We replaced Windsor with Lotus and they were well regarded. We had Panasonic and of course, the Schwinn LeTour made in Japan.
But these were far from high-end bikes. We didn't sell high end bikes. If you were in Long Island and wanted the high end stuff you went to Visenten. They sold mostly European bikes and components. In our value conscious neighborhood, Japanese bikes were highly desired. And Fuji's still get a premium oi the used market here in New York.