American Safety Razor bankrupt
Write a letter to the editor
American Safety Razor, the shaving discounter that employs hundreds in Verona, has announced that it has filed for bankruptcy protection while it seeks a buyer. The News Leader has the story. In the 1990s, a company owner then living in Charlottesville named J. Gray Ferguson cashed out and then proceeded to invest in a chain of stock brokerages and the now-defunct Charlottesville Observer newspaper.
That’s such sad news.
I’ll forego shaving this weekend as a personal vigil.
Sad news and unfortunately more signs that the economy is in a slump, that appears to be long term. The DP reported today the jobless rate in the City is at 8% tying a 20 year high. Look for more buget cutting in both the City and County, as we see more long term local employers like Pepsi Cola pull out of our region, because of the high cost of living. Not even retirees can afford to move here anymore -just too darn expensive; with all the taxes, utility fees, business taxes, and high cost of just about all other necessities of life .
I’m amazed that a company with a name like American Safety Razor a)still existed and b)was still making things in this country. The Augusta County area has really seen a shift from industry to retail sales in its economy.
Coca Cola moving to Richmond, 40 employees at the city offices to lose their jobs, sorry not Pepsi.
I know, it’s such a badass old-school business name. Maybe if business named themselves more concretely (no more bizarre portmanteaus of goofy “ideas” and fake words) the economy would recover!
Hmm, well, so far as I know there were already no U.S. factories manufacturing the old-school double-edged safety razor blades. These days I shave with a DE blade under the Iridium label, manufactured in St. Petersburg, Russia. Other good DE blades come from India and Israel, though the world’s sharpest (the Feather) is made in Japan.
ASR still produced the GEM blade, one of the few remaining single-edge–I suppose they were made in Verona?