The curse: Chinese laminates and formaldehyde

By Jonathan Trivers

It surely seems unfair but the words Chinese laminates have taken on a totally negative meaning. It is not going away any time soon.

It all started four months ago with the CBS "60 Minutes" expose on Lumber Liquidators and its formaldehyde infused Chinese laminates. Its management response should have been surprise and grave disappointment and anger at the manufacturer. But nope. It compounded the situation by saying the CBS tests were faulty and wrongheaded and this was all a plot of some short seller to make money by scaring investors.

Lumber Liquidators offered the customer a free kit to see if their floor was bad or not. It told investors that about 2,000 customers were expected to request the kit. As of last month, 10,000 customers had asked for the kit. And some were suing Lumber Liquidators for a kit that didn’t measure anything. In addition, there are 103 other class action suits against Lumber Liquidators and its formaldehyde mess. Each new bit of news about Lumber Liquidators always contained the phrase (or some form of it), “Chinese laminates with toxic levels of formaldehyde.” Thousands of stories on TV, newspapers and newspaper websites, Google, Yahoo and literally thousands of every kind of website and blogs contained that phrase over and over again for the last four months.

In June, the Department of Justice was putting their final papers in order to announce planned criminal prosecution of Lumber Liquidators for violating the Lacey Act. Few will pay attention or even knew what this is all about. Lacey Act? Articles and blogs talking about Lumber Liquidators and the Lacey Act will include “Chinese laminates with toxic levels of formaldehyde” somewhere in the article. Most people will think the Department of Justice was going after Lumber Liquidators for its toxic levels of formaldehyde. You can see why.

Then it was alleged that Lowe’s had a similar problem with too much formaldehyde in one of its laminates made in, guess where, China. The next day, Lowe’s announced that they would no longer carry that laminate line from China. Smart move.

Certainly the Chinese laminates with toxic levels of formaldehyde have hit the company that owned this phrase (Lumber Liquidators) the worst. To save itself after a horrendous public response to accusations they have been giving the product away. Literally. Lumber Liquidators gross profit went from a very respectable 41 percent to an incredibly awful 31 percent in four months. Even with that, its sales declined month after month.

But we have to believe that all Chines laminates have been really hurt. It is all in the perception. No one said it was fair but it is fact: Selling Chinese laminates today is hard. It is so hard to win over a customer when you start the conversation by back peddling with “but;” — “But our Chinese laminates are different or better or cooler or …

Surprise, surprise both Lowe’s and Lumber Liquidators just reported that they would stop sourcing any laminates from China. Any, not just the low end stuff. They understand the damage done and so should you.

I say, buy Ethiopian or Vietnamese or Swedish or German or better yet, American. But be really, really sure that stuff meets all requirements. Don’t say formaldehyde. Simply say, “We have floors that children will love to crawl on and mom’s love they are safe.”