RUST BELT
The hub of this research has been HGR Industrial Surplus, a company based in Cleveland, Ohio. HGR acts as a depot for industrial equipment that is no longer of use to the original owner.
HGR Industrial Surplus consists of a 12-acre building at 20001 Euclid Avenue in east Cleveland. This building was constructed in 1943 by the Cleveland Pneumatic Aerol Company. The plant was first used to manufacture aircraft landing gear parts during World War II. The Fisher Body Division of General Motors Corporation acquired it in 1947, at which point it began to produce automobile bodies for Chevrolet, Pontiac, Buick, and Oldsmobile. In 1955, Fisher Body had a peak of 2,958 employees. In 1970 General Motors moved the Fisher Body’s auto-body manufacturing tasks to a newer facility in Michigan. The Fisher Body plant at Euclid Avenue in Cleveland did continue to function, however, producing car interior and trim for the upholstery. In 1982, the plant’s security was once again put into question, when GM announced plans to close the entire Fisher Body Division (which included a second plant on Coit Road in Cleveland). However, employees made concessions, assumedly regarding hours and pay, and the plant continued to make seat covers, door panels, sun shades, and other interior parts for Cadillacs, Buicks, and Pontiacs. At this point the plant became known as GM’s Inland Division. In 1986, the plant also began making interiors for boats as a part of a contract with Sea Ray Boats.
In 1991, GM made the announcement that it was closing the Inland operations. The plant had 596 employees when it completely stopped functioning in 1993.
HGR Industrial Surplus opened its doors in 1998. HGR houses aisles upon aisles of industrial equipment. Rows of forklifts, rows of electrical parts, rows of drill bits five feet in circumference. There are also the large machines––sewing machines that seat a dozen workers, giant lathes meant to cut steel, computer numerical controllers that tell a whole factory’s worth of equipment what to do. HGR accepts up to 60 truckloads of surplus material every week, all of it for sale within this 12-acre domain.
According to the sales team at HGR, much of this equipment continues on to new lives after it has been brought to Euclid Avenue. Machines are being purchased by companies in other countries––India is the top destination for HGR materials being shipped abroad; Mexico comes in second. Other countries represented in a month’s sales report at HGR include China, Korea, and Brazil. Salespeople say that much of the generalized equipment––lathes, drill presses, grinders––is heading south to Mexico, while more specialized equipment––computer numerical controllers (CNCs), and machines specifically for metal and steel manufacturing––are heading to India. Shoppers at HGR also include machinists and specialists looking for parts. Sometimes when a very specific button, knob, switch, or hook is needed from an old machine, a machinist will buy the entire hulk of equipment in order to acquire that piece. HGR does not take a part machines for you. I was once there with an artist friend of mine who wanted the aluminum pieces on a machine the size of a small room, and he was told to get a truck and buy the machine.
Almost all of the truckloads that HGR accepts each week come from East of the Mississippi, from states ranging geographically from Connecticut to Florida. Shipments going out around the state of Ohio have decreased drastically since 2007, while shipments coming in to HGR from the state of Ohio have steadily increased.