American Major Appliance Sales Fall Off A Cliff

[washman]

You got that right Frig

Just look at things! I remember a Pyrex liquid measuring cup was used to full capacity to measure a load of beloved powder detergent.

Now we have PODS! Egads!

Humor aside, I'd buy your scenario if I was not around to witness it. Sadly I am.

I agree that the one constant is change. Can't say I agree with the nature of the change nor do I resign myself to pulling in the oars and drifting downstream "just because".

One must have a passion in life. Or several if that floats your boat. To just accept things they way they are........well someone should have said that to Rosa Parks in 1955. Just go along Rosa, after all, you can't change society. This is the world we live in Rosa. Stop fighting. Just accept your lot in life. That woman changed history because she questioned and did not accept the status quo of her day.

Get the point?

There's nothing wrong with change if you agree to it. Last time I checked, plenty of people my age an older are still alive, still kicking, and still want durable products that perform for our hard earned money. Nothing wrong with that.

 

[frigilux]

Then aim your bile at our parents' generation and our generation.  We are the ones who have allowed manufacturers to "get away with" what they're doing.  This has been going on since the early 1980s.

 

The content of your rants tend to be aimed at people much younger than us, who are inheriting---not creating---the current state of things.  The reason they aren't shocked that manufacturing has for the most part been taken over by 2nd and 3rd world countries is because that's all they've ever known.  They weren't alive when products were actually manufactured in the US.  As I mentioned in the previous post, they are preparing for lives that aren't based in home ownership and job stability. They will marry later and have fewer children. They will choose to spend their money in the service sector---for their meals, coffee, laundry, travel, etc.---to a degree that will probably horrify us. That is a huge but undeniable shift in the American mindset.  

 

Barring a catastrophic disruption of global economic transaction, those days are gone.  You're demanding a seat at the front of a bus that no longer exists.

 

The global doors were opened nearly 40 years ago.  The government is finding it very difficult to force corporations to keep their operations here, especially since growth areas for sales are India and China.  

 

As we Boomers age and die, the size of the American market will shrink even more rapidly, and the things the next generation prioritizes for purchase with their hard-earned dollars will be very different than yours and mine.

[this post was last edited: 9/28/2014-21:36]

 

[washman]

Never Frig!

I got my own bus! It's called Speed Queen. I'm always in the front seat on that ride!
I even have an abacus too!

And I will corner the local market on powders! You'll see!

I may be the last one standing, but I will stand in clean laundry, always!

Sic semper tyrannis!

 

[frigilux]

Don't be surprised, Ben, when Alliance---much as GE has---finds the domestic appliance sector, a tiny percentage of their total corporate value, no longer worth the bother.  

 

[washman]

When that happens Frig

I will beg, borrow, or steal the funds to buy spare SQ machines. I'll roam Craigslist, Ebay and the like. I'll call in favors to borrow a pickup and move heaven and hell and everything in between to get extra units. Heck, I'll go to a wringer washer before I buy a new machine. Mark my words.

Then I'll cry, much as I did when Mobel Inc shut down.

Then I'll go do laundry as usual.

And I'll weep for the millennial generation who doesn't know better or just doesn't give a damn.

 

[jetcone]

Alliance's main

bread and butter has always been split between the Military and Commercial businesses. The "Speed Queen" brand has only been revived for the consumer market. Their front loader of today has been made for years under the "Horizon" nameplate.

 

 

 

[murando531]

There are so many things that I agree on from both Frigilux and Washman. A lot of what Frig pointed out about our society disgusts me but is sadly true. Being 23, I find myself hating my own generation and those younger than myself because they've been raised to be so ungrateful and flighty. I align with Washmans point of view because I've said several times to myself that I'll hand wash dishes and swirl clothes in the bathtub before I'll give into this "I don't care how it's done, just do it, and do it in a way that I don't have to think or hear about it" mindset of today's world. My family, while they have their faults, has done well to teach me manners and responsibility, to teach me that to do something right, sometimes you have to give a little time and effort in exchange for results, and to teach me to always be appreciative of what I have, no matter how small, and to care for it as though it is irreplaceable, because in most cases, especially in this era, you'll never find something new that is as good as what you have now.

 

[arbilab]

Quote, "in this era, you'll never find something new that is as good as what you have now".

That would put you at the forefront of the coming trend. So many things are cyclical. 'In this era' as it progresses, the "I don't care just get it done and don't bother me" perspective will become unaffordable to all but the trustfund tier who have 'people to do that for them'.

We'll be forced to seek value and manufacturers will be forced to provide it. This is just a very awkward time in the learning curve.

Or so I'd like to think, at my most optimistic. I'm getting rather tired of my cynical outlook being constantly rewarded by being right.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Happened w/ CARS, so it figures stuff we cook with and wash & dry with, not to mention even keeping our stuff cold should come next!!!!

Are we ever going to get a "Way It Used to Be", without "Living too much in the Past"????

-- Dave

 

[frigilux]

We'll certainly continue to see a trend of fewer companies manufacturing appliances.  The few that survive will sell globally.  It no longer makes corporate sense to aim exclusively at the American market, which is obviously shrinking. 

 

In my lifetime, all these companies have either sold off their unique brands to others, or they've disappeared entirely: GM (Frigidaire), Ford (Philco), Kelvinator (AMC), Westinghouse, Maytag, and now GE.  Many legacy brands are now simply badges attached to what amount to identical machines sold by a single corporation: Whirlpool/Maytag/KitchenAid; Electrolux/Frigidaire/GE.

 

Appliances are important and interesting to us because it's our area of interest.  To the vast majority, a washing machine has and will always represent a detested chore.  While we at AW tend to lament new machines that make laundering decisions on their own--water level; water temperature; wash time; number of rinses; spin speed--most of the world welcomes and embraces being freed from having to think about those things.  If the load emerges clean, why is that mindset necessarily bad? 

 

That doesn't mean those people don't care about/aren't passionate about other things in their world, it just means they can put less thought into a household chore they hate.  I'd feel the same way if laundry wasn't an area of interest for me.  Case in point:  I don't miss measuring detergent one single little bit.  I toss in a pod, choose the proper cycle, and load emerges clean using no more water and energy than is needed to provide those results.  This is a bad thing? 

 

Nor is the dislike of laundry a new phenomenon.  As a kid in the 1960s and '70s, I recall being horrified at my friends' moms lack of care in sorting, measuring detergent, choosing correct water levels, water temps, agitate/spin speeds, etc., compared to the way things were done in my home.  We tend to view the past, the good old days, with rose-colored glasses.

[this post was last edited: 9/29/2014-06:15]

 

[norgeway]

There is ONE thing we ALL CAN DO!

Refuse to buy the junk and keep using vintage! Thats what im doing!!!!

 

[tolivac]

I can go along--BUY the VINTAGE--NOT the new TRASH appliances!!!

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Will Buy, IF:

Then someone SAVE THAT DE-VILLE!!!!

(Fix it for me...! Get the clock & gas gauge working, get rid of the rust, re-inforce those plastic parts in the rear, and maybe convert the passenger side of the bench seat to a "recliner"...!)

-- Dave