I think this is how a lot of people appliance shop"

[iheartmaytag]

This week at work our "new girl"  has been here six months and was eligible for some vacation, so she took two days off.  When she returned I asked her if she had been to Mardi Gras, "No" "I went appliance shopping"  

 

She bought a new dishwasher and stove, as well as a new over the range microwave.  "What kind did you get?" I asked

"I don't know they are Stainless Steel."

"Does the range have a convection oven?"

"I don't know, but it's pretty."

"What kind of dishwasher?"

"A pretty one to match the stove, and it was cheap."

 

And there you have it, how most consumers buy appliances, and why we have what is in the stores today.  Pretty, and cheap. Guess it works if you do most of your cooking at McDonald's. 

 

 

 

[pekedogs]

I have jokingly said for a while that Home Ec cookbooks are now the take-out menus of fast food places.

 

[g3bill]

GOOD POINT

I think not only pretty and cheap but pretty and expensive also. I know people that wont buy cheap and think the more they pay is the best purchase for the money till there machine starts falling apart after just a few months in some cases. I've never liked pretty much, mostly function, like gals that way also...;-)

 

[pierreandreply4]

i wish we could have good old fashion appliance like this

well one thing i can say of 2015 i wish we could have good old fashion lasting appilance like this coldspot fridge that my family replace back in 1988 it was still in good working order that my mom wanted to keep that fridge in the basement as an extra fridge but no sadly it was sold

 

[washman]

Goes to show

that most people literally do not have a brain.

 

[whirlcool]

The Rich Person Discount

Or some older woman comes waltzing in looking at the most expensive items and starts to talk to you about how her husband is a senior vice president with a national oil company and all their kids are registered in private schools. And all of her kids are so allergic to everything she always has a doctor on call so when they go out and decide to stop to eat, the doctor will be able to tell her what to have the kids order so they don't get allergy attacks, etc.

Then she my go on to ask if the store has any kind of policy to attract customers like her with a discount, or do they offer "C" or "D" list pricing? When they tell her it's fixed price she either leaves, or goes to the BOL section to look.

I've seen a couple of these in appliance stores. Somehow they think if they make themselves appear to have money, they'll get a discount for that. I look at it as they want a discount just because they think they are "special".

 

[laundromat]

Sounds like Frigiscare gallery junk. Or Hotpoint.

 

[norgeway]

The shame is!

They buy new expensive junk, that doesent have features that are really useful,all the digital controls in the world wont replace a fluorescent light on a range, or a real porcelain enamel finish inside and out.

 

[askolover]

"well one thing i can say of 2015 i wish we could have good old fashion lasting appilance like this coldspot fridge that my family replace back in 1988 it was still in good working order that my mom wanted to keep that fridge in the basement as an extra fridge but no sadly it was sold "

 

 

Amen to that!  My mother is still using the same old deep freezer she bought before I was born....and I'm almost 44 years old!  I don't even know the name of it.

 

 

 

[norgeway]

Donalds Mother and Dad..

Bought a great big Westinghouse the summer before he was born...1964, its still keeping below zero and has never had a screw turned on it!...but Ive got one better than that, In my hometown our neighbor bought a Frigidaire refrigerator in 1939....it was her only refrigerator until 1974, it is still in her nieces basement running and has never had a service call,,,same cord and plug even!!!!

 

[g3bill]

New Junk,

My uncles friend down the street gave me a almost new looking, maybe a few years old double oven, think its the 27" wide. They bought a new one cause the electronic control wouldn't self clean and think the repair cost wasn't worth it, well excuse me I could care less of self cleaning so got and its waiting to be installed. I should ask them if the new replacement oven still works

might relate?

 

[fisherpaykel]

Iheartmaytag-do most of your cooking at McDonald's

Thanks for the chuckle at that-and how long until a control board goes out? $300-$500. maybe?

 

[warmsecondrinse]

IMO, this is yet another manifestation...

... of life slowly getting more complicated. The minimum IQ one needs to manage it just keeps rising apace. And no, I don't think it really matters how one measures IQ.

That said, if you've got 2 people with the same IQ and the first is aware the world is changing and he needs to keep up while the second has his head in the sand, the first guy will probably manage life a lot better.

Jim

 

[whirlcool]

Jim:

I see what you are saying. I think what you are saying is that some people deal with change better than others. I have witnessed this myself. Some people get to the point where they just have a hard time adapting to new behaviors and practices of the "new world". Life evolves, whether you do or not. You can't stop it. Some people have a harder time of going along with it all than others do.

I never really thought of it this way, but now that I do......

 

[norgeway]

I just CAN NOT!

Accept the new un interesting stuff sold today, I admit, if I could somehow go back in time to the 50s, I would, I would love to drive a car everyday that looked like a car...and could shop in real stores, not just cookie cutter Macys, and go to Sears when it was something.....oh I could go on and on!!!!

 

[warmsecondrinse]

Whirlcool:

Yeah, people who couldn't deal with change had the option of staying in or moving to places where life changed slowly. In such places there was little if any difference between those who COULD handle change but didn't have to and those who could NOT. Now change comes faster and it's harder to avoid. I wonder if a divide has become noticeable between those 2 groups in places where change used to happen slowly.

I'd imagine that the further to the right on the IQ curve one is, the easier time one has dealing with change. I'd suspect that innate resilience and adaptability plays a role as well.

Separately, there are all the 'sheeple' who have a need to be told "what's what" or what's "right" and "wrong" ... regardless of how high their IQ is.

Norgeway:

Yes, there are a lot of things from the 50's I'd like to have access to. But I'd want to pick and choose, lol. Cars, appliances, tools, furniture ... yes. The lack of pervasive a/c, high maintenance clothing, and the oppressive culture of that time, not so much.

Jim

 

[norgeway]

But..

The clothing and everything else was much better quality...and it was made right here!!!There are several groups around the country that refuse to conform to life today, they drive old cars , dress like the 50s etc...If I could afford to, I believe I could lose myself in that kind of life.

 

[whirlcool]

There have always been people who are unable to adapt

When airlines were progressing from prop driven aircraft to jet aircraft some pilots had a very hard time adapting. Jetliners were much "smoother" than prop planes were and didn't have a lot of drag. Old prop pilots depended on this drag and when it was gone they had a hard time controlling the aircraft. The UA crash in Brooklyn in 1960-1 was partially the result of this. The pilot had converted over to flying a jet from a prop and was having a hard time with learning new techniques and as a result the aircraft was actually several miles further along on course than he thought it was.

A lot of companies when they computerized their departments often had employees who just couldn't get the hang of the new computer hardware/software. A lot of the people who couldn't adapt were either layed off or retired early.

These are just a few examples of how the world has changed. Just like software the world is never steady. It evolves along just like everything else. Either adapt or get left behind!!

 

[norgeway]

I was

Left behind years ago!!!LOL

 

[iheartmaytag]

Hans

The good ole days were better, shopping wise.  

We can go back.  First we need a Delorean. . . 

 

[norgeway]

NAAAA

A Desoto!!! The group im referring to is known as Americas Rockabillys...look it up, its really fun!

 

[mixguy]

Hotpoint Refrigerator & Tappan Doughboy

The Tappan is from 1949 and the Hotpoint is from 1954. Both still going strong

 

[passatdoc]

A young, newly wed employee in our office, who currently is in an apartment but who has begun to shop for a condo with her new husband, asked the middle aged among us at work "what brand of appliances do you own, what should we be looking for". I explained I buy by feature and color, but don't care if badges or name brands differ, and that in my mind the only reason to buy all appliances with the same brand is if the company is offering major discounts or rebates to customers who purchase a bundled group of appliances, and then only if the feature set and quality you want is present.

I told her in my case the DW is Bosch (14 years old, no repairs or service issues EVER), gas range is Frigidaire (one of only four non-commercial brands offering gas convection when purchased 2001; now many more choices), the over the range microwave hood is Amana (purchased because it was smaller vertically than the competitors by 2 inches, offering a few inches of extra space between it and the range cooktop), and the counter depth fridge is Frigidaire Gallery (the Kitchen Aid competition would not fit under the cabinets above the fridge; Frigidaire fit without mods) which is 11 years old, only service issue was an icemaker solenoid that failed and which I replaced myself (thank you Allan/Whirlcool for link to repairclinic.com). The laundry set, which is in the garage where "matching" is not essential, is Electrolux.

So I have a mish-mash of brands but I like the feature sets of all of them and have had only one lemon (a GE over the range microwave bought with the range and DW as a bundle---merchant gave a discount because I bought three major appliances at once, even though different brands--lost its control panel and the repair was the same as the Amana so I took the new Amana). I researched my purchases (CR, asking for input here) and bought what I wanted, but never as a set (the counter depth fridge was purchased alone, several years after the range DW and MW) and the only thing I ever regretted was the GE over the range microwave, which burned out (control panel, not the tube) after less than eight years of light use. The GE was also bulky and I was much happier with the Amana's smaller profile and no frills control panel. I never used most of the GE's fancy features.

 

[warmsecondrinse]

One thing aspect of the 1950's that does appeal to me is the fact that many items were designed to be user serviceable. Now, not so much.

As far as computers go, as I see it a major problem was/is that those giving the training (regardless of who they are or where they're from) make the following 'mistakes', perhaps because they're misinformed as to their audience:

1. They assume too high a level of background knowledge. Those who might have some background knowledge frequently use older terminology with the the trainers are not familiar.
2. They assume that their audience had access to the HW/SW (hardware/software) before the training and will have access to it afterward. This was generally not the case.
3. They assume an almost comically high level of discretionary time to 'play' with the new HW/SW at home.
4. They refuse to address questions along the lines of "How does this make my job easier? How does this make me more productive?"

To be fair, the trainers are generally young, single people who have only themselves to worry about and therefore can re-arrange their schedules to spend time with new HW/SW when they receive their own training.

Where I worked, the trainees' usually had some combination of the following as feedback:
1. The training moved much too fast and way too much unexplained jargon was used. When pressed for explanations of the jargon, explaining was usually done with yet more jargon.
2. The on-the-job time to apply whatever they might have learned wasn't vaguely close to enough.
3. The rhetorical question of "Who's coming to my home to take over my home responsibilities so I can play with this new HW/SW?"

Administration usually concluded that the trainees were 'unwilling' to change and 'didn't want' to spend the time/energy necessary to learn. This attitude generally killed whatever buy-in the trainees might have had originally.

In short, the training was generally inappropriate and the administration generally refused to acknowledge the existence of any systemic, logistic, physical obstacles to trainee buy-in or adaptation. The only factors regarded as 'real' were the trainees' effort and attitude.

Jim