In the area you grew up what brands were popular

[norgeway]

And what was considered cheap, and what was considered high class, in my hometown , you could about tell who had money by looking at their kitchen, if they were bankers, lawyers or doctors , they had Frigidaire or Westinghouse appliances, if they worked in factories or mills, usually General Electric or Hotpoint, the reason for this, I think , is Shaw Furniture sold Frigidaire and Bernhardt Seagle Hardware sold Westinghouse, both carried mostly high end stuff as a whole, Crowells and Home Electric sold GE, they carried mostly the lower end stuff, Duke Power sold Hotpoint and thus you could pay a added charge on your power bill to pay for your appliances, until I got involved with other collectors, I still thought this way, what about you guys??

 

[fan-of-fans]

I never went in many houses as a kid to notice really. Our town was really small and the only two places that sold appliances were Sears and Royals Furniture. There may have been an independent appliance dealer as well on Main Street but never stopped there. I remember the glass windows with Maytag signs. Sears closed up but came back as a Hometown Store about 10 years ago and the Royals closed and Sears ended up moving in there later on. But both are gone now and I'm not sure of any place at all there that sells them.

So most of my appliance looking came from looking at the Sears catalog. As a kid I always thought cooktops and double ovens were what rich people had, and if you were really rich you had a Jenn Air downdraft range with the built in griller and changeable cartridge units.

It seems most houses where I live now, built during the 70s and 80s used GE MOL stuff originally. Although one neighborhood built during the early 70s seemed to use Frigidaire. I've seen a few houses there that still have the Frigidaire ranges in avocado.

Many of the houses here built during the 50s and early 60s I've seen have Frigidaire or Westinghouse built in appliances in stainless or brushed chrome. Mid century modern style houses, I'd say that was what was high end at the time.

I'm not sure what stores were in business here years ago. The older Sears catalog store here only dated back to the 80s and I don't know if they had an older location. Royals had been here a while and still is but their prices are through the roof probably because they deal with no/little credit customers. One of the independent appliance dealers has been here quite a while too. Of course back then we didn't have Lowes or Home Depot. I'm sure there was an old store downtown that sold them as I remember the GE signs.

Can also remember in the next town the Suburban Propane storefront. They may have sold gas appliances too.

 

[wayupnorth]

Growing up, most in my neighborhood had Kenmore appliances. Mostly No GE, Frigidaire,Westinghouse but a few Magic Chef, Dixie, Whirlpool, Hotpoint and lots of no name brands that that I dont remember, but those that had a Maytag always kept them.

 

[askolover]

The only furniture/appliance store in our town was Green's Furniture and they were a Maytag, Frigidaire, and Gibson dealer. On our street, two neighbors had Whirlpool washers and dryers, one neighbor had a GE filterflo pair, and everyone else, including my mother, had Maytags. At first, only two neighbors had dishwashers...one was a portable Whirlpool and the other was a built-in Whirlpool. Then my mother joined with her KDS17A Kitchenaid Superba in 1974. Most of the houses on our street were built by my father and grandfather and were contracted by the owner of Green's furniture as he was also the mayor, so they all had built-in Frigidaire cooktops and ovens and ours had a Frigidaire 40 inch coppertone range.

 

[norgeway]

I forgot about Maytag!

Most people with money had Maytag or Frigidaire laundry, DD Suddreth sold Maytag as did Shields, W B Lindsey sold Speed Queen, but I never saw one at anyones house,

 

[askolover]

Funny, with all the Frigidaire appliances installed in those houses I have never seen a Frigidaire washer and dryer in person....thumpers that is.

 

[norgeway]

I saw

Lots of them, we had one, one of Dads sisters had one and one of Mothers cousins had one.Lots of Maytags but I never understood why.

 

[polkanut]

In my family (both sides) Sears/Kenmore merchandise was considered bargain basement stuff.  My parents had a GE washer & dryer set, Amana fridge & microwave, Monarch gas range, and  Kitchen Aid dw.  Grandma Wilde had a Monarch gas range, GE fridge, Speed Queen wringer washer & GE dryer.  Grandma Baumann had a Frigidaire Custom Deluxe non frost free fridge, Roper gas range, Speed Queen wringer.  She never owned a dryer because she and Grandpa felt it was a waste of money.  The rest of the family was all over the board.  Two great aunts had Frigidaire appliances, another one had a Westinghouse Terrace Top range.  One farm cousin had a GE electric range paired with a Norge fridge.

 

[Ultramatic]

Hmmmm....

 

 

General Electric and Kenmore were the staples in my home and my relatives. In my home, the air conditioners were Fedders and Westinghouse. TV's were Du Mont, Motorola, Zenith, Panasonic and Magnavox. Our first microwave was a TOL Tappan. Vacuum was a Hoover canister, floor scrubber/polisher was a Regina. The mixer was an Osterizer, mixer, a Sunbeam Mixmaster Vista, toaster G.E., Iron  a Sunbeam. The deep frier was a Dormeyer Fri-Well. Pressure cookers were Mirro and Presto. 

 

[turquoisedude]

GE and Inglis seemed to have the corner on the market for most appliances back in the day and in the part of Montreal where I grew up. If you lived in a part of the province where your nearest appliance dealer carried Moffat or Bélanger, well, that's what you bought! Kenmore was not only seen as the 'smart buy' because of the availability of parts and service, but as much because you could order appliances from the Simpsons-Sears catalog. The Viking-branded appliances from Eaton's were seen as superior to the Baycrest appliances from Morgan's/The Bay. This made no sense for ranges and refrigerators (both stores sourced them from Westinghouse, then WCI); but the GE-built Viking automatic washers and dryers really were better than the Westinghouse-built Baycrest versions! The "el-cheapo deluxe" brands were Roy - they were loosely allied with Gibson, and Canadian Admiral. The folks who wanted to impress the neighbours bought Maytag laundry appliances and KitchenAid dishwashers.

 

[48bencix]

Maytag, Bencix, Signature, Frigidaire

Our local furniture store, Martinez Furniture sold Bendix, and we had a Bendix washer and dryer. The Bendix washer was in our home from 1945 until 1965. Another local seller was Milt's Appliance and they sold Maytag, so a lot of Martinez residents had Maytag washers. Really most people hung laundry out so not a lot had dryers. There was also a Montgomery Ward catalog store on Main Street. We bought a Signature refrigerator from them and later a dishwasher. Some had Kenmore but probably bought them in Oakland. Some locals had Frigidaire, our next door neighbor had a Frigidaire washer and let me watch it. The next occupants had a Norge Timeline washer.

 

[paulg]

Chicago

Chicago was the home of Hotpoint and there were a lot of Hotpoint appliances. GE as well. Both came out of the same factories.
Immediately nextdoor to Hotpoint was Sunbeam.
In our neighborhood you couldn't throw a rock without hitting someone who worked for Hotpoint or Sunbeam (or Western Electric for that matter).
Gas ranges were often Universal (By Cribben and Sexton) or Crown. We had both. Universal upstairs and Crown downstairs.
Admiral air-conditioners were popular as were their freezers. Admiral was Chicago based.
My mother-in-law has a 1960 Admiral range that she still uses for canning. The model is 4089. I wonder if anyone here has data on this unit.
Everyone went through at least one Admiral B&W TV. But when color came, Zenith was very popular around town. Again, all Chicago based companies. We are loyal folk in these parts.

 

[goatfarmer]

The biggest retailer then was Radio Furniture Mart, 919 S Michigan St. They sold Maytag, and Frigidaire, so there were lots of them around. JE Walz sold GE. Didn't see as many of those.

 

[kd12]

We had a Sears and Montgomery Ward store in town, along with GE, Whirlpool, and Frigidaire dealers back in the 70s-80s in Arkansas. Also had a Western Auto store, but I don't remember seeing a Wizard appliance in anyone's house. Wizard tools were another matter. My grandma on Mom's side had a Harvest Gold Warge washer and dryer set from the early 70s. Wish I knew where they were now. Grandma on Dad's side had a Harvest Gold Sears Roto-rack dishwasher that ran forever. Seemed like everybody in town had a large-capacity Sears window air conditioner or two in their house. The local gas company sold Tappan stoves at their office, so I'm sure a lot of houses had those. I also remember that a lot of people still line-dried their clothes, even though they had a dryer. If fact I would say the majority of the houses in town built before about 1970 had clothes lines in the back yard.

 

[circlew]

In my immediate area, at various times there were dealers selling GE, Westinghouse, Norge, Tappan, Speed Queen, Frigidaire, Maytag, Caloric, Hotpoint, Admiral, Gibson, Magic Chef, Kelvinator, Amana, KitchenAid and Kenmore. There may have been others, but I don't remember. Quite a variety for a small town of less than 5000 residents.

The largest appliance dealer was Snyder's, and they sold Westinghouse until the mid 50's, then began selling GE, which was their major line until the end. They also sold Norge at one time, SQ for a while, and I think Tappan. Fairley's was the Frigidaire, Maytag, and I think Magic Chef dealer. Sewell's sold Admiral and Gibson. Later they were bought out, and the new owner sold Amana and KitchenAid. Weaver's, which was mainly a plumbing company, sold Hotpoint for a few years. There was a Sears catalog store for a few years selling Kenmore. These were all in business in my lifetime, but now all closed up.

Swallen's in Cincinnati sold a lot of brands, including Westinghouse, Maytag, Whirlpool, Admiral and many others. If a person in my area didn't get their appliance here in town, it probably came from Swallen's, which closed in '95.

 

[jeb]

Brands

In Mansfield Westinghouse was the cheap or common appliance. They were made here and everyone knew someone who worked there and could get things at the company store with a discount. Next up the line was Sears or Mont. Ward because we had these two large stores and they had credit cards for the working class that was trying to step up from Westinghouse. Maytag had its own store that you had to make a special trip to and was more pricey than the department store so it was considered "better". We had a Frigidare store but it was gone by mid 60's

 

[norgeway]

I was just thinking...

In my hometown of Lenoir NC which in the 60s had a population of 15000, We had a bunch of competitive stores,Shaws, which sold Frigidaire, Zenith and Admiral Tv and stereo,Shields sold Kelvinator, Maytag and RCA, in earlier times, Bendix, W B Lindsay sold Hotpoint and Speed Queen, D D Suddreth sold Maytag and Philco, O P Lutz sold Frigidaire, Monarch, and Stromberg Carlson, Abernathys sold Admiral appliances and tv, Bernhardt Seagle sold Westinghouse and Amana, Leftwitch sold Westinghouse and Zenith tv, Crowells sold GE and Sylvania TV, Home Electric sold GE, Valmead furniture sold Leonard, Carolina Tire and Appliance sold Crosley and a few other small stores.

 

[frigilux]

For a town of 2,000, the place I grew up in had an impressive number of appliance dealers. These brands were available:

Frigidaire
Whirlpool
Maytag
Speed Queen
KitchenAid
Waste King
GE
Coronado (Gambles Hardware)
Kenmmore (Sears catalog store)

We were a Sears household. Nearly everything contained within came from Sears.[this post was last edited: 1/28/2019-20:50]

 

[wayupnorth]

To continue on my #2 post, growing up everything in my house was Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard, Silvertone or Homart. Our Sears finally closed a month ago. I will only buy from a smaller dealer now. Might cost a little more or maybe even less, but will be happy and have someone local to deal with. There used to be 1 dealer per brand because of the old protected territories, like our Maytag dealer could sell Hotpoint but Whirlpool dealer could only sell GE. Now you can get any name anywhere.