Whirlpool Completes Sell Off Of Maytag Properties

[panthera]

did it to themselves

I hate to see such a quality name go under, but, gosh, gee whiz, and so on and so forth: They done went and did it to themselves.
For way too long now, US manufacturers have only considered "the bottom line" - and that means the bottom line for this quarter.
When the Chinese and everybody else started coming in with better quality at lower prices, well -
I hate to see the poor folks from the assembly lines and all the second/third level suppliers being hurt by this. As for the managers? Well, they probably all bailed out with their golden parachutes.
You'd think, after what the Japanese did to the US car industry, folks would learn...

 

[oxydolfan1]

Panthera, you are 100% correct.

It hurts, but it is true.

Have we learned from it?

I'd venture to say the average guy on the freeway or the average woman on the subway has no clue about what has happened to Maytag, Hoover, etc.

We are more aware of it, because these brands and the products they represent are near and dear to our hearts...

The average person finds out when their present machine breaks down, and they get a look at the newer products.

 

[DADoES]

The Epic is a rebadged KitchenAid Ensemble.

 

[oxydolfan1]

Interesting. On ABT's website, the Ensemble is discontinued.

The Epic is featured under Maytag...BUT 400 bucks cheaper.

It looks (on the surface, anyway) that you pay a premium for the nameplate (Whirlpool...then a little more for Maytag...then a whole lot for KitchenAid!) Although I'll bet they spike the warranty a bit...

I really have to examine these machines a bit closer when shopping...

If the Epic were to take off, it could be the Maytag brand's salvation (if they can shed the Neptune debacle's cloud).

 

[danemodsandy]

Man, think of all the things you can't get or don't see any more:

No more Ramblers. No more Philcos. No more Kelvinators or Norges or Oldsmobiles. No more Rexall Drug Stores. No more LIFE Magazine, or LOOK, either. Hardly any phone booths. No more Lum's, no more HoJo's. No more Sears catalogue, no more Monkey Ward's stores. No more Woolworth's.

And some brands ain't what they useter be. Proctor-Silex, Westinghouse, and Thom McAn are seen mostly in K-Mart sales. Sunbeam hasn't called quality to this consumer's mind in years, though I own and love their vintage products. Electroluxes are Reginas. Frigidaires are Electrolux. Whirlpool makes almost everything. Except what the Chinese make, which really IS everything, except cars.

It recently occurred to me that if this nation was involved in a large-scale ground war that required immense amounts of armaments and equipment like WWII did, we probably don't have the necessary industrial base to convert to war production like we did then. What would we do- order everything from China?

Sad what's happening to this country, one lousy business decision and one Wal-Mart sale at a time...

 

[pturo]

I can't understand this merger mania that Wall street and the US Attorney General is allowing to happen in this country. What makes sense on a balance sheet does not always make sense for the public, and we own this nation and elect people to represent us. We as consumers have less and less choices and the opportunity for price fixing and price gouging exists when there are less products produced by less companies. We have a thing called hostile takeovers, and if another company can raise the cash to buy another public company, and that poor company cannot raise the cash to match the deal to pay the stockholders, then the Attorney General of the United States, or the State Attorney General approves it. It used to be illegal. Look at what happened to the department store industry: Gone!- Marshall Fields,May Company, Bullocks,Bullocks Wilshire,The Broadway, Weinstocks, Emporium Capwell, Sterns,Strawbridge, Filenes,Rich's Burdines, Daytons, Meier and Frank,ALL sold TO MACYS/Federated coast to coast. I just cant wait for Walmart to buy Sears and K-Mart, then swallow up JC Penney. We have no regional identity in our cities and areas anymore nor buyers and stores that represent us, it is all freekin Macy's! And it is going to be all freekin Whrilpool and all freekin Toyota,if they are allowed to buy Ford, and then GM. Sorry for the rant, but I just hate retail communism, and that is what is being created. Consolidation is not good for our economy, the big players will pull out jobs anyways when they get the deed to the propery like Whirlpool did to Maytag. We are a democratic society creating a communistic consumer marketplace.

 

[exploder3211]

It truly is a sad day.. Maytag has a plant about 5 hours from me where they made my dryer (got to see the plant in june, although it was against maytag policy to take pictures, damn)they made alot of rebadged amana stuff there...

 

[tomturbomatic]

The papers and stuff were thrown out a long time ago. Greg or somebody posted about it.

That R&D building must be in great shape. It could not have been used much. It probably needs a very good airing out after all of the BS that was developed in there, like for their top loaders that did not circulate the laundry very well during agitation: It is more important to move the water through the clothes than move the clothes through the water. Well, yes, but what about those things stranded up at the top of the tub that are no where close to where the water could be moved through them? And why could other agitator automatics both move the water through the fabrics and the fabrics through the water?

 

[bongobro]

Lonelier than a Maytag repairman...

I bought a TL Maytag Peforma in 2002 because I was tired of messin' with a ten-year-old Whirlpool that was even less dependable than the 1979 Kenmore it replaced...I wanted to buy a Dependable Care Maytag to get the older agitator (the Whirlpool double-action agitator wore out faster!) but even the Maytag dealer said the plastic-tub Performa was more dependable than the Dependable Care series...

In less than five years, the top of the backguard panel has all but broken away from the screws holding it to the rest of the panel...I don't think it would happen with the Dependable Care model...but I guess I won't be able to find out since the new Maytags will be Whirlpools under the skin...

Somewhere, Jesse White and Gordon Jump (the lonely Maytag repairmen) are crying...

 

[brettsomers]

after all of the BS that was developed in there,

what models do you mean? ive Bobloaded even the deep-tub models and the clothes still turned over.

 

[tomturbomatic]

what models do you mean?

The automatics with the high fin Gyrators.

 

[bobbins]

This is so sad....in the 80's all the traditional appliance makers who put their mark in the history of development in the appliance industry have vanished. Consumers are now fooled by their brand names still being used on other products..thinking they are more suppior then the other brand..in fact NOT (IE..Admiral, Westinghouse, Frigidaire, Magic Chef, etc...) The only manufacture I had total respect for quality and customer satisfaction was Maytag (Maycor) (up until 1999)...now Whirlpool...how ironic in the 80's it was common industry joke amongst appliance repairmen that Whirlpool owns Maytag...or eventually be bought by them (hence history...The famous Kitchen Aid Dishwasher take over!!)

We see this Elephant and the Mouse thing happening all over the world with banks, tele-marketers, airlines...for example in Canada...look at our airline.... At one time we had Canadian Pacific, Wardair, Pacific Western Airlines and Air Canada... then Pacific western Airlines bought CP Air and Wardair and rename themselves to Canadian Airlines. For brief time in history Canada had 2 national Air Carriers - Air Canada and Canadian Airlines...then Greed take over...Air Canada forced Canadian Airline to go bankrupt...they bough Canadian Airline ...So we are stuck with one national Air Carrier....although we still have some small air carriers like WestJet who are trying to compete..hopefully they will.

Bob

 

[frigilux]

As much as I don't want to see every freakin' brand of washer morph into a rebadged Whirlpool, at least the Maytag name will be on a high-quality product, unlike what happened to Frigidaire when WCI bought it.

 

[oxydolfan1]

I think that Frigidaire, when taken over by Electrolux a number of years ago, was under a directive by Electrolux management to begin upgrading plastic parts, gears, etc. to higher-quality metal parts....which I assume they did.

The machines seem much better than they did under White.

I would definitely consider buying one now.

Conversely, I'm very reluctant to buy Maytag or Admiral at what is pretty much the same price point.

 

[peteski50]

Frigidaire!

I had always felt if Electrolux was around when the purchase was made from GM things would have turned out much differently. By the time Electrolux came along it was to late to go back to the GM stuff. I have to say they did make improvements but nothing will ever compare to the GM Frigidaire.
Peter

 

[drhardee]

Exploder,

That Maytag plant you're speaking of was sold last week. It was in Florence, SC.

From The State (SC) newspaper Jan. 7, 2007:

FLORENCE — A Los Angeles investment firm has bought the former Maytag plant on I-95 for an undisclosed price. Hackman Capital Partners bought a 95-acre tract that includes the plant, which it hopes to lease or sell to a single manufacturer. About 250 people made washers and dryers at the plant in 2004 when Maytag began layoffs. It closed the plant about a year ago.