Jay Weber Show transcript 2/22/24 7:10am
On top of President Biden’s 17 percent inflation and seven percent interest rates-
On top of all the price hikes and shrinkflation-
We get this from the Wall St Journal today:
And isn’t that what the manufacturers really want?
One reason I’m talking about this today is that the story struck a nerve: i have several family members and friends who have dealt with-and complained out- this very thing.
One couple I know just built their retirement house and put all new -high end-appliances in it. They have had problems with every one of them. Every.single.one. The stove, the fridge, the washer, and dryer....
These are brand new- allegedly high end-appliances and every manual that comes with them just says ‘call the technician’. It’s been a parade of service people thru their homes...replacing mother boards...recalibrating appliances.... switching out crappy parts.
This is the ‘new appliance’ experience in America now, apparently. Trust me-everyone you know who has bought new appliances within the last five years has a gripe and/or nightmare stories like this.
And yes, part of it is the insane ‘energy’ and ‘safety’ and ‘eco’ standards that the Obama and Biden regimes have relentlessly slapped on these industries. And yet, they’ve just got to ‘smile and take it’...as they deal with irate customers.
This WSJ story includes an infuriating quote from an industry spokeswoman.
All these changes will enhance the safety, what?? - there was nothing wrong or unsafe with the old appliances of the 80s and 90s.
‘Increased capacity or performance’? -again-bullplop. Have you seen the size of the inside of a new ‘energy efficient’ refrigerator? The inside is tiny.
The outside of the fridge is as massive as ever-but with six-inch-thick walls and foolish mandates-the interior of the fridge is tiny.
Have you used a ‘high tech’ dishwasher, washer, or dryer? Cycles that used to take a half an hour or hour-now take-hours!!!
Don’t tell me this is more energy efficient.
You can take a vacation and you still might arrive back home before your new dishwasher has cleaned a load of dishes.
Okay-that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much. I’ve pushed the ‘clean’ button and closed the door.... then walked by...hours...later...and thought, that’s still running?
There’s no way these new appliances are more energy efficient. Nor do they clean better than the old ones.
Remember when your mom washed your new t-shirt- twice? - and it looked like it had spent a decade at war?
But it was clean!
Those are the appliances i want back. The ones that it took three guys to move as you changed houses.
(well- put it this way: i want the types of appliances back that you want to take with you-when you move houses. Remember those?)
Boy-those days are gone now the appliances always come with the house. They’re written right into the sales agreement.
Know why? - because they are crappy appliances that you’re happy to get rid of- along with the house?
It used to be that the old owners would ‘sting you’ by leaving an old toile or cabinets in the basement that you had to hump out yourself...because they didn’t want to move it: oh, we thought you might want those.
No, you didn’t know how to get them up the steps and screwed me. Years ago, anyone who bought a house was going to have those sorts of surprises left behind for them: how did they get a lawn tractor in the attic? And how are we going to get it out of here?
Now- along with those nuggets- the crappy appliances just stay with the house!!!
I’ve bought and sold enough houses to know why they come included in the deal:
The agent will ask: so, what about the appliances?
Oh-they stay. Good riddance to that crappy ‘energy efficient’ washer and dryer. God, i hate those things... And bleep that mother bleepin’ fridge....
Okay...’appliances included’....
It’s idiotic to suggest that today’s major appliances ‘do a better job’ or are ‘more reliable’ than the old ones
photo credit: Getty Images