From The Owner

---

There are just a handful of manufactures worldwide that actually manufacture appliances for the vast majority of the Canadian market. Think of it as a small group of manufacturers that own the licensing rights “Brand” names for all of the variety and choices at the appliance retail outlets across the country.

If for some reason we as Canadians were unable to import appliances, we would have to manufacture appliances in our own country. However, the purchase price increase would be shocking. There are many different comparisons to be made however one simple metric speaks volumes, and that is wages. Canadians on average have salaries 76% higher than in China, and 79% higher than in Mexico. Much of our imported major appliances come from these two countries. That is a huge difference just from a labor price standpoint. 

And then there is the entire supply chain of components and materials that require its own infrastructure to make this work. And on top of that you would need to be able to find the right people to bring leadership to the entire process to produce a product in this country. Labor, supply chains, infrastructure, and leadership. We Canadians have such a small local market that by default we cannot compete with the world market that only cares about one thing. Maximizing the return on investment.

By manufacturing a product at such a massive scale, you require a massive sales base, and you provide just the right features to get consumers to buy new almost every time. This comes at a cost of build quality and durability, but the plan works since the reputation across much of the manufacturing market has not changed. Currently there are no realistic alternatives.

A big push with household appliances is their energy efficiency requirements. Now this should be a good thing. A really good thing. Appliances used to be overbuilt, loud, clunky, noisy machines that would just work. And they did it so well without breaking down too often either. They would last several decades… and nobody cared about how much power, natural gas or water they consumed.

Energy efficient appliances are now built to be just good enough from an engineering standpoint, built in a lab outside of real-world conditions. These new sleek modern appliances have such tiny undersized components that are whisper quiet, so technologically complicated, and we feel so good about buying them.

But energy efficient appliances come at an incredible durability cost. Before you can realize the savings on your utility bills, your appliance will be replaced or repaired many, many times.

That’s a lot of resources to build, scrap, garbage, mine, construct, transport, and sell again and again. So the manufactures get to manufacture even more appliances by being producing environmentally friendly appliances… Bottom line is, environmentally friendly appliances require a lot of environmental resources to be energy efficient.

Appliance manufacturers sell a lot of parts at premium prices. It’s part of their business plan. The appliance you bought is guaranteed to break. And either you replace it, or you pay a premium on the part. 

There used to be a time when appliances were very similar in build design that the parts were readily available and inexpensive as there were many 3rd party companies able to replicate the part and drive the cost down. The manufacturers quickly solved that issue. As a manufacturer, you can have a team of engineers and factory workers build new parts that don’t fit or work just like the last years models, and that shut down most of the universal parts market. Keep the build design changing and you can keep parts prices high. Frustratingly effective.

Years ago, appliances came with a lifetime warranty, then it turned to limited lifetime warranty on certain parts and labor, then 10 years, then 5 years, and now just 1 year in almost every appliance you buy.

Appliance manufacturers have been looking for ways to reduce and divert their liabilities and responsibilities to the consumer for decades. So now the consumer is responsible for extending the warranty up to 5 years buy buying an extended warranty service plan. That means that the client is responsible for all repairs after the first year of use for a machine that should last more than a decade, but often will not. 

And now, there are more appliance service technicians retiring from the industry than entering it. By reducing the liabilities, responsibilities and obligations to our society, our society no longer values durable appliance goods, a repair vs replace mindset, and we have eroded the skilled jobs available in the county, and now we have replaced the appliance service technician with a new appliance sales receipt. 

Did you also notice that most appliance retailers do not have any appliance service technicians? They cannot afford to pay for the manufacturer or consumer appliance liabilities. And if they do, it is a cost of doing business. By separating the manufacturing, retail, and repair businesses, you get an industry that works from a top-down approach. The manufactures influence the entire process.

We Canadians have been trained by the manufactures to buy new appliances. Did you ever notice that the retailers in Canada always seem to have the same discounts for the same products at the same times? Its not the retailers offering these discounts. Their margins are very small. No, it is the appliance manufactures who tell the retailers, who in turn tell us the people of all the discounts available. And we as a society have been “in training” for decades. The product looks good, the price is right, and we can have it delivered almost immediately.

As a society we already know how to manufacture products in our country that last decades, with readily available inexpensive parts, and we know how to make them energy efficient. The missing link in our society is the right leadership… We did it before, we can do it again.