In Hamilton, we have one major shopping mall: Limeridge Mall. It is pretty damn large with something like 200 stores. Anybody could go there and buy something they'd like. From what I noticed, there is usually at least two stores that generally offer the same thing, like how there's a Sears and They Bay on opposite sides, or how there's two video game places (EB Games and Gamestop), which are strangely owned by the same company...
It is a great shopping destination, and I can tell you that it will become busy around the months to come up to Christmas.
So, during the summer, I went into the HomeSense they have there. I usually like going inside there because it has a pleasant smell and there are a lot of cool appliances there. Today, I found myself one of those, "I want it, I want it!" things: a Popcorn Machine. It was painted red, and had a small set of wheels attached that gave me a feeling of retro nostalgia (not that I've ever seen one on the street). It cost about $50, because it was on some sort of sale.
I bought it without a doubt. "Man, I am the worst manager of money" i told myself, "Maybe i should stop spending money on things like this and video games and Magic cards"... HA! If only I cared about that. I had a summer job and had no use for money other than that and gifts for other people.
Anyway, I brought the machine home, and it worked alright. We already had a popcorn-making machine, but it was kind of old, and has that over-hydrated-pee-yellow colour.
This colour
Therefore, I felt like a North-American and said, "Screw it! Out with the old, in with the new!".
After a week of using it, I noticed the efficiency percentage of well-done popped corn versus popping corn placed in heating tub was slowly dwindling... ever so slowly... until it became a lot worse... and I may as well have popped to corn with my own breath.
So, after maybe a month of usage, the popper became obsolete. It'd sometimes jam, and... it got very messy very quickly. I now am wondering why Jumbo Video used to offer free popcorn from a machine like this, knowing the trouble one has to go through... but maybe that's why they went out of business <:(
Well, here's where the grievance comes into the light: I despise the poor quality of current-day appliances.
Being a boy who likes to cook and bake, I'm used to using mixers and blenders and all kinds of that good... stuff. We have 3 different mixers: onw large base-supported mixer from my parents marriage (26 years +), one small hand mixer, purchased about 9 years ago, and one of those KitchenAid mixers that does all the mixing for you, about 3 years old.
Being a boy who likes to cook and bake, I'm used to using mixers and blenders and all kinds of that good... stuff. We have 3 different mixers: onw large base-supported mixer from my parents marriage (26 years +), one small hand mixer, purchased about 9 years ago, and one of those KitchenAid mixers that does all the mixing for you, about 3 years old.
This one, except the bowl is connected to the base
Guess which one has no had a problem yet.
Done?
Hopefully my point was clear enough that you could guess the 26 year-old mixer is still the best-operating appliance of those three. The hand mixer is ok, but it was kind of cheap and the blades are now bent (don't know why), and the KitchenAid mixer is an absolute joke. It mixes everything in the centre and not on the sides, which would be ok, if only you could stick you spatula in the bowl while it's mixing! It infuriates me that I can do a better job mixing with just my hands!
Done?
Hopefully my point was clear enough that you could guess the 26 year-old mixer is still the best-operating appliance of those three. The hand mixer is ok, but it was kind of cheap and the blades are now bent (don't know why), and the KitchenAid mixer is an absolute joke. It mixes everything in the centre and not on the sides, which would be ok, if only you could stick you spatula in the bowl while it's mixing! It infuriates me that I can do a better job mixing with just my hands!
Now, who knows how the 26 year old mixer operates. Maybe it is working on depleted uranium and/or lead, but it does the job extremely well without any problems. Obviously, you have to use the spatula to scrape the sides, but at least you can stick your hand in without getting hurt or... well, not being able to get your hand in there!
I've also noticed the same with blenders. We have a brand-new blender, and our 12 year old thing can out-perform it any day. The only thing that could beat it is the Magic Bullet, which although I'd have to give it credit, it can only blend so much as one time.
Lawnmowers are the same. My Grandma purchased a new electric mower this summer (and involved me in this 3 day fiasco to get it :P) and it can't cut for s**t. Her 50 year old gas-powered thing can literally mow down that grass in a few minutes, while this thing needs a few seconds on each patch... and then needs a 10 minute break after 1 minute of work... and then runs out of battery quickly :(.
Lawnmowers are the same. My Grandma purchased a new electric mower this summer (and involved me in this 3 day fiasco to get it :P) and it can't cut for s**t. Her 50 year old gas-powered thing can literally mow down that grass in a few minutes, while this thing needs a few seconds on each patch... and then needs a 10 minute break after 1 minute of work... and then runs out of battery quickly :(.
Printers? Don't get me or pretty much anybody started... But now that I've thought of it, I'm going to start anyway.
My dad was replacing the printers he had at his office with new models. I asked if I could use one of the older ones. They were about 4 years old and printed only in black-and-white, but It was good enough for me. It also had a photocopier, which was an added bonus. So I took one of them. It worked fine until one day, the Hewlett-Packard toolbox software kept having error messages... 4 months after use. Do note that before this, it printed extremely well and the photocopier worked like a charm.
My dad was replacing the printers he had at his office with new models. I asked if I could use one of the older ones. They were about 4 years old and printed only in black-and-white, but It was good enough for me. It also had a photocopier, which was an added bonus. So I took one of them. It worked fine until one day, the Hewlett-Packard toolbox software kept having error messages... 4 months after use. Do note that before this, it printed extremely well and the photocopier worked like a charm.
After the error-message, the printer kept flashing red and green, and the lightbulb for copying always stayed on. It printed well, however.
So, i attempted customer service, which told me that I needed to pay $60 to renew my warranty. "Screw that" I said.
So, after some fiddling, the blinking stopped and it can photocopy well... except now it can't print.
It is currently gathering dust next to my 7 year old computer.
One of the more obvious things I've noticed are game consoles.
Tell me, how many times have you heard an Xbox 360 or a Nintendo Wii have problems?
Now, tell me how many times you've heard a Nintendo 64 having problems?
So, i attempted customer service, which told me that I needed to pay $60 to renew my warranty. "Screw that" I said.
So, after some fiddling, the blinking stopped and it can photocopy well... except now it can't print.
It is currently gathering dust next to my 7 year old computer.
One of the more obvious things I've noticed are game consoles.
Tell me, how many times have you heard an Xbox 360 or a Nintendo Wii have problems?
Now, tell me how many times you've heard a Nintendo 64 having problems?
Yes, of course, the Nintendo 64 had the whole "Dust" and "Blowing" situation with the cartridges, but it would always work eventually. Not only that, but the situation didn't have anything to do with the console, just the games.
That being said, I can see why older systems never had problems (besides being hit by a hammer or something like that). Today, we have to rely so much on software inside the hardware. We all know the "dashboards" consoles have now. but did the older systems have that? No. They didn't need a means of organizing their data or profiles or savefiles. All they needed to do was play the game and the game did the rest.
I think consoles now have so much stuffed in their circuit boards that the slightest misstep can lead into absolute catastrophe. Not only that, but CD and DVD drives are so fragile that if you ever touch them, it could lead to all kinds of problems.
I think consoles now have so much stuffed in their circuit boards that the slightest misstep can lead into absolute catastrophe. Not only that, but CD and DVD drives are so fragile that if you ever touch them, it could lead to all kinds of problems.
Regardless of that last point, I think the world has become too "throw-away"-based.
What happens when your Apple product breaks? Get a new thing.
What happens when your Computer Screen burns out? Replace it with something else.
What happens when your popcorn maker breaks after the warranty is expired? You throw it out a window and attempt to blow it up by placing an aerosol can in the remains and shooting the can with an air-rifle...
Or maybe you just throw it out.
Or maybe you just throw it out.
Regardless of your disposal tactics, you have to throw it out one way or another, and that becomes a waste of materials.
If companies only increased the cost of appliances, made their products from local locations and high-quality materials, then we would not only not have a lack of high-quality appliances, but a reduction of garbage and pollution.
Thanks for reading.
If companies only increased the cost of appliances, made their products from local locations and high-quality materials, then we would not only not have a lack of high-quality appliances, but a reduction of garbage and pollution.
Thanks for reading.
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