12 tips for total victory

Appliance shopping. 4 stores, 1 weekend. Did we win? Totes. How do you navigate the quagmire when you don’t know what you’re buying and everyone’s got ‘the best deal in town’? Want our 12 victorious tips? Read on.

The Red One – Future Shop

We hit up Future Shop first (it’s Best Buy, kind of). It’s shiniest, so that’s where magpies go for stainless steel.

{Tip 1! Are you fitting appliances into a pre-existing space? Measure before you go!}

First impression: Not bad. The selection is, let’s say, medium-sized. It’s laid out well and some appliances are set into kitchen mock-ups, to give you an idea how they’d work with cabinet styles, etc.

{Tip 2! Before you leave the house, Google a few fridge styles that you like. Get their measurements and note their depth in particular. Measure how far they’ll stick it from your kitchen wall. Some are so huge they’ll block doorways and all human traffic (But not, unfortunately, human trafficking).}

Sales help: Eager to please. A lovely Future Shop employee was there to help us instantly. We went the we’re-idiots-please-help-us route &, after a brief interview regarding needs & wants, we were off on The Tour. (Note: there is no getting off The Tour until the ride has fully stopped).

Sales focus: Shininess. Little wonder in an electronics shop. You buy here, you do so on looks. A few not-completely-casual mentions of their limited-time sale meant it wasn’t quite pushy, but nearly.

{Tip 3! Yes, sales happen. And then they finish. And guess what! They always come back! Develop immunity to ‘limited time’ nonsense}.

Cons: While on The Tour we had little time to ourselves to prod the merch and swap opinions. I wanted a written price comparison between 2 brands’ package deals (Number A to compare with Number B – no mental math). It took 15 minutes to produce – pencilled chicken scratch on a random square of printer paper. I hate when shops put road blocks in the way of comparison shopping in their own store.

{Tip 4! Bring a calculator (a real one, iPhone ones are tricky to use quickly – especially when switching between the camera function) and your own paper}.

The Local One – Trail Appliances

This local outfit offers builder or contractor pricing to the general public. Tasty. It’s a slight trek out of town and visiting requires the use of … dread of all dreads… the skytrain. For a new shiny fridge with energy stars attached, I could suck it up and ride the rails. Then a beloved friend swooped in with a free afternoon and wheels of her own. Sweet!

Happy: It’s a little shop but it’s packed. You could lose children (and definitely wives and girlfriends) in here. Kitchen displays around every bend. It’s heaven.

Sad: While great for ogling – 12’ wide Sub-Zero chef’s fridges – there’s little at entry-level. We want stainless steel, sure, but not $10,000 worth of it.

Hello? While in the shop we received no notice from any staff. I’m sure they’re nice people and perhaps had their hands full, but I wonder if they mark younger peeps as window shoppers and ignore? Hey under-30s, ever noticed this?

{Tip 5! Dress nicely and professionally – even on the weekend. You’ll be served first, much to the annoyance of the trophy wife with the little dog}

The Orange One – Home Depot

Mystery: We’ve been to this store… I’m going to say 50 times between the two of us. Never for appliances. We just assumed they’d have some. We walked in circles for 15 minutes – where were they hiding? Eventually I queue-jumped the returns line & got the scoop: they’re downstairs. There’s a downstairs?!

{Tip 6! Huge stores have floor-plans online. It saves time to know where you’re going}.

Science: This was Friday afternoon about 4 p.m. I get that anyone on a normal day’s shift would have their eyes on the clock, ready to run. I’d already done the same. Still, we spent half an hour in the Home Depot basement taking furious price notes & iPhone pictures. As a test, we made eye contact with – but never spoke to – their two nearby employees. Neither offered to help.

{Tip 7! Want helpful service? Go in the morning when the staff is freshly caffeinated}.

Theatre: Home Depot’s supply – and I’m not being a snarky-biased-snob-girl – is low end. Amanya? Amaha? Amanto? Something like that – forms much of the inventory. Maytag is featured a lot, too. No such model would win the “nice, new, shiny and mine” test. Future Shop’s 15-minute wait for the price comparison seemed a distant dream at this point. In Home Depot, we had to navigate their inventory at length before finding the matching stove to the fridge we liked. Then add it all up, trying to find the mates once again in doing so. Bleh!

{Tip 8! All alone in a quiet store? Throw Post-Its on the appliances you like. It’s easier to run around comparing in a sea of same}.

The Blue One – Sears

My parents actually laughed at me when I told them of our Sunday plans. An  embarrassed cliché, I concede.

First impression: Jumping out on the 5th or 6th floor of downtown Sears was a waiting appliance wonderland. Acres and acres of the things. Just try to look at all their dishwashers. You’ll need to refuel.

Sales help: We were quickly adopted by an ace employee. He asked for the brief intro on what we wanted – then explained to us everything we were looking at. Why did different models have different costs? How did energy star work? What makes a more expensive dishwasher quieter than others? It was a science field trip, not an awful shopping chore. As for warranties and all that customer satisfaction stuff? “We’re Sears”, he said, “We’re not going anywhere.”

{Tip 9! Ask every question under the sun about return policies and delivery windows. If they’re Sears, probably believe them}.

Paws on goodies: In the end, we cleaned up: hello floor model discount. We were invited to inspect our new fridge up-close-&-personal for any dings or dents, to our further discount. “If you look away for 5 seconds, I’m going to kick it,” I told the sales guy. He reasoned I was joking, but watched closely just in case.

Delivery rates were fair and they’re even going to recycle the Harvest Gold bounty. While we skipped out of Sears pretty happy with our deal and ecstatic to await a shiny new set of appliances, Paolo hadn’t finished playing Sneaky Beaver. Normally I’m the sales-hawk, so I was surprised when he announced out of the blue later in the afternoon that he’d found a better deal. Sears has a price match promise, and discounts 10% off competitors – which they honoured immediately. By this point, our fridge was basically free.

{Tips 10, 11 and 12}

• Go to Sears first. It’s a cliché for a reason. Biggest selection and a sales staff that actually know what they’re talking about.
• Use Sears as your market research to learn about X, Y and Z price brackets.
• From there, go for freaking gold. Comparison shop ‘til you’re blue, keeping eyes and ears open for sales.

As for your hands? Why, they must remain inside the bus until The Tour has come to a complete stop.

###

Photos found here, here, here and here.