Buying appliances can be a long endeavor with so many models, features, brands, and price ranges. I’m always reminded when shopping for things of something my friend Bob, said a few years ago. He said, “Mike – you can’t just go by Cheez-It any more. There’s low fat Cheez-It, wheat Cheez-It, low sodium, white cheese, spicy, etc. You can’t just go and buy Cheez-Its any more.” And Bob was and is right. It’s that way with everything. We live in a world with infinite choices. I’m not complaining, just saying’…
So there we were at Lowe’s shopping for dishwashers. Holly, me, Kali, and Kloe. Full disclosure – Holly had done the research on what we might want before our trek to Lowe’s but we still had questions and knew that if we chose to buy there it would take some time.
We spent about 45 minutes looking at dishwashers, getting our questions answered, making the decision, and going through the purchase process about delivery information, extended warranty details, installation, etc. Throughout the entire process our girls – Kloe and Kali- were so patient laying on the ground next to us and charming all the shoppers who passed by. Yes, there were some treats involved every now and then. Occasionally Kali would let out a short bark to get my attention and remind me that there were treats in my pocket. And once or twice Kloe stood up and repositioned herself in a way that she tied Holly’s legs up in a square knot.
But all in all our girls were so well behaved for such an extended period of time you would have thought they had been promised filet mignon for dinner. But there were no steaks offered. There were no brand new squeaky toys. There were just a few biscuits and our sweet girls lying by mom an dad’s feet while we purchased a box of Cheez-it Dishwasher.
Too many choices: you can’t just go and buy a box of Cheez-It these days.
Golden Kali 
You know you have trained your dogs well when they behave so nicely at Lowe’s! Heck, my kids were never that good when I was shopping. As for the choices that are available to us now…you’re right, it is far too many! I find the whole process confusing, especially with major appliances. All I want is for the appliance to fit into the space I have for it, and to get the job done. And that’s it!
My kids weren’t either but then again I didn’t have them on a leash and I wasn’t throwing pieces of candy every so often 🙂 Seriously they are pretty obedient. I was especially proud of Kloe who is only five months. The only problem we continue to have is if there is another dog that wanders by all bets are off… Regarding the appliances what we’ve learned over the recent years is that all the internal parts are made by the same one or two companies mostly in Taiwan such as control boards and other key components. What you are really paying for is all the fancy features but the same board is just as likely to go out with the high end brand/model as the lower cost. Between the replacement parts and labor to replace it’s sometimes as much to fix as to replace. We’ve learned to go relatively cheap and buy the extended warranty. This way we know we are covered for 3 to 5 years even if it is not the fanciest model with all the bells and whistles.
It’s gotten to the point where I have ‘limit’ my choices to 3 or 4, the 20-30 different models are just too much to have to sort through and none of the options are 100% perfect anyway-3 or 4 I can manage. We should all try to imitate our pups-they totally know what’s ‘impawtant’ in life. 🙂