• Industry News

    Whirlpool out of the ’07 KBIS?

    Rumor has it that Whirlpool Corp will NOT be attending the 2007 Kitchen/Bath Industry Show in Vegas. Huh? Why not? Oh yes – they don’t need to be there – they don’t have any competition. Anti-competition laws – yep they work good!

    The Appliance Advisor also speculated on some reasons why:

    -The Henry Ford Defense: “As the largest appliance maker in the world, you can have any appliance you want as long as its white. The rest of you can suck lint.”
    -The Alfred E. Newman Defense: Management …… not terribly bright.
    -The Best Offense Defense: “We hate KBIS”
    -The Alka Seltzer Defense: “I can’t believe I ate the whole Maytag, we need to cut the budget”.
    Perhaps (if true) it’s a combination.

  • A day in the life of...

    As bad as the Cable Company?

    Hey guys – all you tech’s and service companies out there – is this you?

    “After 20 minutes on hold, I was offered two times for a service visit – oops, we are disconnected, redial, get put on hold and 20 minutes later I’m offered Thursday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. (Is Sears owned by the cable company?)”

    Check out this blog where a Sears customer talks about her service call. Do companies actually make customers wait all day long?!? This is 2007 – we all have cell phones. Give a two hour time frame the day of the call – then call the customer if you are going to be late. Don’t make us look like the cable company.

  • Industry News,  Opinion

    Competition: How to kill jobs in North America

    The Competition Bureau of Canada gave the following conclusion about the recent Maytag acquisition by Whirlpool.

    “Although post-merger market shares were significant in the laundry segment, the Bureau’s analysis revealed that effective competition would remain from a combination of foreign competitors. These remaining competitors have the ability to expand their operations and new entry is occurring. Moreover, the growth of big box retailers and their support of offshore brand name manufacturers will continue to provide consumers with competitive choices.”

    I don’t know about you, but what I read here is that it is OK to reduce competition within North America as long that there is competition from foreign companies. In other words, the jobs that used to be in North America are now jobs in foreign companies. Does this make sense – does this protect the North American economy?