Do you feel you are being forced to purchase poor quality products?
By Laura Reigle
Individuals keep attacking President Trump about tariffs, but the US had the lowest tariffs in the world until recently. Companies were leaving the country to make products cheaper due to the tariffs being so low. Now that higher tariffs are in place the United States, thanks to President Trump, more jobs will be created in the US and American companies will have the ability to have competitive prices with higher quality.
Don’t get me wrong you always had the ability to purchase higher quality products at competitive prices. However, most of us take the easy way out when we go shopping, by hitting the big box stores. The big box stores typically select items to sell items that they can make a lot of money on. Items they can purchases really inexpensively. But mark up a lot to make profits and/or to appease their stock holders. People need to realize that competition is what will Make America Great Again. I remember all the appliances that my grandparents had that lasted for ever. They bought it once and if it broke they called the serviceman out to repair it. Which rarely happened. Today, we go to the store and purchase items that costed a small mint that are engineered to last for only 10 years. Now I have to ask how are American’s supposed to come ahead if they have to keep replacing the same items every 10 years? Taxes keep going up and Americans have less money to keep repurchasing the same items over and over again.
Well, Americans need to be better shoppers. The Daily Signal has an article out “Washing Machine Tariffs Are Still Putting Consumers Through the Wringers.” The author is blaming an increase in the costs of washing machines due to tariffs. What is really interesting is that Americans have other options available. They even have better options to choose from by purchasing American made products. See competition is good when individuals purchase quality American made items. If everyone purchases the items that will last longer it will force the other companies to engineer higher quality items. Or they will go out of business. It also will create less waste, thus making our country green.
I previously owned a Fisher Paykel and Maytag washer and dryer. I no longer have them due to the disgusting smelly washer (due to poor engineering, not all the water is drained out causing bacteria to breed), drums needing cleaning (soap scum buildup not visible by opening the lid backside of drum) and lack of cleaning the clothes in the machine due to the machine using less water. See if you use less water and have to cut back in the amount of clothes you put in the machine, you aren’t saving on anything in the long run.
Now I want to start with I do NOT work for Speed Queen. I want to share with other’s an example of quality products made in the USA. I do own a Speed Queen washing machine and dryer. Speed Queen is Not sold in Big Box stores. At the same price as many of the Big Box store units, Speed Queen is expected to work for 25 years due to the components used in the washer being the same components used in their commercial units. Speed Queen has also won the Woman’s Choice Award from 2014 – 2019. The units come with a 3, 5 or 7 year warranty. Prices range from $899 for manual knobs to $1,099 for a washing machine. Speed Queen has been in a lot of laundromats across the US for decades. Those laundromat units have the same parts as the residential units. This only helps prove the quality and durability of their products. This machine sits there and just works. It provides clean clothes that smell great. It really was amazing to see the difference in the washing machines. So I would encourage people to check out the links provided below to discover the quality units being made right here in the good old USA.
We, as of a society, have to quit accepting poorly engineered products. They just cost us more in the long run. An example of this is our culture has become accepting of the poor engineering. The new thing to do when something is poorly engineered is to come up with a product to solve that problem. Let me provide you with an example. The washing machines that do not drain the water out completely at the end of each use have water that goes stagnate growing bacteria in the washing machine when not in use. So recently, a company came up with a solution for the problem, Lysol came up with a new product, laundry sanitizer, to purchase that removes the bacteria from your clothes. When the root cause is from really poor engineering of washing machines. Why should a consumer need to purchase and spend more money, on a problem that should not exist to start with. If you read those manuals that come with your washing machine, you are supposed to clean your washing machine every 2 to 3 months due to this poorly engineered product holding water after use. Just like you need to clean your vent from your dryer out every year. Most individuals do not know that your washer and dryer need to be cleaned.
I don’t know about you, but I do not need more home maintenance to do. And I do not want to spend more money on chemicals or products to clean items that should not need cleaning.
So the next time something breaks in the house, do some searching for a quality American made product. We, the consumer, are the ONLY ones who can force change to correct the problems others have created.
Check out their website here:
https://speedqueen.com/the-speed-queen-difference/american-quality/
Prices came from this site:
