I first considered purchasing an HDTV in September 2007 before an ill-fated trip to the Borgata on Yom Kippur. At the time I rationalized it as acceptable by using someone else's money to buy it. So of course that day I had one of my worst losing sessions ever in the $10-$20 LHE game.
After that setback I didn't actually buy an HDTV until more than two years later. I read all the reviews of the different technologies. I price-compared until my eyes bled. I visited several different stores solely to see differences in picture quality with those same bleeding eyes. When I was finally convinced I had all the facts I walked straight into Best Buy and walked out with a 50-inch television ten minutes later. There was a feeling of satisfaction in knowing that I had made the right purchase at the right price.
It was the same with mattress shopping three years ago. Tons of internet research on the different types of mattresses available. Price comparisons galore. Visits to several stores to take 15-minute naps on different mattresses (making sure to rotate five minutes each left side, stomach, right side because that's how meticulous I can be). Once I was sure of what I wanted, I walked into Macy's and ten minutes later was the owner of a new mattress -- a mattress which I absolutely love sleeping on.
Don't even get me started on what I went through with my car.
Yesterday I went appliance shopping. For the life of me, I cannot understand why there is such a huge variation in prices on these things -- even after doing the research. I recognize some perform their function better than others and some have more "features" than others. But at the end of the day these are very functional items and for me that's where the buck stops. A refrigerator is a box for keeping food cold. A washer is a box that cleans your clothes. A dryer is a box that dries them.
My purchase was narrowed down to two identically priced but vastly different items. After thirty minutes of comparison and spot iPhone internet research I couldn't decide. And so I finally flagged down the salesperson who had already approached me twice asking if I needed help.
Generally I am suspicious of salespeople. Their job, after all, is to sell. Their function is not so much to help you as it is to make you feel more comfortable to part with your cash on a major purchase. Hand holders. Providers of reassurance. The mythical "outside opinion" that makes you feel like you're not making a mistake.
Now obviously salespeople have reputations too. If they constantly recommend craptactular items it will eventually catch up to them. But any item that's in a major store probably isn't the complete worst. So it's hard for the salespeople to go wrong with recommending anything in the store.
Did the salesperson sell me the proverbial bill of goods? Who knows. In this instance, since each item was priced the same, it didn't much matter. I asked a few questions; he answered them. I made my choice. And during the course of writing this post, the delivery truck arrived with the goods.
Thankfully, after this there's only one more major set of purchases to go.
