Honest opinions about how to buy Appliances and Lighting.

Monday, June 15, 2009

The End Of The Handshake Agreement

An unique agreement was forged in the 1920s. The founders of Whirlpool and the managers of Sears forged an almost 100 year alliance. Whirlpool would supply the washers and dryers marketed under the Kenmore name. As legend has it, this deal was first struck with a handshake (it was years before the class action lawsuit.)

This just ended...Now the winner of the contract was LG. Sears marketing(I suspect) will revolve around technology and steam. The machines will start looking like this:





Instead of this.





Now I have my opinions of LG, but for consumers like yourself, it should be interesting. Whirlpool has to keep the factories running without Sears' help. This can only mean one action in the very near future: Big time price drop.

I am a Bosch guy for now, because they are just dumping their product (previous post), but Whirlpool can really regain share by being similarly aggressive.

4 comments:

  1. My guess is that Whirlpool doesn't need Sears anymore. Sure Whirlpool will probably keep some of the contracts but I doubt we will see anymore unique and exclusive features as time goes on. I personally don’t see prices coming down nor do I see Whirlpool suffering from the loss of the front load contract.

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  2. To Jerry our Whirlpool Rep,

    You now need to make up 3% share. At the same time, your relationships with significant retilers has been strained

    Jerry, you run factories, idling those factories is more expensive in the short term

    Also, your company announced rebates today over July 4, which amount to a 30% discount or $450 dollars

    So, are you sure?

    S

    PS: Next time sign in as someone else and dont be so technical..I never said it was just front loaders

    Cya next week

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  3. Stef Slamon3:54 PM

    "Now I have my opinion of LG"

    What are those opinions?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Technically innovative products with very little if any back end support...How this affects Sears remains to be seen

    ReplyDelete