Refrigerators: cheap and boring or cute and expensive. Discuss.
I have a refrigerator. I guess it works just fine. It was in the house already when we moved in, so we didn't have to buy one. That's nice. But it's an unlovely beast, hulking in the corner, jutting far out from the wall and taking up a big chunk of my far-from-enormous kitchen. And it's just so... boxy and white.
And there's these cute little (well, not so little) retro numbers I've had my eye on. The one in the picture is a Northstar fridge, sold by Pastense.com, and it runs about $4,000. The last time I bought a refrigerator, it wasn't one-tenth as cute, but it was about one-tenth of the price.
Why does it have to be that way? With the advent of places like Ikea and Target selling style at a discount, why aren't appliance manufacturers getting into the act?
Well, there may be a reason. In this Wired article, the man behind Big Chill, another seller of retro iceboxes, gives some insight into the economics of the retro appliances biz:
Creamer buys a stock fridge for a little under $1,000, he said, and modifies them. Once they are retro cool, they sell for a base price of $2,500. Similar-size Whirlpool fridges on Sears' website sell for about $650.Still, "we're definitely the least-expensive retro fridge on the market," Creamer said.
Creamer's fridges are moving because they remind buyers of a simpler era, he said. But Creamer knows his fridges and other retro-looking products are not destined for mainstream success.
"People ask us, 'Why doesn't Whirlpool just rip off your idea?' Big companies aren't interested in it because it is such a niche market. It wouldn't be worth their time when they can sell millions of white boxes or plain stereos," he said.
Despite that, Creamer thinks the market for such products is expanding. "Whether it's the Mini Cooper or the PT Cruiser or a product like ours, I think it's definitely a growing market," he said.
Well, hopefully the market will grow soon. I want my baby-blue curved-corner fridge, dammit! (In the meantime, maybe I can learn how to pimp my icebox?)
So I was very happy to walk into Rockridge Home and see many of the same kinds of things I used to find at ID. Cute striped pasta spoons? Check. Scented soaps? Check. Beautiful dishware? Check. Cool furniture? Check.