Remember Avocado colored appliances?
Back in the late 60’s, when we first began to accumulate our own stuff, that’s what we bought, and we owned most of them long after Avocado was cool. We dipped our toes in Harvest Gold – the fridge in the garage came from that era – but we never went all the way.
For the past several years, all the appliances in our kitchen have been black – the refrigerator, the Keurig coffee maker, the can opener, the spigot on our very expensive custom-designed kitchen sink (another story for another time) – everything but the toaster.
The toaster, a four-slice Sunbeam we’ve had for years, was white, and it stuck out in our kitchen like a Latvian in the NBA. Still, if he averages 20+ points a game…..
Our toaster was like that. We were able to overlook its one obvious anomaly because it performed so well.
Then it started missing free throws.
First the little release button for the right side toast quit working. No problem – I never knew why it had that button anyway, many toasters don’t.
Then the right side quit locking down when you pushed the lever down to make toast. You could still make two pieces of toast on the left, but the whole point of having a four-slice toaster was lost.
We were in Target on Friday, with a Gift Card burning a hole in my pocket, when we found this toaster on sale.
Wow!
It’s black – it’ll match our decor!
It’s on sale – with the Gift Card, we’ll can get it for free!
Grabbed it and headed home.
The operator’s instructions said to run it empty to burn off any dust, etc. before trying to make toast. We did, and the right side wouldn’t latch down!
I took it back yesterday, and they only had one more on the shelf. I explained to the lady at the customer service counter that it was a forty mile round trip so I would like to test it before I took it home.
The only available outlet was where they charge electric shopping carts, so I sat on the floor in the store entrance and plugged it in. The right side did not want to latch on that one either.
There were no other black, four-slice toasters available, so I settled on this:
It’s an Oster brand, stainless steel with a black base, knobs, buttons and levers, so I decided that it matches well enough. It offers features I didn’t know were available on a toaster, and it actually works.
Of course, there was a difference in price, so our free toaster ended up costing us $22 – and an extra trip to the store.
This is funny, because lately we cannot buy anything, bring it home, and have it work properly. Would you believe my husband bought a total of four John Deere Riding mowers before we got one that worked, and/or didn't pitch him off like a bucking bronc. That's happend with numerous items, and it hurts when it'a big ticket item. Stores don't really like you to return a refrigerator.
ReplyDeleteI like your toaster. Since I need on, I know which kind to avoid.