Why Nothing Works.

Should we go back to basics?

Do you ever wonder how your grandmother's oven still works when you have to buy a new one every five to ten years? Her oven is probably older than you. Maybe even older than your parents. It’s probably a pea green or ivory yellow, but the analog dial still turns, and the heating element still heats.

The digital components in these new smart appliances break down, and the added features drive up the cost. With so many people struggling—high inflation, tight budgets—you start to wonder: Is there a company out there that could produce minimalistic appliances? Ones that just work, that last, and that are low-cost?

I ask myself this because I am staring at my Samsung Washing machine. It is once again broken. The first two times it broke, it was a cheap electrical fix. However, when we went through the Samsung warranty, they told us the part was as expensive as buying a new one, and it wasn’t covered. My brother found it on Amazon for a fraction of the cost, and we fixed it.

I am happy I was able to fix it, but it’s frustrating that it can’t go more than a year without a part burning out. And the company isn’t really helpful; they just want you to buy another one.

I wonder how having a company focused on making products designed to work instead of driving attention and sales might affect society. Imagine a mom and dad both working two jobs just to make ends meet, and on top of that, they have to buy a new washer every five years or fix the one they have every two. That’s time and money they don’t have—time taken away from their kids and their family.

The point of appliances was to make life more convenient and to give us time to do other things. But when they don’t work, you must spend so much time working to afford to buy new ones or fix the old ones.

A minimalist company is an interesting concept. Minimalism is all the rage in interior design. I have seen some tech minimalist products, but nothing in appliances. And we could do the same thing with automobiles. All these extra bells and whistles—why? So many people can’t even afford a car. Why can’t we just make a simple one? Why does every car have to be a computer, a digital assistant, a luxury lounge?

I have two teenagers who will be driving soon. All those extra features are just distractions. Where are the options for average people, for folks who just want to get from point A to point B? Because that’s what they’re buying anyway when they get an older, beat-up car. The fancy features might not work anymore, but it still drives. It still gets them where they need to go.

People don’t want every item they buy to be every other item they need. They just want it to do what it’s supposed to do.

They want a phone to be a phone.
They want a car to be a car.
They want a refrigerator to be a refrigerator.
And a microwave to be a microwave.

I don’t need my microwave to tell me the weather or my fridge to give me directions.

I just want them to work.

Peace & Love,

Jeff Mayhugh