Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

My Niece has just taken a job selling Rainbow vacuums door-to-door.  She is currently on a crew and observing, but wants to do a demo for me this Saturday.  She knows that she is coming into a "Kirby Home" and wants to experience a difficult customer.

I have already warned her that in this economy I pitty her trying to sell a niche vacuum with a price tag of $2,800; and with my aging washing machine about to need replaced even if I were interested,  there is no way on God's green earth I will buy from her.

She is fine with that, but wants me to help her out, so I turn to my experts for help.  I saw a Rainbow demo--OK--30 years ago.  What are the new machines like?  I know my Kirby has changed since then, I have a paper bag now.  Do they, Rainbow,  still push the clean air over cleaning abilities?  I just want to know what to expect with the new machine.  I am supposed to be difficult, which I will be, but want to be somewhat prepared.  Her trainer will be with her, and he is going to help her overcome my objections so she can learn to sell.

MOLE--  I need your help

Carmine--Come on man, I don't want to have to give this girl gas money.

Mole has the money to finance the vacuum for you.

Carmine will likely tell you to put nitrogen in her tires and increase her gas mileage by 25%.

Just wrote:
My oh my!!!

I give your niece a thumbs up for trying succeed.  Sounds like a go getter.  Ambition is a wonderful thing especially in the young.  It's also great that despite all our boohooing about the state of things she's determined to get of her duff and forge ahead.  You know her best, maybe you can think on some lines of work that she already has skills for or would be good at.

Realistically, I agree that she may have a bit of a time HONESTLY selling a Rainbow to anyone. I think selling a vacuum that expensive is as easy as selling the Brooklyn Bridge.  Salesman may have gotten away with it when credit was more easily accessible but things have changed a whole lot.

 The Rainbow, as I always state, is a great display of science of the coolest kind but its actual performance and maintenance requirements are turn-off to many and in no way merit the cash expenditure.  To the best of my knowledge Rainbow is still pitching air quality first. Consumer Reports still rates rates Rainbow with low scores regarding cleaning performance.

This is not all just talk on my part.  I have owned and used Rainbows and Rexairs.  To a gadget freak like myself they're fun -- for a while. First, it is not a vacuum cleaner that you can pull out of the closet and go.  It has to be filled with and assembled.  Next -- to keep one operating well for the long run you must make frequent water changes during long or especially dirty cleaning bouts and must  also keep it spic and span by washing out the waterpan after each use and storing your machine per the manufacturers suggestion.  Come to think of it, these days at least, I'd only buy one to punish my maid with if I had one.

Another point is that there are always a lot of nearly new Rainbows all over eBay and anyone with half a mind can have one in near pristine condition there anywhere from maybe  $300 to $800.  If the trainer really tries too hard or becomes a god awful bore before you can get around to a polite, "No thank you" -- tell him or her to try peeing on someone else to see if they can convince them that it's only raining.

Anyway . . . I hope she finds a rewarding job whatever it is.

Venson

Ahh the machine of tomorrow today,been using that same line for 50 years now, Does water really filter the air? Do they still have the 85 page user manual or the 2 hour vidieo like Kirby, Tell her after she runs out of friends and reletives she will be looking for a real job, does she like living out of a duffle bag?. Tell her i said she will catch on to whats really happening in about 3 or 4 friendly demos, How big of a carrot did her distributor dangle in front of her? Is she going to become rich beyond her wildest dreams?

Does she like working putting on DEMOS for 14 hours a day. Did her boss graduate to a double wide or is he still living in a cardboard box? If you buy a vacuum cleaner for more than 599.00 i will hunt you down and Bi**h slap you for being DUMB.

Glad to help.

sincerly

MOLE

Hello Just:

You're a good man and Uncle. I am the easiest person in the world to sell.  And even worst with family members.  My feeling is if you are going to get taken, it might as well be from a family member.  I'd let her do the demo.  It is a good learning experience for her.  I'm sure you will be kind and charitable.  When she's done with the demo, ask her what's the best and final price you can get it for.  She'll consult with her mentor and give it to you.  I suspect about $1700 will be the price.  Buy it!  Chalk it up to assisting a family member in a time of difficulty. 

If you say no to your niece now, you will undoubtedly short circuit her future sales career.  I don't think you want to have that on your conscience for the rest of your life.  When defeat is inevitable, accept it graciously.

As a Kirby fan, I have no doubt you will find owning and using the Rainbow a fun and rewarding experience.  And the family will talk about it for generations to come. 

Carmine D.

Thanks everyone,

I have warned her about selling, especially in these times.  There are currently 17,000 aircraft workers out of a job here in my city so it will be harder to sell than ever.  A friend of mine in the car business said it is so bad that they are sending brand new cars to the auction just to move them off their lots. 

I am going to let her demo for the experience, but she knows it will be a no sale.  She may think I'm a pushover, but my checking account says I have been pushed to the limit.

Mole--I had forgotten the Machine of Tomorrow, Today slogan.  I have a Rainbow in my basement dating from about 1974, I think I gave $150 for it used.  If I wanted a newer one I think I would try the newspaper, Craig's List, or Ebay first.   The carrot?  She gets $30 per demo for the first two weeks of training, then she is strictly commission where she will make--get this $200 per machine (crooks). 

Carmine, I think that's why they have them push to family and friends; because it's harder for them to say no.  They just need to push to family that has money and a washer that isn't teetering on the edge death.  

I take it that they are still using the light show with dogs and ponies.  It will be fun to watch. 

No doubt family and friends first.  But I hear that's how the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys started.

BTW, a friend who married about the time of your Rainbow, bought a new one shortly after he married.  He and his wife divorced after a few years, but he brags that he still owns/uses the Rainbow which outlasted his wife/marriage and is still going strong. 

Carmine D.

I doubt that it will be fun to watch.  Rainbow will be very stingy about giving away the $30 per demo without a sale.  If you don't buy, I suspect the sales manager and your niece will have an unpleasant conversation.  I suspect the sales manager will give you the hard sell as well.   The sales manager gets a big piece of the pie if you are converted to a buyer.  I hope I'm wrong...





Just wrote:

Severus wrote:

I agree with you Severus.  Here's my best guess:  Assuming the Rainbow price is $1700 to Just and $200 goes to Just's Niece, this leaves $1500 profit to divy up.  The Rainbow costs IMHO about $700 [product cost plus overhead added] to the branch sales office.  The branch manager and sales manager will split the $800 [$1500-$700] at $400 each and/or some variation on 50/50 depending on the business arrangement between the branch and sales manager.  Just my best "best guess" on the dollars and numbers.  I'm sure if Just's Niece knew this information, she may feel differently about demoing and selling friends and family.  But, as the good college Professor told the marketing class many years ago, there is money to be made in sales.

If Just wants to be hard nosed like the sales manager will no doubt be, he would ask all the parties in the transaction chain [after the Branch office cost] to lop off 50 percent of their take: Niece gives back $100 on the price and the Branch/Sales Managers give back $400 on the price.  That brings the final Rainbow price to $1200, if all are willing.  Just has to be so inclined at that price, to help out his struggling Niece, and take the Rainbow water plunge too!  If the parties are unwilling, Just declines the sale at the price offered and says he wanted to buy, but they could not make the deal attractive enough for him.  No offense to his Niece and no umbrage taken by any.  

Carmine D.

Carmine,

You either have great confidence in my nieces selling abilities, or my lack of resistance.  She is doing the demo to get the $30.  There will be no sale at my house. 

I agree for the not $1,700 asking price but $2,800 the machine may have cost them $350 to build.   When Carl and Jean had the old Air-Way vacuum store on Douglas here in town, this would have been 1981 or so; he told me then that the $598 Kirby Tradition cost about $125 dealer cost and he figured that at 100% markup from the factory.  Each middle man doubled the price.  Factory+Distributor+Dealer=$598.   

I once had a salesman, Fairfax, tell me.  "You obviously cared about getting rid of the dirt, that's why you bought the Kirby."

"You are absolutely correct" I said "That's why I'm keeping the Kirby too"    NO SALE!!

 And, And, And besides. Like Mole always says "for the price they are asking for this machine, I could have a Central Vac installed."

Hello Everyone!

Carmine will remember me ( I hope!) from the old and now defunct vacweb forum.

Despite my nearly becoming a Kirby distributor three times, and being the local branch manager for Electrolux the last four years it was an American vacuum company, the vacuum I have owned and used for the last 16 yrs is a Rainbow D4. I have replaced the hose once, the brush roll four times, (every three years) and the belt once a year. The darn thing works. It just works like nothing else I have ever tried. Dog hair, dirt, whatever, it just keeps working. It is most definitely NOT a lazy man or woman's machine. I avoid the separator cleaning issue by having three spares, so I slap a clean one on when I am finished, and place the used one in the top rack of the dishwasher. I have removed many many pounds of dirt from my home. The water is now just cloudy after vacuuming the entire house, and has been for years. Just for oneriness I let aKirby salesman in kept mum about my prior experience and vac knowledge. He called his boss to tell him I was not buying because I had no dirt. That poor kid got reamed (I could hear his boss yelling at him) He old him he was quitting and calling someone to pick him up, and he could get his POS machine himself