Vacuum Cleaners Discussions

Today I fortuitously stopped at the local Oreck dealer. 

Mike, the owner of several Oreck franchises and a few multi-brand stores had brought his new Edge upright from home, as stock had not arrived yet.

It has a more powerful motor, with a true  floating head. LED lights, infinite speed control AND and on-board stretch hose with a permanently attached telescopic crevice tool that is automatically active when the handle is in the upright position.  It lacks the Pilot's pivot head and the Halo's germ killing light. A model incorporating all three features is under development.  It is still easy to push, although it weighs 10 lb and requires a bit more effort than previous models.

There is a commercial OBT upright made by Stein (Sebo) that is very nice at only 450.00.  Oreck WILL be offering a bagless upright, but dealer participation is optional.  The new canister is color matched to the Edge and designed to be leaned on as the user vacuums stairs. Odd looking bare floor/crevice tool, no swivel neck. The bristles fold in to form the crevice tool, and the wand is inserted into a neck that curves more than 60 and less than 90 degrees, much like the OLD bare floor tools made of wood with the metal neck screwed on. A turbo tool is included and a dusting brush.

A cute little bagless canister is available for 49.99  Oreck has increased market share and has 89% brand recognition as a vacuum cleaner. They have become #1in  air purifier sales. (Mike did not say if that was dollar volume, or units or both.

The price of the Edge and matching canister will be about 750.00

Oreck is still marketing, still developing product, and still building a loyal customer base.

Carmine,

     These guys like DIB, Hardsell and a few others probably couldn't show us how  7X13=28. They probably think it is 91. But I can add, multiply and divide and come up with 28 using the new math of Lou Costello.

                                                                                                                                                                                       Procare

procare wrote:
This is not completely true.  While there were more vacuum cleaner brands and more sold DTD in the 50's, compared to today, there were still vacuum cleaner brands that were not sold DTD.

Mike_W wrote:

Nor completely false either.  The primary name brand vacuums in the 50's were Lux and HOOVER.  Both were d-t-d sellers.  Other brands were minor players like Singer, Westinghouse, GE, Lewyt and were not d-t-d brands and all went out of business in the 50's or soon after.  About the time of the HOOVER Convertibles mid 50's, even HOOVER stopped d-t-d sales unless customers called and asked for a home demo/purchase thru one of HOOVER's branch offices.

Carmine D.

Not in the UK. Hoover, Electrolux and Goblin were sold exclusively at department stores. Only exception was much later in the 1970s when Vax were sold d-t-d.

CarmineD wrote:
Carmine, when are you going to learn to stay out of things you know nothing about.  I replied to "Procare" and not you.  "Procare"said, "All vacuum cleaners were sold door to door back in the 50's".  Clear and simple what that says.  ALL vacuum cleaners were sold....  Not some.   We are not talking about "primary brand vacuums" or "minor players.  Your statement re: examples of players going out of business is wrong too.  Only one was taken over shortly after the 50's, but vacuum cleaners were still manufactured.  You know that I can tell you about every one of those vacuum cleaner brands you mentioned.

Carmine, if  you want to look at it another way, by mentioning some of the brands not sold DTD, you agreed w/my statement.  

 

Mike_W wrote:

Whenever I feel the need I will stay in/stay out. 

Carmine D.

procare wrote:

Procare:

I never fail to laugh when I see/hear Lou Costell do that skit.  Classic.  Thanks for the memories.

Carmine D.

vacmanuk wrote:

I would say the more expansive geography and population of the US vice UK made HOOVER and LUX more conducive to d-t-d sales from their inception with the advent of electricity in the US up to the mid-late 50's.  Both brands were the top sellers both new and used.  Others like GE, Westinghouse, Singer, Lewyt, Royal, even Eureka were small potatoes both new and used sales.  I carried and sold new Westinghouse canisters in the late 50's and early 60's.  By then WH stopped making uprights.  The canns were the worse new vacuums I ever sold for quality/performance up to that point in my business, new/used.  In the 50's, HOOVER stopped the d-t-d sales and went into department stores and indies.  In the 60's when HOOVER made the decision to go heavily into the big box stores, vice its mainstay vacuum indies, its product quality deteriorated too IMHO.  Lux now AERUS to its credit started and stayed d-t-d with a short stint in department stores that failed and it exited.  A good vacuum product then and now.

Carmine D.

PorcareMike W, and Carmine,

             I apologize if I errored but according to several ninety plus year olds that are not in the vacuum cleaner business but consumers all vacuum cleaners started out to get their businesses going after the success of the early Electrolux company that did the Door to Door sales.

    Procare

Regarding the electrolux flirtation with retail

1) the branches had complete control of all the kiosks in the retail venue
2) 96% of all the customers who stopped in at the kiosk here NON Electrolux customers, the remaining 4% had fallen through the cracks somewhere along the line, or they would not have been in the vac dept of a retail store
3) the units for sale were the lowest end, stripped down models, not available at the branch.
4) if a customer bought from a branch but was referred by a kiosk person a commission spiff was paid

All anyone wants to remember about the retail venue was the six weeks it took to deplete the stock after the program was abandoned.  When a District manager got behind the program, and had everyone on board, the retail and DTD elements complemented each other. When a salesman ran into a store bought Lux he thanked the customer for being with Lux and took note of her name and adress and checked to make sure she was added to the data base, if she was not already. bag delivery, service checks. then brought her into the branch customer base as a loyal customer.  The old timers saw it as competition rather than an opportunity. If their customers were being taken care of, they had nothing to worry about.

Lux grew to nearly 600 branches in the 70's under Con Foods when all they had was a deluxe tank, a standard tank, a commercial canister. and the B-8 polisher/shampooer. Poor management was the downfall of an American Icon