Mystery Monday: Appliance Shopping

Does that sound ominous to you? Well, I assure you, it’s not. Just a few things I’m pondering from this past weekend.

The husband and I went shopping for new appliances on Saturday morning. We’re getting ready to sell my mother’s house and we need to replace all the appliances. I’m looking for something nice, something that I would use in my own house, but with the ridiculous cost of everything these days, I have to do my research to get a relatively decent price, right? So I thought I would make the trek to the local home improvement stores to check out the selection.

I know, I know. Shopping on a Saturday. Yuck.

If you go out on the weekend, you know what that looks like, right? Parking lots full of people, no carts available because they’re all being used, squeezing down aisles and saying “excuse me” a lot.

Yep. That was what my Saturday morning looked like.

Did I mention it’s hot out? And home improvement stores are not known to blast the a/c to make it comfortable for anyone.

Let me set the scene:

It’s a hot, sunny day in July – the kind of hot that makes the soles of your shoes feel sticky by the time you make it to the door.

You’re sweating as you walk inside because your husband drives a giant redneck truck and has to park at the veeerrrrry back of the parking lot because the truck is too long for a regular parking space.

Anyway. It’s mid-morning, and the stores have been open for a bit, so we’re not waking up the employees who haven’t had their coffee yet. I’m determined, but I’m not cruel. 🙂

My shopping trip consisted of two different stores:

The Home Depot
Lowe’s

Those are the largest and closest home improvement stores near me, and, at least from my experience, they usually have the best prices. I know there are other appliance stores, but I did a little homework prior to this outing, so I know my best option is likely to come from one of these two.

Our first stop…

We started out at the Home Depot closest to me. It’s a smaller one, so the selection is limited, but I figured it might get me what I need. During spring and summer, I usually end up there every other week for something or other, so I know my way around.

We walked in and were greeted by … nope, the guy looking to sell us something (a new air conditioner, I think) was looking at his phone. We didn’t have to politely decline, we just kept going.

The first thing I saw was a couple of people wandering about, looking at refrigerators. No employees, only customers. We checked out the various selections of things though we didn’t get far because they didn’t have cooktops or microwave/oven combos for us to see, which we learned after our back and forth down narrow aisles.

I was hoping to find an employee who might help. One who could tell us what other options they might have and place the order and whatever, but there was only one employee. He was sitting with a customer at a small table tucked between a row of refrigerators and a bunch of open-box merchandise that looked like it was stored there. The employee looked a bit bewildered, staring at a laptop screen while the customer had his feet up, playing on his phone. I don’t know if they were actually doing anything productive, but they could’ve been, so I didn’t interrupt.

Because the selection was too small and there was no one to help, I suggested to the hubs that we go to the larger Home Depot a few miles down the road.

Conveniently, it’s right next to Lowe’s, so two birds, one stone, and all that good stuff.

Back to sludging through the ridiculous heat.

Note: My husband never thinks of using auto-start to cool down the truck. I 😊 kindly 😊 mention that while dramatically fanning myself. 🤣

Second stop…

Next, after spending a ridiculous amount of time in shopping center traffic and driving a few miles down the road, we go to Lowe’s first since we have an idea of what brands and prices Home Depot has to offer.

Again, parking, walking, sweating … once inside, we were greeted by a woman who wanted to sell us gutters for the house. No, thank you. And we were off to the appliance section.

Guess where all the employees were? Yep. In the appliance section. This should be good, right?

Nope.

One employee was helping a customer while the rest were chatting. In their defense, the employees were doing a great job of looking busy because they were walking and talking. I even purposely looked around a few times, hoping to catch someone’s attention. The closest I got was when one of the employees almost bumped into me while I was looking at the cooktops. He was glancing back over his shoulder, talking to another employee as they relocated to a different area.

Is it just me, or are some people really good at not making eye contact?

Last but not least…

Since we weren’t getting helped and, like Home Depot, there was really no rhyme or reason to the appliance layout to help make a decision on a package option, we decided to go check out the larger Home Depot next door.

The parking lots were a nightmare, and getting across a busy street without traffic lights requires patience. Luckily for all of us, my husband has more than I do.

Once we finally got there, I was pretty much melting and really had to pee. We walked in and were greeted by the person wanting to sell us a new air conditioner. We politely declined and made our way to the…

Well, I detoured to the bathroom, and the hubs stopped to check out windows, of all things.

On the plus side, the bathroom was really clean.

This Home Depot was the same as the first, only more square footage with more options and more customers. Only at this one, there weren’t any employees in the appliance section at all.

We strolled through and checked out the cooktops (which the other HD didn’t have) and the dishwashers (since I saw one at Lowe’s that had these cool bottle washers inside). Still no one appeared to help us, so…

Wise man that he is, my husband decided it would be easier to place the order online now that we’d seen enough of the products to make an informed decision.

So off we went, back to the truck that was (OMG!) already cooled down by the time we got to it because, yes, he’s the best husband in the world, and he thought to auto-start it because he loves me and wants to make me happy. (Not because he doesn’t want to listen to me 😫 kindly 😫 comment and watch me dramatically fan myself.)

Where does the mystery come in?

What I find perplexing is that after two and a half hours of driving, walking, sweating, and wandering through three different appliance sections at three different stores, I had a whopping number of ZERO employees help me or ask if they could help me.

Are my expectations too high? Are the stores merely there so I can get a feel for the product, then I’m expected to go home and place the order myself? I mean, I’m not looking to be tackled by a commission earner when I step inside, but it would be nice if a knowledgeable person offered to answer any questions I might’ve had.

Now, I’m not placing the blame on anyone. I mean, if I were to do that, I’d have to take some of it since I didn’t seek out an employee, either. I didn’t raise my hand or tap someone on the shoulder, nor did I go to the customer service desk. I could have, and I likely would’ve gotten someone to help me, but is that the way it’s supposed to be?

To sum it all up, like furniture shopping, I’m not all that fond of appliance shopping.

In case you’re wondering, we ended up coming home and placing an order at Home Depot because they were the cheapest with the fastest delivery.

Oh, and on the way home, my husband bought me an ice cream cone at Dairy Queen, so it wasn’t a completely wasted trip.

Have I mentioned how much I love that man?

On a side note:

There is one HUGE benefit to shopping online if you are signed up for cash back at Rakuten.

I signed up for it back in August of 2012, so I’ve been using it for YEARS, and as of today, I’ve received over $2,000 back. It’s like having access to an extra coupon but you don’t have to search for where you stored it. I’ve got it installed on my browser, so when I’m shopping at, say, Target, it’ll pop up to tell me what % of cash I can get back if Target has an offer at the time. Some stores even offer in-store cash back, although I’ve never actually tried that.

Rakuten literally sends you the money you’ve earned every three months in a check or through PayPal.

Oh, yeah, and if you sign up between 7/1/2024 and 9/30/2024 using my link, Rakuten tells me you’ll get an extra 10% back on top of the current rate for whatever you’re purchasing. Plus, you can then refer your friends and get extra, too.

Sunday

March 29, 2026

6:05 am

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