Door to Door sales and their relevance in 2018 and beyond...

[n0oxy]

water machines

These are the only bagless machines that I use, when you dump them the dust does not go all over the place, a bit more work than a bagged machine but not nearly as bad as other bagless machines where the filters always clog.
Mike

 

[jp10558]

I don't honestly see the point in Door to Door sales anymore. You can get the "convenience" without the hassle with Amazon etc. While I think education can help you get the most out of what you buy, it's kind of backwards with the DTD model. You should select what you want, and then, if you want, get some "training"...

 

[eurekaprince]

It would be so cool to see the famous Kirby vacuum cleaner for sale in a dependable chain store like Home Depot...right alongside their major appliances. Or maybe in floor covering specialty stores. I bet you their revenue would soar after moving over to a normal retail sales process.

 

[fan-of-fans]

I'm not sure how these types of vacuum would do in a normal retail enviroments next to plastivacs. On one hand a lot of people are just going to go for whats cheap.

But you might also have some that really want a Kirby or Rainbow, etc but never really gave it any thought because they never see a salesperson. Or maybe they didn't even know they still make them. In that case they may go for it if they find out they can buy one.

You do hear a lot about these high pressure sales tactics and taking advantage of people. It seems almost as if it's a scam or some kind of "cult" organization, although in this case, the product is actually very good, it's just the sales tactics can be bad.

I don't really see door to doors sales as being as relevant anymore. Mostly because a lot of people, especially women work anymore, so not as likely for someone to be home. Plus people these days don't really care what all a vacuum can do if it costs that much money. They'd rather have a cheapo bagless that works well enough. Quality isn't really a big deal when they see the price.

 

[sptyks]

No one will buy an expensive Kirby system from a retail store especially when placed next to cheap plastivacs.


 


The Kirby System needs to be fully demonstrated in the home so that prospective buyers can see what it is capable of and therefore justify the expense.


 


 

 

[vacuumdevil]

Door-to-door sales work by pressuring consumers and nasty sales tricks. Sadly enough door-to-door sales makeup for more vacuum sales then independent vacuum stores.
However usually you can find a current model door-to-door vacuum at the local vacuum store for much less usually with some sort of warranty. Definitely a better deal in my humble opinion. You can also often find these things for sale on Craigslist/Eaby for next to nothing after a year or two of them being out. So as a collector stay away from door to door vacuums salesman.

 

[jp10558]

Honestly, what got me away from cheap plastivacs was that they weren't that cheap (we were spending $200 every other year on a bissel or whatever) and they spent as much time "sort of working" and "broken" as working well. This was around 2005ish. Actually, it was my mom back then buying the vacuums, and I don't recall why we were spending $200 or so for them - were there no $50 ones, or maybe she just figured that a $50 vacuum was never going to be any good.

I honestly don't know if the masses will buy a $199.95 vacuum over a $200 vacuum because it's "cheaper" or if there's some sort of "close enough for the real thing" that you just step up.

I'm kind of amazed by the niche Shark has today. It would be understandable if they were $80 still, but I'm seeing many at $250 or so. That's very close to enough to go to a vacuum store IMO. You won't be TOL, but you can likely get several entry level vacs for less than double.

I guess for me, "cheap" is only a quality if it's actually noticeably cheaper. I'll compromise if I can get it for 50% or less of the "real deal". But when I'm at 70% or more, I always wonder if I'm actually saving anything.

None of that works for the DTD $2k + systems though. And I'm not at all sure there's actual value there for many people. I mean, you might need a Vacuum, but do you need the 5 other things a Kirby does? Does it actually save you space over dedicated tools? Is it as good as the dedicated tools?(Probably not)...