Kirby of Wichita is gone

[kirbysthebest]

I drove down East Central a few weeks ago and noticed the Kirby office was closed. I just did a search on the Kirby.com website and it confirmed that Kirby of Wichita is gone.

This is the first time that I know of in at least 65 years that there isn't a Kirby distributor in Wichita. I am not surprised as the lady that ran the parts and service was not very nice.

I am not worried for supplies as I can find everything online, but I did frequent them, even though she wasn't nice, for supporting a local business.

Is this a sign of our times? Wichita has been hit hard with Boeing leaving, Hawker-Beechcraft's bankruptcy and merger with Textron. Bombardia is talking cut backs, and of course, or Governor is a ***-####.

 

[vacerator]

The Kirby store

here is closed as well, and our governor is the other party.

 

[kirbyloverdan]

All Kirby stores

Here in NJ are still open and we have a Republican governor.
I don't think political party dictates if a Kirby store will remain open .
But then again look at Detroit the automobile Mecca of the USA run by Democrats and that city is a disaster and people are living in poverty .
It has a lot to do with customer service and if people have jobs to be able to afford a luxury such as a Kirby .

Dan

 

[vacerator]

Dan,

Packard Motors closed in 1956, yet the motor city thrived until the General Motors management over outsourced everything from parts to engineering design to India. Then they've had to bring most of it back. Were it's directors democrats? Nope. Neither were their bankers, and we had to bail them all out also. The house and senate majority were republican from November 2004.
Kansas has a republican governor also.
The republican candidate has gone belly up four times. Many of his subcontractors were never paid and lost everything.
A 9 million dollar negative cash flow tax deduction in 2005.
If a working class person had a 50 thousand dollar loss, they'd have lost most of their capital.
Surely you guest?

 

[kirbysthebest]

This is not the forum for political debate, and I apologize for beginning that portion of it.

The point being is the economic climate in Kansas is not there to support high end businesses. Even low end and necessary businesses are having a difficult time. Wichita has always been a boom or bust town, but the economist say we will not recover if we don't reinvent.

We are no longer the cowtown of yor, and the crayon on the wall is telling intelligent people that we are no longer the Air-Capital either.


The closing of businesses is an example, the other being that Kirby of Wichita has not ran a door-to-door campaign since 2009. This severely limits their sales, along with, along with as I mentioned before, the parts and service lady is rude and sharp with the customers.

 

[kirbyloverdan]

Pakard motors

Went out of business MANY years ago most people have no idea who they are we can go back and forth for ever on political stuff .

All I am saying is don't blame political party when it sounds like customer service shut that place down .

Dan

 

[myles_v]

Kirby of Fredericksburg, VA, is doing pretty well from what I can tell. They often donate their trade-ins to a local Goodwill.

I haven't known anyone to work for them for longer than a month, and they clearly have an issue finding people to hire because they have little signs at many major intersections advertising "WORK $450/Week per company agreement, Call MARK 540-XXX-XXXX"
They often have 5-6 signs per intersection, and the signs do not tell you what the company is at all. The building they have their office in doesn't even say Kirby, it says "KOF Associates" (Kirby of Fredericksburg).

Supposedly they only do door-to-door campaigns in cities that are half an hour to an hour and a half away, going up into Maryland.

 

[vacerator]

re; "customer service shut the place down"

Exactly! Party's aside, GM directly and indirectly unemployed at least 40% of it's customers.
If you lose a $50,000 a year income, you don't buy a new car, or much else.
That was my point.
Now, concerning the crooked politicking that went on in Detroits city Govt., that was one party sided.
One of the data recorders on the N.J. Transit crash last week was not working.
Guess who has direction over N.J. Transit? The governor.

 

[kirbyvertibles]

There was one in Bartlesville Ok. That I would get 50 to 60 trade in machines at a time from that's no longer here. No warning just gone. As far as I know the only one anywhere close to SE Ks and NE Ok is Joplin Mo. For you out West I imagine it would be Topeka.
Harley, do you know what ever happened to the Tristar dealer there on McLean? It was called something like Eagle Innovations or something like that. I used to buy trade ins there too.

 

[human]

I'm not sure about the Kirby dealer here. I've driven by it a time or two and noted its location but it's not on a side of town I frequent. A little closer to home, I did notice a few weeks ago that the local Aerus dealer is gone, replaced by Hungry Howie's Pizza. I can't say strongly affected by the fortunes of either establishment, since I've ever done business with them, not out of spite or dissatisfaction but because I just haven't had the need to since I prefer to buy most of my vacuum supplies online.

 

[kirbysthebest]

Phillip,


I am not sure about the Tri-Star dealer.  I know that they used to have sign ups for demo's in the malls, but last time I was Towne West the company doing the sign up was  a water treatment company.


 


When I went to Kirby.com, they indicate there is a Kirby dealer in Haysville.  Wondering if the Wichita company has moved to cheaper real-estate?


 


 


 


 

 

[dysonman1]

Kirby dealers in my area come and go so fast. The last one we had, about six months ago, was a mid 20's woman, who told me she had worked selling Kirbys in almost 20 different states ('staying power' - lol). One of the women she had hired to sell Kirbys actually was wearing leggings instead of pants. They toured the vacuum museum and asked all kinds of questions about the history of the Kirby. I wished them well on their sales adventures and even suggested streets they might want to canvas. I saw them one other time, at Taco Bell eating lunch, then I never saw them again. Have had many phone calls from people wanting to know if we carry bags for their 'new' Kirby (we do). Like Judy Garland said in Wizard of Oz: "People come and go so quickly around here".

 

[tolivac]

Wouldn't a city as large as Wichita have more than one Kirby dealer??When I was in DC area--they had SEVERAL of them.The Kirby dealer of Greenville,NC is long gone-same with Filter Queen.Only Rainbow and Areus remain.both have been here as long as I remember.

 

[vacerator]

Witchta

isn't that big. The average mean incomes of the general populous must be considered.
Kirby's are expensive, and there are Walmmarts, Targets, etc. with cheap vacuums everywhere.

 

[kirbysthebest]

Population of ICT

680,398 the largest city in Kansas.  F/K/A The Air-Capital, Median income $48,218.  With the real mean income $52,231.  This is down from the 2000 census due to the loss of so many of the higher paying manufacturering jobs.


 


And it's WICHITA the Indian spelling not the sorcery spelling, Witchita.


 


Home of Erin Brockovich,  Kirsty Alley, Don Johnson, and Annette Benning.

 

[vacerator]

I didn't mean to

misspell it. I was having my first morning cup.

 

[panasonicvac]

Had two Kirby dealers close to where I live at both closed, now my only local Kirby dealer is about 25 miles away from me. My folks had one dealer by their old house before that closed WAY long ago. Yesterday I just found out that my local Aerus store had closed so now my local Aerus dealer is about 40 miles away from me.

 

[vacerator]

Seems they will

need more door to door sales staff then?

 

[n0oxy]

dealers closing

Not sure if we have any Kirby dealers here, we used to have an Aerus dealer and they closed. With most things being available on the internet now, if you want your product to be successful, you need to sell that way. Selling via in home demonstration is a dying breed.