Two couples came into the Museum to see it, and I gave them a guided tour. Which is really a sales presentation, but they don't realize it. In the 1910's room, I commented on the Royal model 1, which I demoed, being able to clean both the area rugs and (with the slide on nozzle brush) bare floors as well. Both couples told me they had hardwood floors and a few large area rugs. Neither couple had wall to wall carpet. Only one of the two couples had a vacuum cleaner. The one couple threw away their upright when the hardwood floors were installed.
As the tour proceeded, we talked about the Electrolux of the 1930's. How it was so popular in the South because it could clean bare floors AND do the dusting. This brought us to a discussion of the superiority of canisters over uprights for multi-tasking. By the 1950's room, the discussion of canister design came into play. By the time we got to the 60's and 70's room, I talked about how much better the dual motor power nozzle canisters were - how the use of one motor didn't take away from the performance of the other.
At the very end of the tour, when I was showing the current models in the Factory Outlet Store, of course the Prima is front and center. Since the entire thing was designed with the aid of the Museum, it was a very easy and natural thing to show them what vintage cleaner each part of the Prima was 'copied' from. Both couples bought a Prima with the Compact Power Nozzle (they would have had no need for the Full Size nozzle - it's heavy and with no wall to wall rugs, unnecessary). The WOW bare floor tool was the 'trigger' for the one couple to say YES. The other couple's trigger (the people with no vacuum at all) was the ability to dust without a dust rag. She stated that their house was very dusty (with no carpets, it would be - nothing to hold down dust).
The third sale was to a woman who broke the nozzle release button on her Fuller Brush Spiffy Maid broom vacuum. She has all bare floors and just two smaller area rugs. Instead of fixing the Spiffy Maid (which was under warranty), I got her interested in the straight suction Prima. The Spiffy Maid has no wand or attachments, and she wanted to reach the leaves that fall off her house plants. I fixed her Spiffy Maid (she's keeping it for the kitchen) and she bought the Prima for everything else.
None of those three new Prima owners had ever bought a canister vacuum, although one had used a canister when she was a teenager (she thought it was a Compact by the shape).
it was bizzy when I was there & not enough help!
