Buy It For Life:Con

This article was first published in the Skaha Matters Newsletter

Disclaimer: Even if most Canadians followed all the advice in this column, consumer choice is not sufficient to slow global climate change.

“Buy It For Life” and “BuyMeOnce.com” are consumer movements that promotes paying more for items we buy, but spending wisely so that those items last longer and are repairable. In the last issue I introduced the movement, but today I want to talk about drawbacks in the current “Buy It For Life” movement.

There is a tendency to get nostalgic about appliances of the past, which were made better and lasted longer. The fact is that if appliances were still made the way they were in the 1950’s and 1960’s fewer people would own their own clothes washer. A washer that cost $200 in 1965 would today cost $1,630. By “cutting corners” such as reducing the amount of metal, which is both expensive and heavier for shipping, washers are now affordable for a much broader section of the population.

Sometimes the emphasis on BuyMeOnce.com seems to be heavier on “consumerism” than “sustainable”.  The website offers $700 briefcases, $100 umbrellas that track themselves on the internet, and $200 sweaters. Those of us in the Dollar Store trenches won’t find much here that is relevant. BuyMeOnce is also strangely critical of brands, such as Doc Martin shoes, that produce well-made, long-lasting products, but have had to step back from lifetime guarantees.

I loved the article “Maybe Buy It For Life, But Not Immediately”.  I give the FrugalWoods blogger (http://shorturl.at/kHOU7) full credit putting her finger on a few problems. It is always worth poking around to see if you can get it for free, or borrow it, or buy it used. This is particularly good advice for new hobbies. FrugalWoods also suggests that if it the first time in your life you buy something, like a mattress, it may be better to shoot low, than to buy a several thousand dollar item that may be a mistake. Finally, a lifetime warranty isn’t appropriate for everything -- you are always going to lose more flashlights than you break.

I find the “know your style” chapter of “A Life Less Throwaway” less convincing (as does Frugalwoods). I have moved six times since my oldest was born and “grown” into and out of several different sizes of clothes. Had I purchased a Buy It For Life couch it would not have fit in many of those apartments. I could hang onto the clothes that fit my twenty year old body, but I am a happier person for letting them be a phase, and going back to the thrift store (so did the clothes).

The most powerful aspect of BIFL may be to change the playing field by demanding accurate data on reliability and repairs. Companies deliberately create confusion. Ryan Finlay, at ReCraigslist.com, writes that while it APPEARS you have choices, most of the appliance brands are owned by either Whirlpool or Electrolux so you wind up comparing three Whirlpool offerings to each other. If a sub-brand gets a bad reputation, they discontinue that line for another.

“[Mattress manufacturers] each year come out with 12 models of beds and to top it off they give the same mattresses different names for different stores” Ryan Finlay, at ReCraigslist.com (you can find the full text at shorturl.at/cuyI7).

 If BIFL can make it easier to vote with our wallet, that would be a major accomplishment.

Articles and cartoons on Teaspoon Energy by Kristy Dyer are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License You may reprint this as-is for free.