The videocassette recorder that Steve Wong purchased about seven years ago went on the blink, its metal jaws refusing to release the tape that Wong and his family had watched. So the Elk Grove Village resident did something that is becoming out-of-the-ordinary. He carted the VCR to Ken’s World of Video in Roselle to be repaired.
“We had to fix it. It wouldn’t give back our tape,” Wong said with a laugh.
Wong may be smiling, but many of the people who fix consumer goods — including electronics, small household appliances, shoes and watches — are not. Strong economic forces have left technicians like Craig Schaflein, service manager at Ken’s World of Video, feeling a bit like the lonely Maytag repairman.
It is not that electronic goods don’t need maintenance anymore. But people can purchase VCRs, irons, microwave ovens, shoes and watches for bargain prices. So now, when these items break or wear out, people often do not bother to have them fixed. They throw them away.
“It’s hard to talk someone into an $80 repair bill when they bought the VCR for $100,” Schaflein said.
A survey published in May by Consumer Reports magazine showed that about 40 percent of consumers choose not to repair a problem with a major appliance, electronic item or lawn mower/tractor, particularly if it is more than five years old.
This throwaway trend seems to be hitting hard in the high-tech northwest suburbs. Mike Blaesing, owner of Just Electronics Inc. in Huntley, spent 17 years as a repairman working in small shops, but he got out of the repair business several years ago. His current company manufactures professional-grade speakers for industrial and commercial use, such as in dance floors.
Staying in the repair business did not make economic sense for him or for the consumer, he said.
“If a heater coil goes in a toaster, the part is $13 and your labor is $7. That’s already $20, which is half the cost of a new toaster,” Blaesing said.
As a rule of thumb, Schaflein said people start balking at having a VCR or other electronic item fixed if it cost $100 or less to purchase.
Wong cited several reasons for repairing his VCR: It originally cost about $350, the repair price at Ken’s World is fair and the service is excellent.
Despite such high praise, Schaflein said the number of people seeking to repair their electronic items is dropping — a trend he attributes directly to the decreasing quality of new products.
“We’re getting fewer repairs these days. With video recorders made after 1992, the quality isn’t there,” he said. “(Manufacturers) have gotten away from using metal parts. They use plastic. Today, no matter what brand you buy, you’re lucky if it lasts two years.”
People with older VCRs, which may have cost several hundred, or even $1,000, to buy new, also run into problems when trying to have these items fixed. “As VCRs get older, many manufacturers discontinue the parts. You’re really taking a chance on whether you can have it fixed,” Schaflein said.
Elly Valas, executive director of the Lombard-based North American Retail Dealers Association, said there are other reasons consumers may opt for purchasing a new item. Plenty of stores are open at off-hours, making it convenient for consumers to shop, rather than having to wait several days for an item to be repaired.
“It’s so much easier to go to a store at night or on the weekend than to go Monday through Friday to have something repaired,” she said.
Betsy Taylor, executive director of the Center for the New American Dream in Takoma Park, Md., finds such reasoning faulty. The center is a non-profit organization that promotes curbing consumption and waste as a way to preserve the environment. She said there are costs many people may not be considering when they toss a broken VCR or toaster oven into the trash.
“What they don’t see is that every product goes somewhere. It doesn’t just go into the trash. It goes to the landfill,” she said.
“People have a tremendous love of the environment, but there’s a disconnect,” she said. “They don’t make the connection that we are constantly needing to dig up our forest and meadows because we need a place to put our waste.”
Even well-intentioned consumers who want to reuse or repair their products are often thwarted by manufacturers, Taylor said. “Things are made today with built-in obsolescence,” she said. “Sometimes people want to do the right thing, but they can’t.”
Plastic parts, for instance, are not limited to VCRs and other electronic goods. Dave Weinrich, owner of Weinrich Shoe Service in Arlington Heights, said he sees low-quality, plastic components used in new, inexpensive shoes.
For example, heel lifts, which are those brown squares on the bottom of a heel, are now frequently made of plastic instead of rubber. Rather than slip and slide all over the place, Weinrich said, “I have ladies who bring in those shoes (directly) from the store and ask me to replace the heel lift.”
Still, the proliferation of low-quality shoes, from pumps to party shoes to athletic wear, has hurt Weinrich’s shoe repair business, which was founded by his father in 1944.
The 1950s and 1960s were a high point for shoe repair, said Weinrich, 55. “Back then you repaired children’s shoes,” he said. “They didn’t have those cheap, athletic shoes that all the kids wear today.”
Senior citizens are more alarmed than any other segment of the population about the phenomenon of throwing things away, Taylor said. “These are people who understand what it is to be extremely conscious of every penny,” she said. “They lived in a time when everything was repaired. They made things last. There was a pride in that.”
At McHenry County Clock in McHenry, however, people are continuing to have their antique or expensive clocks and watches repaired.
“Many people . . . are still out there buying grandfather clocks that are worth restoring and repairing,” said owner Sheila Reed, who has two other stores, Lake County Clock in Mundelein, and The Timepiece in Skokie.
She also sees some customers pop in for service on their inexpensive timepieces, such as digital watches that were purchased for $10 or $20. Most of the time it is to replace a $5 battery.
Many times these inexpensive, battery-operated clocks or watches have sentimental value, Reed said. “If it’s a clock that they really like, or if someone gave it to them . . . then they’ll get it fixed,” she said.
But for those who find it hard to turn their backs on bargains, they need to look at more than just price, Taylor said. Other factors should be weighed as part of the buying decision, Taylor said, including a product’s durability, reuse and whether recycled materials were used to make it.
“A product that can’t be repaired or recycled isn’t good for the environment or for people’s pocketbooks,” Taylor said.
Making it a priority to purchase products that are intended to have a long life may keep repair people in the northwest suburbs busy at their work benches.
Weinrich, for example, said there are signs of life in the shoe repair business. Some manufacturers of expensive but casual shoes, such as Timberland and Rockport, are providing repair people with heels and other replacement parts.
“It’s good to see companies standing behind their products,” he said.
Weinrich, who repairs about 100 shoes a week, said he likes his job and intends to keep doing it. “I like working with my hands,” he said. “And by getting things fixed, you (the population as a whole) save tons money.”
Being budget-conscious is one of the reasons Wong and his wife, Nancy, who have children ages 10 and 15, always consider whether a product can be repaired before sending it on its way to the landfill.
“If you want to be a frugal consumer, you have to research products (before buying) and you have to keep them repaired and maintained,” he said. ” That’s what we try to do in this household.”
