I spent 7 weeks in China, Singapore, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  Through out China front loaders are the norm for automatics and portable impeller driven top loaders taking a second place.  For those expats or nationals who wanted a larger option, GE's name plate was apparent but the innards appeared to be Haier.  I was very surprised to the quality of appliances offered to Chinese in their own country.  I soon became aware factories manufacture items based on the specs a customers contracts them to build.  Second class products arriving in the US have nothing to do with Chinese quality control and everything to do with US companies making a dollar on our back and allowing the Chinese to take the heat for crap products.  Outside of Mainland China and in Taiwan there was a huge Whirlpool presence and those with kitchens and laundry rooms large enough to hold them had typical US full sized appliances.  Buick co-brands with China to provide cars so I might conjecture if GM still had an interest in Frigidaire we might be seeing the name plate showing up in Chinese homes.

How fascinating especially like the first three pics.

Matthew, those Whirlpool's... had it not been for the cheap control board I reckon they would still be going strong. It's the same problem with them all. Lights up light a Xmas tree and all you get are blinking lights.

Thanks for posting the pictures Kevin! How does it work with delivering and installing the appliance in the customer's home? Is this the responsibility of the customer, or does the store do it? If the store does, is there a separate charge for this?

This might seem silly to ask, but there are stores in the US that offer this service at no cost, while some do apply a separate charge.