I was working today and approached an older couple in the appliance section.  She was looking for a new washer and dryer.  I showed her the standard agitator models, of which there were only 4, the wash plate toploaders and the front loaders.  I steered her away from the washplate models, one reason was she was so short odds are she could not reach the bottom, plus I know what poor performers they are.  She did not want a front loader, so we were down to a few toploaders, a Roper,  Ge and a Whirlpool.

I asked her what was wrong with her machine, she said she had it for a while and it started leaking.  I told here a few things about the new washers and  tried to warn her that the new machines, even with an agitator would not be like her old machine.  I asked her how old her washer was, she said it was a Maytag she had for 55 years!  The dryer still worked but she wanted a matched set.  I gave her the info she wanted but was going to look a bit more.

I wish I could have turned her over to a decent repair-person, odds are it was just a leaky hose, but there are none in the area that I'm aware of that would even look at a machine that age.  I'm guessing this was a '58 or '59 Maytag set that they bought when they first got married.  Really hate to see them go to the crusher, and I know that nothing today will perform like they did.  Made me sad the rest of the day.

I would have like to but my job is to sell.....  I did try to leave enough hints that she needed to do more research.  Told her about the dumbed down hot water selection, and the lower water levels.