Texas Toaster
139.95Last Chance! This product is discontinued—when they’re gone, they’re gone. Get yours before it’s too late!
Enjoy thick, full slices of Texas Toast in the convenience of your own home. Just pop two slices of regular bread in, and in just minutes you’ll have a warm, fresh slice of Texas-style toast—without paying restaurant prices or buying special bread.
Discussion
Like always, we’re sold ideas. One of those ideas is that we would enjoy making nice meals, and to achieve that goal we need an assortment of appliances to help do the job. They’ll make cooking easy!
But there’s a contradiction: if these are such wondrous little machines, why is it that we cook so little despite their proliferation? When we do cook at home, more often than not it’s a simple meal-in-a-box or heat-and-eat from a can.
The reality is it’s not the labor of cooking that’s the problem. It’s that we’re overworked and have too little time, too little energy left to spend time making nice meals, regardless of whether we have these “labor-saving” devices. We opt for quick & convenient.
Our ancestors made due with a wood stove, some knives, a spoon and a couple of pots. Why should we need a food processor, panini grill, Quesadilla cooker, George Forman grill, mixer, blender, waffle iron, dehydrator, bread maker, vacuum packer, toaster, coffee machine and microwave? No wonder people have to “redo” their kitchens—they need space for all the extra crap cluttering up their countertops and cupboards.
When investing in those kitchens, often people opt for granite countertops. Perhaps they are a little more resilient and make clean-up a little easier, but are they really going to make us cook more? No; the countertop wasn’t the problem preventing us cooking in the first place. If you want to maximize your enjoyment:
- If you’re working crazy hours, you’ll need to snatch back your time from your employer so you can enjoy cooking.
- If you’re out of work or on limited income, accept that those machines wouldn’t help your cooking even if you could afford them.
The machines replicate something that can be done manually. Perhaps they save some time, although in some cases they may just exchange labor for a new kind, such as additional washing up. They might also take away something pleasant about the chore:
- Dryers take away the 5 or 10 minutes outdoors on warm, sunny days to hang clothes.
- Dishwashing is an opportunity for families to bond as they clean up together after dinner.
- Raking leaves is good physical exercise, and it is fun to jump in them once they’re all collected.
The lessons here:
- Labor saving devices are probably not the solution to your problems.
- Quality of life is worth considering in how you approach life’s chores.
Website tips
This product is advertised as a “last chance”. Like sales, this is a way to create a sense of urgency and get you to buy before you think better of it. If this product really was a great seller, wouldn’t we get more? We’re hoping to manipulate you into buying something we’re having a hard time getting rid of.
Seasonal clearance racks, however, can feature good deals when a store is trying to get rid of their clutter. But if you’re aiming for fashion, skip the clearance because by next year, there will be new fashions for you to buy—another reason stores are willing to sell stuff cheap at the end of season.
TrueCost®
| Item price: | 139.95 |
|---|---|
| Price as labor: | |
| Percent of weekly earnings: |
