Pop Off ‘78 v. ‘08
January 16, 2009 by Tracee Sioux
Filed under Parenting
I scored this healthy air popper from the 1970s at a thrift store for $2.
The top part is broken, but it’s still functional.
But, then I saw this really pretty Nastalgia Electrics Hot Air Popper . I thought it was so cute I bought one for my brother’s family for Christmas too. It was our special family Christmas treat.
It SUCKS!!!
It didn’t even pop a lot of kernels and the bowl it fills is 1/3rd the size of my other bowl. Popcorn – popped and unpopped – flies all over the room. The second time we used it – it smoked.
One side effect of the last several years of hyper-consumerism is that makers of products – from cars to popcorn makers – began making disposable products that don’t even work when you buy them.
Mixers, blenders, popcorn makers We buy them and they work for about 30 days until we can’t return them anymore and then bam – dead.
Yet, if I pick one up from the 70s and 80s at a thrift store it’s still just chugging along.
Back then manufacturers still believed consumers expected their products to last 20 – 30 years instead of 4 weeks.
Images source: The Girl Revolution
Amen sister! My grandmother gave us a toaster oven last year that she’s had for …wait for it…almost 30 YEARS. Now, after we got it the handle broke off and the cord began to feel a little hot after about 6 months but GOOD LORD! 30 YEARS?