It finally gave up and crashed

My washing machine is history!!! The poor thing has been limping along making all kinds of odd clanking,banging and rubbing noises for about a year but yesterday it washed its last load and died.

We went out last night looking for a new one but was met with sticker shock at the prices of some of the new front load models that will do just about everything except fold the clothes and put them away. And you have to use special HE soap which cost more than ordinary laundry soap but you use less so... I guess it evens out somehow.

We went to Lowe's, Menards, Home Depot, and ABC Warehouse, comparing prices on the models we can afford which isn't the new fangle dangle front loaders. I really don't need one that will sanitize diapers, or give me five different choices of how I want the machine to wash my delicate items that are unmentionable.

Of all the places we visited ABC was the most humorous, as soon as we walked in the door all the salesman eyes were riveted on us, kinda like attack mode, we were the only customers in the store at the moment. One salesman quickly followed us as we found the washing machines and started his speal of knowledge on us, but if we asked a question about dealing prices he had to excuse himself to go chat with his boss to get an answer, this happened about five times when finally the boss strutted over, (he reminded me of Danny Devito) now, I'm short but he was even shorter than me so I could look down into his very sincere brown eyes as he explained how he was prepared to give us the best deal possible but we had to make the decision right away because he was leaving soon. He bounced from one machine to another telling us this one is top of the line but this one over here is a better buy, and this one is the latest with a new kind of agitator that doesn't agitate, however they are all made by the same manufacturer, but have different brand names, (go figure.)
I asked about getting a discount on one with a dent that was obvious but he told us we could have a new in the box undented one for the same low price he could take off the dented one...Humm, now that would be a no brainer don't you think??? We politely told him we would think about it over dinner a headed for the door. I think if we would have hesitated just for a second he might have chased us out the door with more promises of bargains. Then there was the Home Depot where we actually found the best buy for the buck but we couldn't locate a salesperson. One young man paged, called and stayed with us for 15 minutes until someone who knew about the appliances showed up which was nice of him, but after inquiring about the one we wanted we were told it was on back order and not available until the 21st. By then my dirty clothes pile would reach the ceiling!! You would think if it is advertised in a flyer they would have them on hand. I'm convinced today's management of stores must be run by the government.
Now, this may not be a big deal to the men in our lives but, I know all of my women friends can relate to how frustrating it can be when our appliances don't work and finding replacements are of the up most importance. We will be out hunting deals on washers again today, maybe just maybe we will find the right one.