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> A friend loves Walmart as it means he no longer has to maintain his lawnmower. He just throws it away and buys a new one annually at the start of the season. He can still mow his lawn while abandoning the need to maintain mechanical knowledge.

It's hard for me to respect this as a valid choice. Waste and consumption concerns aside, the justification of not knowing (or wanting to know) how to perform simple maintenance is alien to me. Why even own a lawnmower at this point-- just pay someone to mow your grass for you. The milk and honey has flowed so freely for so long that when the tap turns off, people really won't know how to take care of themselves.

> Why even own a lawnmower at this point-- just pay someone to mow your grass for you.

The lawnmower is so cheap that it is the same price as two mows.

It is indeed wasteful, but that isn't a problem you deal with directly.

I’m not sure if you’re knowingly ignoring the OPs point or just ignoring it.

Buying two lawnmowers is vastly more wasteful (to the world, not to your pocket) than buying one and maintaining it.

That's the point. To the customer the pocket is all that matters.

Reducto Ad absurdum: if you break a bowl, do you spend time learning how to glue back the pieces, take it to a shop expert to repair, or simply go to any store and buy a new bowl for $5-10 (Assuming it's at least a decent porcelain bown)? Option 1 will take a lot of time and have a flimsy result, option 2 may cost $100+ upfront, so would only be used for a truly extravagant bowl or something.

well, our lawnmower is metaphorically $5 here, not 500. I see prices around $200 for cheaper lawnmowers, so paying $200/year isn't that much more expensive than say, paying a neighborhood kid $15 every month to mow the lawn.

If 200$ is reasonable price point. We can ask what is the normal rate of people who repair lawnmowers? How many hours you can actually buy with it? 2? 4? and then we aren't even at parts. Are they available, what is the lead time?

Labour costs are likely so high now that just replacing something makes lot more sense. And you get certainty that it works.

Also shouldn't there be some sort of warranty? At least for year or two?

9 months x $15 = 135. Even at double or triple, It's still a better deal and less hassle than having to juggle junk mowers every season just because they can't be bothered to learn simple hygiene/maintenance.

Also, I've done the bowl repair you mention here a few times actually.

When I was a kid I ran a lawn service, and I got all my engines out of the trash.

When the mowers are cheap, it's rational. They get the lawnmower out of the shed the first time in spring and it won't start, it would cost a significant amount to get it fixed, and they have to waste your time and wrestle a dirty lawnmower in and out of your car. So they buy a cheap new one and throw the old one away.

Paying someone is still more expensive than doing it yourself.

If the mower is really kept in the shed then it may be as simple as changing the gas, checking the oil and spark plug, and a little muscle to crank it.

I'd still think at some point they'd get an electric one...

> Why even own a lawnmower at this point-- just pay someone to mow your grass for you.

I don’t disagree with you about waste, but I’m assuming you haven’t priced lawn services lately. Even with a small yard and fairly cheap service you’ll be spending enough to buy a (cheap) mower every 4-6 weeks.

That is one of the problems with Walmart. It facilitates overconsumption. The world can’t sustain such a lifestyle for everyone. We end up paying for the negative externalities partially by living in a world we have poisoned. Whilst we drink water containing micro plastics we will be able to relish the fact that we were able to buy many more socks than we needed.

Except that we should have more long lasting things and should not add to the garbage pile because of cheapness and laziness :( But money sure trumps environmentalist idealism.

Different topic: As a foreigner, really every visit to a Wallmart left me with a very strange feeling, because almost every employee had a zombie like appearance one or the other way, demotivated, sad or emotionless looking, slurping slowly through the shop.. like employees super abused or completely lost and aimless. Nowhere else, even in cheap fast foods or similar I got that, why?

> almost every employee had a zombie like appearance one or the other way

For what it's worth, in my area (a midsize Deep South city; the customary environment for Walmart), I don't see this. But it is also a city experiencing some amount of growth with a viable future. Starting pay at my local Walmarts are the same as starting pay at a McDonald's or any other entry-level retail job.

I'm curious, where were the Walmarts you visited? I've been to "sad" Walmarts like that, and in my experience it correlates most strongly with the general sadness of the town -- places ravaged by the opioid epidemic, with few jobs and no hope in the residents' hearts.

> every employee had a zombie like appearance one or the other way, demotivated, sad or emotionless looking, slurping slowly through the shop.. like employees super abused or completely lost and aimless. Nowhere else, even in cheap fast foods or similar I got that, why?

When I worked there, the job felt pointless. It's a neverending pile of meaningless work that you can never make progress on. You're disrespected by customers, paid little, and know you're really just a cog in the machine. I didn't show up for work for a week before I quit. Nobody noticed I was gone and they were as surprised when I quit as I was that I wasn't fired. Every time I clocked in, I was hit with the feeling of purgatory. The useless drag of another day-- all for the benefit of -- ?

>But money sure trumps environmentalist idealism.

every time, yup.

>demotivated, sad or emotionless looking, slurping slowly through the shop.. like employees super abused or completely lost and aimless. Nowhere else, even in cheap fast foods or similar I got that, why?

Wal mart tends to attract some of the worst folk, and they aren't only there for 5 minutes to pick up a burger. That plus a dead end minimum wage part time job with zero hopes of progression dont make for happy employees

And certainly there is no price to be paid for this accelerated garbage-production loop!

Sorry but this attitude towards material goods, while quite common in America, is quite depressing.

Simply amazing. And I thought I was wasteful. What happens to the old mowers? Does your friend sell or give away his old mower?

I almost feel like our way of life (artificially cheap) is going to hit a brick wall once gas stops being cheap (peak oil).

Peak oil was supposed to happen a decade ago (maybe more?). It ain't happening. Adjusted for inflation, gasoline is as cheap as ever.

> Adjusted for inflation, gasoline is as cheap as ever.

There's the rub. Perhaps our rampant inflation is essentially the result of "real" peak oil, except instead of gas prices steadily increasing, the US economy is taking excessive actions to keep our petrodollar supreme and causing massive inflation.

Especially as challengers to petroleum economy arise: Solar/Battery/Wind/EVs - it's possible the only way to stay solvent is to massively devalue $$.

also what is the guy doing with his mowers that they only last a year? my dad neglects his mowers pretty badly and it still runs fine 10+ years later. only issue is the dull blade.

My father and now me are in the "badly neglects lawn equipment but somehow they carry on" camp. I'm not sure what it is, but our stuff just works. I have a shed for my equipment but I leave the gas in over the winter, I crank them right up once I need them the next year, I use gas from last year that's been sitting in the can ...

and these are cheap sub $200 machines

This is your brain on consumerism.

Tangential: but I’d really like to call out what a life hack, lots of cheap socks are. I got the idea myself long ago, as a kid, from the South Park creators, as they demanded unlimited new socks while making the movie.

Once a year I buy like a 50 pack on Amazon and it’s great. 10/10 would recommend.

My wife chuckles because I darn my socks a few times before throwing them out. I chuck them when they either aren't comfortable, look terrible, or are too damaged to fix.

I'm curious what tools and supplies you use to do it (besides the obvious needle and thread).

That's it- just needle, thread, and scissors.

Like this quote from Dumbledore, when he looks in the mirror that shows your deepest desire:

"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"

"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."

"One can never have enough socks. Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books."

The older I get, the more I appreciate receiving nice socks as gifts.

I just buy 20 pack (or more) of black ones every few years.

I'd like to call out what a life hack merino wool socks are. Cheap cotton socks smell after a few hours, merino wool socks smell after a few days and last forever. Also if you get a decent pair, they don't itch at all. Amazon sells some cheaper 6 packs for $20 that will for sure change your mind on socks.

Ever wonder why socks are 40 for $20?

Or what happens to all those socks when they’re disposed of?

Also tossing lawnmowers every year seems beyond stupid.

I can’t imagine the cost of replacing a mower every year being cheaper than buying a $300 ryobi that will last you for years to come.

Is this satire?

Lawn equipment ain't complicated enough to maintain to justify throwing out every season. This is insane consumerism.

Every season seems beyond insane.

However, let's say you make some common mistake like leaving the engine filled with gas during the winter (assuming you're in such a climate). How would you go about getting it fixed? Assume the carb is gummed up -- it's a $10-20 part, plus labor, plus the hassle of finding a small engine repair service to fix it, dropping off, and picking up. It's this vs. going to the Walmart website, clicking a button, and having the lawn mower show up at your house in a day or two.

I always bias towards maintenance and repair but there are tons of people with no knowledge of how to fix something and no desire to learn to. With services costing more and more, buying new is often a more appealing choice, sadly.

Blades need sharpened, gas maybe needs to be drained, are there other fluids that need take care of? Do I need to oil bits, are there bolts that I need to tighten?

I could spend hours learning to do this, and then buying the tools and materials to actually do the maintenance, plus the few hours of effort of actually doing it. Walmart has several mowers listed under $200, I can see why someone would find it not worth the time/effort/money to maintain a mower and just buy a new one. Hopefully, they are setting it out on the curb with a sign that says free for someone that does find that tradeoff worth it.

Lawnmowers nowadays are coming with "engines that do not require oil changes, ever!!!"... Either the lawnmower industry has deciphered the code to create frictionless moving parts and unoxidizable oils, or maybe the cynic in me is right in thinking that they just want you to throw away your perfectly serviceable lawnmower every couple years and buy a new one.

Just got an electric mower. Glad to no longer have to deal with oil changes. Thing packs up tight and can be stored in any orientation. Next will be the electric snow blower.

Most mowers I had growing up were two-stroke engines, that had oil mixed in with the gas. So they never needed an oil change.