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Comment by citizenkeen | Hacker News Reader

Literally all those things are discoverable if you buy in a store.

Edit: I maybe should have clarified "appliance store", rather than big box. But there are three appliance stores within ten miles of me that sell appliances. Not Home Depot, not Wal-Mart. Appliance stores. The refrigerators and ovens and microwaves are all plugged in and you can try any of them. The only thing you can't try is the gas ranges.

This is the world we built shopping for price.

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Are they? Perhaps I'm out of touch with the brick and mortar experience.

The majority of microwaves I've seen at my local department store are in a box, those few models that are on display are not powered.

Even in the highly unusual case that they were powered or within proximity of a free power socket, I think it'd be rather unorthodox to go to the store and test drive a microwave with your instant ramen.

Yes, at appliances stores. Also though, at goodwill. Mine always has like 30+ microwaves and of course you can plug in and test.

I went to an appliance store. A real appliance store like you're talking about. They told me that all the consumer models are the same. Same hardware, same manufacturer. They only had 2 or 3 to choose from. They said there is basically no point to shopping them, the quality is the same. You can pick stainless, or black or maybe get one that mounts under a cabinet.

Do stores let you operate these kinds of things where you are?

Yeah, any appliance store will. Not like a walmart, but also they probably will, at the very least you could buy it and return it, but just go to an appliance store or even lowes. They will have lots of floor models open and active and will help you set up to test anything else you want because the salesmen are paid on commission.

I think people are so conditioned to the modern lack of customer support from companies (or the strict adherence to "policy) that simple things like this are overlooked. Literally just asking them to plug it in before you buy it... is forgotten by most people. If it's not a secice written on a sign then it's must be impossible right?

>The refrigerators and ovens and microwaves are all plugged in

Not at the appliance stores near me.

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