In my younger days, I must admit that the thought of paying several hundred dollars for a kitchen appliance like a KitchAid stand Mixer was not only not in my budget but also something not to mention I couldn't justify the expense. It's been a few years now and several mixers later when I realized that quality matters.
Like many people just starting out, I was interested only in 1 thing and that was price. How could I mix up my occasional birthday cake without costing my anything. I could mix by hand but as anyone who has ever known 20 something, there's a limit to the amount of actual effort we want to do before we justify going out and buying something. So during the first few years of independent life, the 25 dollar hand or portable mixers were my preferred kitchen mixing appliance.
Over the years I realized that buying the cheaper, or as the marketing people say "less expensive" portable type mixers, I decided to quit buying on price and start choosing consumer goods based on quality and a good value.
Now "good value" may mean a lot of things to different people but to me it means paying a fair price for a solid product that will last. You might ask why wouldn't I just buy on quality alone? The answer is in the automobile the Rolls Royce. The Rolls is arguably one of the highest quality built automobiles in the world. It is not however what I would consider a good value due to the extraordinarily high price.
It's not the same however with a lot of consumer goods like my KitchenAid mixer. Although far from what some would call cheap, it should definitely be considered a great value. The hand mixer was just tiring to use and underpowered so when shopping for my new mixer I knew I wanted a stand mixer. That's one where I wouldn't need to hold the mixer in the bowl while it worked. It needed a folding or very slow speed so I could blend in ingredients without them flying all over the kitchen. I also wanted a mixer with enough power that I could do 4 boxes of brownies without it slowing down. Heck, I even would like it to be able to knead bread and pasta dough for those special meals.
Although there are many styles and models, I decided on an Artisan Series KitchAid stand Mixer in a color that would match my kitchen. It met my needs as to quality and even included a dough hook. They wouldn't include a dough hook if the machine didn't have the power to knead dough, right? It's necessary to shop carefully however as I found the unit price range several hundred dollars between the highest and lowest in my city literally .
So I did my shopping online and checked out several of the most popular kitchen appliance outlet stores. I picked up the mixer I wanted and it included several handy accessories including the dough hook priced at below the lowest price I could get it locally! To make things even better, buying at the online store also offered free shipping. Now that's value!
I received my stand mixer in perfect condition at a price one third less than what I could have bought it for anywhere in town. It has speeds from a slow stir to a fast mix. My new Artisan Series KitchAid Mixer is a joy to own and does everything...including mixing the bread dough.
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