I Can Relax Now

"So, you're going to buy the fridge today?" Gareth asked as he left for work in the morning.

I had emailed him the Sears and Lowe's links to some of the models I liked. I had concluded that a Frigidaire model at Lowe's ($975) was the best fit for our space and budget. But I also wanted to have it delivered as soon as possible, and the Lowe's website wasn't making any promises that I'd have it quickly. So I intended to go back to one of the appliance specialty stores, which cost a little more but indicated I could get my refrigerator delivered within 24 hours.

Fortunately, Megan had a morning playdate, so she was spared another trip to the store.

Between vacations and gymnastics, we hadn't seen much of my friend Gina and her daughter Mary this summer, so we took a few minutes to catch up. I told her I about my appliance shopping blitz.

"Did you go to Baker & Wells?" she asked. "That's where we got everything for our kitchen."

Gina had her kitchen remodeled earlier this year. It's gorgeous. I glanced at her GE Arctica refrigerator. It's gorgeous - and about twice what I wanted to spend on mine.

"You have to go there. They have the best prices and service."

I'd never heard of the place. I figured one more store wouldn't hurt, so I got the address in Chatsworth and drove on over.

I was afraid the product line would be a lot more upscale than I could afford, and sure enough, the front of the showroom was crammed with Vikings, Dacors and SubZeros. And there was a fine selection of the high end GE products, like Gina's Arctica (which she complained was only 23 cubic feet - the model I was replacing was 25). The prices were good, but way too high.

Eventually, I found a row of refrigerators that were in my price range. The Frigidaire was there, for about $50 more than the one at Lowe's.

One thing I discovered as I was shopping was that refrigerators that looked identical to me could be priced quite differently because they have different features -- none of which made sense to me. So that model could have cost more at Lowe's - but without taking down actual multi-digit model numbers and entire lists of features, it was impossible to do a true comparison. Besides, the broken fridge was 20 years old -- no matter what features the replacement had, it was going to be an improvement.

So when push came to shove, I based my decision on three things: (1) size - did it fit my space?; (2) capacity - was I going to have to deal with less storage space?; and (3) appearance.

And the appearance of the Frigidaire was kind of clunky next to the sleek GE Profile model positioned beside it. At $1060, it was a couple of hundred less than any of the other GE Profiles I'd seen on Monday. I decided to buy it.

"The soonest we can deliver it will be Friday," the salesman said.

I asked him for his card. "I need to call you back," I told him.

"If you leave and call later, it will take another week. I'm not trying to play games with you, but we're placing our weekly order right now," he said.

"I understand what you're telling me, but I've been without one since Saturday and I need a new one as soon as possible."

"Let me see what I can do," he said. He went into the back room and five minutes later announced that if I was willing to take the floor model, I could have it that afternoon. He would even knock $30 off.

The deliveryman knocked on my door at 3:00 p.m. Thirty minutes later, the new refrigerator was installed, the old one was hauled away, and I actually got Megan to her gymnastics workout on time.

"How are you?" I greeted one of the moms in the stands. I was fully ready to entertain (bore) her with my tale of air conditioning/refrigerator woes.

"Did you know I'm originally from New Orleans?" she asked. She described to me how worried she's been about members of her family, none of whom she's been able to talk to since the hurricane hit.

That put things in perspective.

I never told her about my petty little problems. And today, I made a donation to the American Red Cross.