A Glimpse Into The World In Which This Mixer Lived
Customer Relations
C.G.E. built strong relations with their customers through confidence in their product’s performance, using marketing tone that appeals to their expected contemporary consumer of the time (women) and assured warranties. The Barrie News highlights C.G.E.’s customer relations, even stating that defective G.E. products were mailed and received on occasion at C.G.E.’s small appliance Barrie plant decades after it closed (McInroy 2019). Customers attached the company to the building, remembering C.G.E.’s presence in their neighbourhood. Today, the factory has been renovated into an over 170 lease-able unit, preserving its place in the city as a historical location and an opportunity for business boom (McInroy 2019).
Economics and Affordability
Asking the question of who could have afforded this domestic appliance has led us to a glimpse of the consumer’s persona. Most of the advertisements include just the product against a coloured background, although, the ones that do include a model are women of the Western British culture. It can be assumed, then, that this product was positioned to be affordable by women of the middle class. The purchase price for mixers of this product range were around $15 in the 1960s, which is equivalent to $144.32 today (Canada Inflation Calculator n.d.).
It appears that C.G.E. experienced financial highs and lows in the late 1960s as a result of fluctuations in Canada’s economy. Montreal Star reported in 1966 that C.G.E. “sold a record volume of goods and services in domestic and export markets in 1965.” In 1967, C.G.E.’s net earnings were down 21%, citing strikes in Ontario and Quebec and rising material costs as contributors (Montreal Star). A year prior, C.G.E. announced in The Edmonton Journal that “selective price changes in small appliances” will be made, with “the housewares marketing division” stating that “certain items” will have “some price adjustments, but added that there will be no general increase,” (1967). Inflated costs for this mixer were not found.