By Penny Righthand, CLU, ChFC

Several months ago I began shopping for appliances, tiles and paints for a home improvement project. Everyone knows where to go for these things—those huge home improvement stores. This being my first such project, I had no idea where else you would go to buy appliances and sinks and toilets and such.

I walked into one of those colossal stores, and I was transported! The model kitchens and bathrooms were just magnificent. I could picture myself dressed in an organza apron and stiletto heels, carrying an elegant gourmet meal from the gleaming stainless steel oven to the marble countertop.

I looked for someone to tell me about this fabulous kitchen. A young lady offered to help. “Can you tell me about this oven and stovetop?” I asked her.

The dreaded blank stare
She looked blankly at the tag on the oven door. “This isn’t really my department.” That’s all she said. Nothing more.

“Well, is there someone who could help me?” I asked.

“Sign your name on the sheet over there,” she pointed vaguely in another direction. “They’ll call your name.”

I headed over to sign my name on the sheet, wondering who “they” were. When my name was mispronounced over the loud speaker, I headed back to the sign-up sheet.

What happened next was simple. The person who was free to help me also had no experience with the things I wanted help with. She did point out that one stove was “a lot cheaper” than the one in the model kitchen that had caught my eye. She said I could save a lot of money by buying the cheaper one, which looked “almost the same.”

It was clear to me that “cheap” was synonymous with “desirable,” as long as they looked “almost the same.”

So, I made my purchases.

Buying from someone with a depth of knowledge and a passion for what he sells is a wonderful experience.

Across the Bay
Not long afterward I was invited to accompany a friend to an appliance store across the Bay. Why anyone would drive across a bridge to a less-than-trendy part of town when they could get everything a mile from home in a perfectly lovely environment was beyond me. I drove anyway.

I pulled the car into the parking lot with the old painted sign that said Cherin’s. The place was not exactly a showroom. We walked around and found stovetops, ovens, washers and dryers—the same things I had seen where I bought my stuff. Martin Cherin approached us. Turns out he was the third generation to own and run this store.

Crispy lettuce
Marty asked me, “Did you ever wonder why you can’t keep a head of lettuce in your crisper drawer for more than three days before it starts drying up? Or why the ice cubes shrink in your freezer?”

I actually had wondered about these things, but it never occurred to me that there was an explanation. I attributed these problems to my own domestic limitations. Like forgetting that the lettuce had actually been in there three weeks, rather than three days. But Marty exonerated me from this self-abuse; evidently there are only one or two brands of refrigerators that address the problem.

Marty was a treasure trove of appliance wisdom: Why all ovens are basically the same, but stovetops vary greatly. Why you keep the oven open when you broil. Why the clothes dryer filter is always full even when you put in seemingly lintless clothes. Why a top-loading washer ruins your clothes and wastes energy. Why you can’t get a strong stream of water from your shower like you used to.

A passion for selling
I’ll tell you, buying from someone with a depth of knowledge and a passion for what he sells is a wonderful experience. And anyone who can answer your seemingly dumb questions in a way that opens your mind and lets in the light where before there was none is a true find.

And you know what? The appliances didn’t cost any more at Cherin’s than buying them where I did.

Hmmm.

Penny Righthand, CLU, ChFC, lives in the San Francisco area. You can contact her at 70 Washington St., Suite 220, Oakland, CA 94607, or by email at prighthand@ft.newyorklife.com.

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