Buying into a trend

Grandma and Grandpa are chatting over coffee at the kitchen table, Dad’s comparing prices in newspaper ads, Mom’s loading the washing machine and the kids are watching cartoons. A typical Saturday at home? No. These people aren’t related. They don’t even know one another. And although they’re all under one roof, they’re not in a house, but in a new kind of appliance store.

At the Maytag Store in Costa Mesa, which opened its doors last weekend, dishwashers are spraying dirty plates, refrigerators are keeping cream chilled for the brewing coffee, and ovens built into fine oak cabinets are turning out chocolate chip cookies, bread and pizza. It’s the latest in -- and most elaborate example of -- “retail theater,” a concept first staged by active wear and electronics retailers that host in-store shows, kids’ play areas and after-hours parties. The idea is to keep the audience captive.

Mike and Pat Holritz are here to find a stackable washer/dryer “that’s whisper-quiet and doesn’t go ‘bump, bump, bump,’ ” says Pat. But they’ve spent their first half-hour sitting at a table for two in the kitchen, eating pastries off blue china and talking about the floral centerpiece.

“The girl at the door ushered us right over here and we haven’t moved,” says Pat, who has been married to Mike for 45 years. “I’m admiring the decorations around us, which look like what I would do at home and not staged like in House Beautiful magazine, and Mike, who was an engineer, likes the geometric way those pasta noodles are arranged.”

As for the appliances, well, there’s plenty of time to check those out, which the couple intends to do ... this time. “We do a great deal of research before we go to the store, but some things you just don’t think about until you’re actually using it,” says Pat.

The last appliance they bought was a microwave, and, like most people, they stood back and watched the salesperson demonstrate how it worked. “She pushed a button to open it, which it did beautifully, and we brought it home,” says Pat. “But when we used it for the first time, we realized that since it didn’t have a handle, we had to slam the door to shut it. Mike goes to bed earlier than I do, and if I want to heat a cup of tea, there’s no way for me to close the door quietly. I wish I had tried it first.”

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Dirty dishes welcome

Some appliance dealers have working kitchens and offer cooking classes during special promotions, but Maytag has taken customer interaction to the next level. Much like a Consumer Reports research laboratory, the competitions’ dishwashers are plugged in next to Maytag’s, and shoppers are encouraged to bring in dirty plates to test the machines. In TV spots and fliers announcing the opening of the Costa Mesa store, people were invited to “Bake cookies. Clean your dishes. Take our washers for a spin .... Stop in and test-drive your new appliance today!”

And they’re invited to linger. Spice racks, cookbooks and giveaway recipe cards in the kitchen add a homey feeling. Video monitors present a wouldn’t-it-be-nice way of getting the laundry and cooking done, and the bathroom, delicately lighted by an antique tea lamp, has butterscotch-colored Venetian plastered walls created by a crew working on the mansions along Newport coast.

“All that’s missing are the foot massagers,” says Laura Garrett, who owns the store -- the first in Southern California -- with her husband, Tom Gill.

There’s a retail benefit to creating this comfort zone: At the 14 other Maytag Stores that have opened across the U.S. in the last two years, shoppers are staying twice as long as in other appliance departments.

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Raising the comfort level

Brian Hicks, who owns four traditional appliance shops and launched the first Maytag Store in the state 10 months ago in Rocklin, northeast of Sacramento, says customers act differently in the new showroom.

“You see in their eyes that they are at ease when they’re here,” he says. “Shoppers probably go to three or four stores before they decide, and they’re hearing different things at each place and they wonder who to believe. But if they try things out, bring in a sleeping bag, as some of our customers do, to see how it can get clean, they see we’ve got nothing to hide and there’s a big sigh of relief.”

Across the 5,000-square-foot showroom floor is a cluster of clothes washers, which the Holritzes will see eventually, after first exploring the free-standing double ovens (“I’m not much of a cook, but I wish I had a house that had this,” says Pat as she pulls out one of the racks) and the new “wide by side” refrigerators, which can fit a 21-inch deli tray in the fridge and a 14-inch pizza box in the freezer. “The first appliance we bought was in 1961, a Frigidaire refrigerator for our first house,” reminisces Mike. “It was still working when we gave it away 25 years later.”

Most people keep washing machines longer than cars, refrigerators outlast many marriages, and ovens stay put well after the kids have moved on, says Jill Notini of the Assn. of Home Appliance Manufacturers, based in Washington, D.C. “These are products that last a long time, and if you think about how much time people spend in homes and kitchens, they’re central to a family, and people want appliances that fit their life,” she says.

At one of the washing machines, a woman is stuffing a king-size comforter into the front-loading tub. Store owner Gill is by her side, saying that the machine is designed to handle queen-size bedding, but “hey, if you can get it in there, we’ll wash it for you.”

Pat walks slowly by, shaking her head. “I heard you could bring your things here to test the appliances, but I was raised in the days where you didn’t air your dirty laundry.” Mike smiles at her joke. They’ve been in the store an hour and are inching toward the stackable washer/dryers.

“Unlike the big-box stores such as Home Depot or Best Buy, where things can get overwhelming, specialty retailers like the Maytag Store want to create an ambience where people feel more comfortable and are not intimidated by the wizardry,” says Janice Costa, editor of Kitchen and Bath Design News, a national magazine for interior designers and architects. “They can make a convection oven, but no one knows how to cook in it. So they say, ‘Here, taste this,’ and nervous consumers can appreciate the benefits. The pleasant scents, the activity, people hanging around, the dishes in the sink -- it’s like walking into someone’s kitchen.”

Flying into the store, Bryan Bayer doesn’t have time for coffee and chitchat. A “full-time father” with a wife who works long hours heading a construction company and two young daughters at home, he makes a beeline for the Atlantis washer. “I’ve been checking newspaper ads for prices on that model, and this is the best,” he says. Within minutes, he’s made delivery arrangements and is out the door.

Almost two hours after they arrived, the Holritzes -- holding an autographed photo of the Maytag Repairman (“We’ll hang it in the laundry room,” says Pat) -- have found the washer/dryer they came for. “The only thing we didn’t get,” says Pat, “was a hug.”