Vacuum Built Like a Tank

This is the story about how I purchased a vacuum for my apartment, the steps I went through along the way as well as some insight into the consumptive behavior of a guy who may not think like the average consumer. After the first few weeks of classes, I began to realize as I was cleaning my apartment that my vacuum was not doing a very good job. Upon inspection, I realized that the brush roll no longer stayed completely in place, and that the cause for this was a worn out groove in the plastic base of the vacuum. My first instinct would have been to fix it but since the company who made the vacuum was out of business and parts were no longer available I decided it was time for a different vacuum. In addition, the vacuum was given to me by my grandma so I had nothing invested in it anyway. This stage would fall into the category of motivation. At realizing my current vacuum was not performing as it should, I entered into a state of arousal that created the energy to achieve the goal of obtaining a vacuum that would meet my performance criteria. I am the kind of person who likes things that work very well for a very long time, and when they do break, I want parts to be readily available so I can fix whatever is wrong. While I am willing to pay more for quality, I prefer to look for something used that will meet my criteria once I am done working on it. This lets me save money. This part of the process falls under the category of felt involvement. It is probably obvious that my felt involvement was relatively high. I then narrowed my search to three brands I would look for: Sanitaire, Royal (all metal) and Kirby. These were my objects of involvement. After searching eBay, I made a trip to Easy Pawn on SR32. There I found a battered Kirby G4 in need of some new parts and a good cleaning for $50. While most consumers would have quickly dismissed it due to a relatively high perceived risk, I bought it. I had very low perceived risk since I was confident I could fix it. I knew about how much it would cost me to fix it and also knew that if I was not happy with it after I had repaired it, I could sell it on eBay at a decent profit. I am very happy with my decision so far. This vacuum works better than any I have seen so far, I had fun working on it, it is built to last and parts are easy to find. I plan on using it until parts are no longer available, if that ever happens. Best of all, this vacuum that may be the last one I ever buy cost me just a little over $100 after repairs. As I said before, I’m not your typical consumer.