My friend told me at lunch yesterday that they are buying a $6,000 oven. It’s part of a larger, much more expensive kitchen remodel. Here’s a condensed version of the conversation:
Q: A $6,000 oven?
A: Yeah, it’s really beautiful. We’re really excited about it.
Q: How much do ovens cost?
A: Normal ones? Like $1,500-$2,000.
Q: How long to ovens last?
A: Oh, I dunno. 15-20 years?
Q: Didn’t you guys buy an oven like 10 years ago?
A: It was 4 years ago.
Q: What are you going to do with that oven?
A: Sell if on Craigslist for a couple hundred bucks.
Q: Why a new oven? What’s wrong with the old one?
A: Well the old oven doesn’t really fit the remodel. The way we’re doing it, the oven can’t have a backsplash. So we decided to splurge and get the one we really wanted.
Q: What’s so good about it that it makes it $6,000? That’s like 3 Toyota trucks. (my old car that I bought for $500 and sold for $900)
A: It has a really low setting on the stove and our old stove, even when you turned it down to the lowest, it would burn stuff. It has a “fast cook” induction feature, so we won’t need a microwave. It’s just a beautiful design. But really, it’s industrial looking and sleek.
Q: How much money are you saving on not having a microwave?
A: We already have a microwave. But now we don’t need to have it anymore.
I’m not telling this story to criticize or put down my friend. We all do what he did to varying degrees, with different things. I do it with travel.
What we buy isn’t because of their function. My friend’s family will not eat tastier meals because they have a $6,000 oven. We don’t buy things for the thing, we buy things because we want the feeling we get knowing we have the thing.