Goodbye to White Goods?

Cast an eye round your kitchen appliances - how many of them are white? For years I have been teaching about the white goods industries - those that manufacture dishwashers, freezers, washers and driers - students have taken the mick and accused me of teaching a spoof lesson (I try to do this once a term!). Well perhaps they are right for there seems to be a distinct change in the demand for appliances of different colours if the USA household goods market is any guide.

According to a new report from the NPD Group, unit sales of black refrigerators, washing machines, clothes dryers, and ranges all grew in 2007, as did dollar sales, in most cases. Colours such as red, blue, and green are showing big growth and commanding some of the top price points - great for the profit margins of manufacturers and retailers alike who seem willing to justify charging a significantly higher price for multi-coloured appliances.

BMW - Bavarian Monopolist at Work [24 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Positive and Negative Multiplier Effects [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Importance of Productivity [20 May 2012]
Q&A: What do we need to know about output gaps? [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Output Gap [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on Elasticity of Supply [16 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on Elasticity of Demand [16 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Presentation on the Price Mechanism [16 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Price Elasticity of Supply [13 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Income Elasticity of Demand [13 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Price Elasticity of Demand [13 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision Blogs on Markets and Intervention [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Model answer for revision data question [9 May 2012]
Made in China - but not quite so cheaply…... [7 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Monetary Policy and Inflation Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Aggregate Demand Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision - Key Statistics on the UK Economy [4 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Using the Cost-Benefit Principle [30 Apr 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Tullow Oil and African Development [25 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: The Euro Zone Crisis (Revision) [22 Apr 2012]
Ukraine Hotel ‘Bandits’? [12 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Skills Shortages Hold Back Recovery [12 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Quiz on Business Costs and Profits [11 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Evaluation Question on Supermarkets [11 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Revision on Monopoly Price and Output [6 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Monopoly and Economic Welfare [6 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Price Elasticity of Supply [5 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Surplus [4 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Elasticity of Demand (for Rice) [3 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Subsidies [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Post Office Threatens Smaller Photo Businesses [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Revision on Scale Economies, Technology and Prices [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Nottingham introduces workplace parking tax [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Maximum Rents in Housing [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Cartels [31 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Capital Investment [30 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Brazilian coffee buffer stock hit by falling prices [29 Mar 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: EU Imposes Further Price Cap on Mobile Phone Companies [29 Mar 2012]
Life in the Slow Lane - UK Growth in 2011 Lags the Euro Area [28 Mar 2012]
Price of Stamp increases to 60p [27 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Evaluating 3 Years of Quantitative Easing [27 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Government launches New Buy Loan Guarantee Scheme [12 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Breaking Down the Cost of Gas [4 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Public Goods [11 Feb 2012]
Martin Wolf on Global Shocks [10 Feb 2012]
Russia’s monopoly power over gas supplies [5 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Inflation [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Per Capita Incomes [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - World’s Cheapest Computer [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Can the UK Computer Games Industry Grow [24 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Factors Driving Business Investment [10 Jan 2012]
Hopes and Fears 2012 [10 Jan 2012]
2012 - Carnage on the High Street [28 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Sub Normal Profits - BP Leaves the Solar Industry [21 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Patent Wars- A Touchy Subject for Apple [16 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tacit Collusion in the Supermarket [27 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Brand Loyalty in Mobile Phones [27 Nov 2011]
Beyond the Bike - What is the value of life in Africa? [19 Nov 2011]
Pasty Prices - Something to Chew Over [19 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Should the EU introduce a Tobin Tax? [14 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Time of Use Pricing for Energy [2 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Economies of Scale and the Kinect [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Google Maps to Charge for Usage [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Price Discrimination in the E-Book Market [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: UK Executive Pay - All in it Together? [29 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Is the Sun Dipping on Solar Subsidies? [27 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: University fees and elasticity of demand [24 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economists attack food price speculation [24 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Importance of Investment [19 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tesco Behaving Badly - Price Anchoring [17 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Can Exports Drive a Recovery? [13 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: UK suffers a weak recovery [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Contestable Markets - Lucozade takes on Coca Cola [10 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Homework Assignment on Consumer Spending [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Homework Assignment on Market Prices [2 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Supply and Demand Rap! [28 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Equilibrium Market Prices [27 Sep 2011]
Putting the “discrimination” into price discrimination! [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Supply [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Demand [25 Sep 2011]
Another Economics prop - for remembering MC=MR! [15 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Value Added in Production and GDP [11 Sep 2011]
NHS spending good, private provision bad? [5 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Baltic Dry Index and Global Weakening [19 Aug 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Price of Football [2 Aug 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of Volatile Corn Prices [12 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: FirstBuy, Affordability and Effective Demand in Property [10 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: High price of petrol drains demand [9 Jul 2011]
Where there’s muck there’s brass [6 Jul 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
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