Wine and Bagless Vacuum​ Cleaners

Bagless vaccum cleaners don’t perform their job as well as the old-school cleaner with a bag that you toss out when full.

This has been proven time and time again and is the advice you hear if you go to a good vacuum cleaner repair shop and ask.

But for most people that buy bagless vacuum cleaners, and especially for those that buy a second or third one, the numerical performance indicators don’t matter.

Owners of bagless cleaners buy them not because of cleaning ability (which is often good enough to do the job), but rather for the emotions they feel when they can look at all the junk they have sucked into the machine, and the feeling they get when they empty it into the garbage. The satisfaction level is off the charts, far more than waiting for a paper bag to be full only to toss it out and put an empty and overpriced proprietary paper bag back in.

And to connect this with wine and wine sales…

Consumers buy a bottle of wine because of how they hope it will make them feel while enjoying it.

People are paying not for the fermented grape juice (which is often good enough to do the job), but rather they are paying for the story they get to tell themselves about why they bought it.

It’s from Napa. It’s from Willamette. It’s from that little town in France we visited twenty years ago. Wasn’t that a great trip?

It’s natural. It’s organic. It’s family owned. I support the little guy.

I met the winemaker once. She was so smart. Isn’t this wine great?

It’s from a winery I’m a wine club member at. It’s the brand we had at our wedding. Happy anniversary, honey.

It’s the wine written about in the New York Times last week. It’s the wine Robert Parker gave 100 points. It’s a wine made by that famous winemaker who only works with the best of the best. I get to try this, many people do not. Aren’t I special?

We buy wine for the story we tell ourselves while enjoying it. We are looking for emotional satisfaction. We want to empty the bagless vacuum and feel good about what we have invested in.

An offshoot on this topic, related but not quite identical, is the proven impact of bottle weight, cork finish, label design, percieved scarcity, and decanting on the impression of value. More on that in future posts.