I’ve always liked Miele vacuum cleaners, but after a trip to Portugal I’m wondering if they’re massively ripping off American consumers. Here’s a Complete C3 at El Corte Inglés, a full price (to say the least!) department store in Lisbon:
It’s 359 euros, but that includes 23 percent value-added tax. So really this is perhaps a $300 vacuum cleaner. I’m not sure exactly which accessories are included, but it says “parquet” so I think that means the powered carpet device is not part of the deal.
The cheapest vaguely comparable Miele Complete C3 that I could find in the U.S. was at build.com for $839 (before tax, consistent with generally fraudulent U.S. retail tactics):
Is it time to get a distinguished Canadian economist to investigate? Here’s some of her work:
Separately, here’s another tweet from everyone’s favorite Canadian:
What would happen to a noble Gazan if he admitted that Color Me Barbra was his favorite album?
Circling back to Miele and corporate greedflation, here’s a Compact C1 Ecoline that is under $200 before tax:
It is $470 at build.com, i.e., more than 2X the price.
Just remember that official economic theory teaches that arbitrage does not exist, otherwise markets would have instantly magically eliminated it.
Don’t believe your eyes.
There is a problem with the “arbitrage” here: units sold in the euro zone have electric motors that run on 220-240 volts vs. 110-120 in U.S. If not for this issue, I have no doubt that enterprising folks would import and resell them here (outside of Miele’s distribution), as they do for other items.
The units sold in Europe aren’t like-for-like, which at least partly explains the price differences noted (hence no arbitrage). Among the differences: their motors are capped at 900 watts (regulation), whereas those in the U.S. often have 1200 watt motors.
But why buy Miele in US?
IMHO, Dyson is a better choice – they last forever, suck excellently, available at Costco, and there are no filters to replace!
SK: It’s actually a good thing that Miele’s have HEPA filters to replace! Dyson gets lower ratings on Consumer Reports than bagless Shark vacuums costing less than half as much, partly because the Dysons are so noisy. The $990 Miele that CU rated comes out slightly ahead of a $350 Kenmore overall, but is dramatically quieter.
I used to love Panasonic canister vacuums, but they withdrew from the U.S. market in 2017 because Americans refused to pay a little extra for high quality and low noise. Presumably it is the same situation with Bosch. Miele has the entire market for people who are willing to pay extra and they run with it by charging 200% extra instead of the 20% extra that Panasonic used to charge.
Any chance those vacuum cleaners are subject to tariffs?
Thought Greenspun had a housekeeping service. So where’s the Portugal mansion?
Our underbutler here in Florida likes the Miele. Our Portugal mansion is airbnb.com.
I just bought a Miele C1 on Amazon for $350.
It’s fine, I guess. No brush roller in the head, which makes me wonder if it will actually work.
Many relatively common products are much cheaper in Europe. For example, Nespresso capsules cost about 40% more in the US. Companies aim to maximize their profits, and I’m fine with that as long as they do so without the “help” of regulations or tariffs. If someone is willing to pay more, why not take the money?
My cost of living in Germany is about half of what it would be in the US, but so is my salary.
That’s ok because I get a 28 hour work week and 40 days of paid leave. I’m basically living on welfare!
On topic: Miele has become a lot cheaper since they opened factories in Eastern Europe. Supposedly the quality also went down somewhat (still better than most thought). I usually just buy the cheapest “made in Germany” model from Bosch/Siemens and haven’t been disappointed.
FWIW a Miele dishwasher I bought was crap; failed after a year but after warranty.
Maybe it was one of the early built in Eastern Europe ones alluded to above so possibly unworthy anecdata.
I love our Miele C3 for its ease of use, relatively quiet motor, power, and dust filtration. The warranty is not bad, either – I got a part replaced for free (today, actually) on one I bought in 2022. But I do agree that they’re way overpriced in the US. Portugal is looking better and better!