I have a suspicion that the colour mastertouch run in Canada was basically a test. The market in Canada isn't that much different than what it is in the US. I'm thinking that Weber was testing the market here to see how sales would do in North America.
Now, I don't have access to the numbers but from anecdotal evidence, it seems like the colours did OK. Certain areas of Canada sold better than others, but that would be expected.
From what I've read; the BBQ scene in Europe is quite different from what it is here in NA. There, most of the cooking is done by the woman of the house, and the women tend to be a bit more concerned with appearance as well as functionality.
The biggest issue though is storage. In this day and age of just in time delivery, companies do not want to hold inventory. That costs money. In North America the vast majority of grills are sold through big chains like Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart... Those companies want simple distribution to minimize their costs. So they order a shit load of black barbecues... same SKU, easy to pick & ship. They don't want to worry about having multiple colours sitting in a warehouse and slowing things down. Weber doesn't want that either. The vast majority of consumers are happy with that.
Also, consumers tend to be fickle! When a survey comes out, everybody says "Yeah! I'll buy that!" But when push comes to shove.... Nope! I ain't spending that kind of money!
Just look at @captjoe06 post. for an example. He posted about wanting this blue, but then didn't want to pay that price, because he can buy a used performer for much cheaper... but then; next year he might go to Montreal and buy a Mastertouch.
Now, Joe, don't take this as a knock on you. I think we're all in a similar situation, and that's the problem Weber faces. When a bunch of us on the forum state that we can buy old grills for cheap, and wouldn't spend the crazy money Weber asks for colours, but want all the fancy colours.
I hope this made some sense.
I agree with you except the part about if Weber did ok or not. The way I see it, this Special Edition test run was more of failure than success. Sale speaks volume. I do not know the exact stats but probably not as much as Weber hoped for as plenty of them are still for sale after a year in sale. Secondly, I'd bet that Warranty claims are way higher than normal due to chipping and quality (uneven, orange peel in some area, lid and bowl color match issues ...etc) issues. I've had them all. I had to deal with Weber few times with my Green and the Ivory and Smoke replaced at the store. I know of others that had issues with them. Also, I had inside info on these from BBQworld store owner and other large retailer owner regards to x color having issues on all their sales returning or getting warranty claims. Info from diff. owner about y color with issues of color and pattern changing for good after few high heat use. Take that with some grain of salt but who knows better than these top guys in retail.
All I am saying is that end of the day when Weber compiles all the stats... more than likely they would want to just stick to Black. Look at the new Summit charcoal or 26" or all 18". They are all black. Why risk it. This is why I do not think Weber will offer any new or MT colors in the future. I hope I am wrong as I like to add Blue, Gray, and Yellow MT to my collection
Topic: Wedgewood Blue I Love You (Read 17989 times)