Why can't we get this stuff in the USA?

[oldivers]

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[varekai]

like this, here in the USA, from the website? other than it not being stainless....https://www.weber.com/US/en/accessories/gourmet-bbq-system/cooking-grates-13

[addicted-to-smoke]

added to the list of other GBS accessories, other colored kettles ...

Weber prefers to brand itself here as a seller of ubiquitous black grills, instead of much of anything else.

[nitis]

I'd buy a stainless one if I could

Weber needs some help in marketing if they releases a different color every year they would sell. Look at all the hype for the red kettle

I mean once you have a black kettle you don't need anything else if that's all that's really available


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[cwmfour]

I would buy a SS GBS grate in a heartbeat.  I don't understand why Weber doesn't make all the grates from SS. I guess they want them to remain a consumable item.


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[Big Dawg]

added to the list of other GBS accessories, other colored kettles ...

Weber prefers to brand itself here as a seller of ubiquitous black grills, instead of much of anything else.

I dunno, ADS, having never been out of the good ole USA, maybe they have stronger competition in the other markets.  They certainly do us for granted.




BD

[addicted-to-smoke]

added to the list of other GBS accessories, other colored kettles ...

Weber prefers to brand itself here as a seller of ubiquitous black grills, instead of much of anything else.

I dunno, ADS, having never been out of the good ole USA, maybe they have stronger competition in the other markets.  They certainly do us for granted.




BD

I'm not of the opinion that any for-profit company takes things for granted, especially when they already produce other products for other markets.

Our grills are relatively cheap here, and there are more of them. Differentiation does cost money. The Netflix "Barbecue" documentary revealed that in at least one prosperous European country, tiny, miserable, disposable grills are popular. Basically, a tin foil pan with sterno fuel or whatever.

It's a culture thing, too. Did you know that in Europe, women also cook outdoors? Here, they'd have to be "camping" before leaving the kitchen. The Weber dealer images I've seen from elsewhere make a fresh Williams Sonoma store look like a Wal-Mart in the wrong part of town with half the lights out. It takes more dedication to buy a foreign product at a higher price, yeah?

In some ways, we are the ones taking Weber for granted when we lament Chinese made parts or the cost of new grills "when an old one nearly impossible to find is just as good/better."

It's my guess that the higher-priced iterations of Performer and Genesis allow a few other colors to be offered. It's my guess that they sell so many Q1200's that they'll offer colors on them. To a few retailers.

Every time another Nexgrill gasser or "Aussie" charcoal grill gets sold at a big box retailer, that's got to reduce the chances of Weber bothering with anything adventurous here.

[vwengguy]

This is the Q-1200 line up here in The Netherlands.
I don't see these on the weber.com site.

Then again..we don't have teams or HD Q's here.

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[Schuey]

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These are friggen awesome, I brought one and grabbed the wok attachment at the same time.

Although we aren't spoiled for choice like you guys in the States. Even the prices you pay for vintage stuff is considered super cheap to us here in Australia.

I guess we all have our things that others want.

Happy Grilling.....

[addicted-to-smoke]

I don't see these on the weber.com site.

Yes those are technically available in the U.S. for order ... "no one" typically stocks them. I've seen them all offered, used, on auction sites here. But for whatever reason, the now-traditional light gray or sand color is the default.

"Let's only stock the blandest, most neutral color, so as not to turn anyone away who just wants a grill." <-- marketing genius. Even BLACK is a special color.

In years past, one of our nation-wide hardware stores (Ace) offered red lids on Q's when no one else did. I don't think they do that anymore. But they DO stock the only red Weber tongs, brushes.

[Big Dawg]

added to the list of other GBS accessories, other colored kettles ...

Weber prefers to brand itself here as a seller of ubiquitous black grills, instead of much of anything else.

I dunno, ADS, having never been out of the good ole USA, maybe they have stronger competition in the other markets.  They certainly do us for granted.




BD

I'm not of the opinion that any for-profit company takes things for granted, especially when they already produce other products for other markets.

Our grills are relatively cheap here, and there are more of them. Differentiation does cost money. The Netflix "Barbecue" documentary revealed that in at least one prosperous European country, tiny, miserable, disposable grills are popular. Basically, a tin foil pan with sterno fuel or whatever.

It's a culture thing, too. Did you know that in Europe, women also cook outdoors? Here, they'd have to be "camping" before leaving the kitchen. The Weber dealer images I've seen from elsewhere make a fresh Williams Sonoma store look like a Wal-Mart in the wrong part of town with half the lights out. It takes more dedication to buy a foreign product at a higher price, yeah?

In some ways, we are the ones taking Weber for granted when we lament Chinese made parts or the cost of new grills "when an old one nearly impossible to find is just as good/better."

It's my guess that the higher-priced iterations of Performer and Genesis allow a few other colors to be offered. It's my guess that they sell so many Q1200's that they'll offer colors on them. To a few retailers.

Every time another Nexgrill gasser or "Aussie" charcoal grill gets sold at a big box retailer, that's got to reduce the chances of Weber bothering with anything adventurous here.

Does that mean that you think the possibility that there's MORE competition, at least in the Big Boxes, is the reason that Weber offers us less to choose from?

May be, in the Big Boxes.

I also wonder how we (at least the "we" who frequent this forum) are taking Weber for granted. I bought my WSM, two in fact.  I bought my Kettles, a 22 & a 26er.  I bought a side table for the 22, then modified it to fit the 26er.  I even bought that cool WSM backward ash shovel, a couple of the small chimneys (one for home, one for competitions) and even an extra WSM grate to add second cooking level to my 26er.  But, frankly, since I do 99% of my cooking on the 26er, there's little else that Weber has developed, or seems interested in developing, to keep me interested in shopping there.

But, I can accept that Weber does not take full advantage (IMHO) by making things that I particularly think would be marketable, primarily a 26er version of the Gourmet System, even though they also make one for three different gas grills.  I understand that it would take some 10 minutes of design work and probably half a day to set up a jig, and stock materials that they already have in their manufacturing plant.  But I can accept that it's just too risky, on their part because I might the only owner of a 26er that wants one.

What I don't understand, and I'm sure it's just because I'm just too dense, is why Weber would voluntarily choose to sell fewer SS Gourmet Grates - something they are already making - just to keep them out of the US market.  I mean, I don't know much about web development, but it must be prohibitively expensive to add a picture and a link to the accessories page already on the Weber site.





BD

[addicted-to-smoke]

My comment re: Nexgrill et al, was intended to demonstrate that just because they fall apart in 5 years or whatever doesn't seem to matter to people who can't or won't spend a dime more to get a better one. That circumstance tells me Weber plays it conservative, and it means big retailers (especially) do, also.

Competition at big box stores is interesting. You have a few larger brands that can afford to distribute nationally. But no one can afford to offer a full line to the one type of store that can give the widest exposure! I was somewhere last week and saw two copper grills. The non-Weber one was the same exact shade of copper as the Weber. That's not a coincidence, right? Maybe Weber won't bother pushing the green or the crimson to HD/Lowe's because they know it'll only take a few months for Broil King or whomever to offer "the same thing."

My comment re: this forum, is based on daily observations that a large part of what drives this hobby is the craigslist score and the DIY cleanup/fix/modification. Several comments exist to back up my claim that there's a very strong vibe here among some that openly disparages buying Webers of any kind at retail, despite the fact that if "we" don't, Weber will go out of business. If that's too broad of a brush for me to paint, please also know that it wasn't meant to imply *everyone* here.