Why the company's fancy Nespresso machine is worse than the old Mr. Coffee

Six months ago they swapped out our ancient Mr. Coffee drip pot for a shiny new Nespresso Vertuo. Cost like $800 installed. Now every time I want a cup I gotta wait 30 seconds for it to heat up, the pods are $1.20 each, and the machine's already breaking down. The Mr. Coffee made a whole pot in 5 minutes and the $8 can of Folgers lasted two weeks. Who actually thought this was an upgrade? Anyone else stuck with one of these things at work?

3 comments

3 Comments

sandra_bennett593d ago

Honestly $1.20 per pod is insane, I'd be bringing my own Folgers and a thermos at that point.

the_alice3d ago

Oh man, this is such a textbook example of the "fancy for the sake of fancy" problem that's everywhere now! It's like when companies replace perfectly good office printers with those subscription-based ones that won't even scan unless you buy their special ink. The Nespresso machine probably made some manager feel cool for 10 minutes, but now everyone's paying for pods between meetings. It's the same thing with smart home gadgets that break after a year versus the old dumb stuff that ran for decades. We keep trading reliability and low cost for something that looks nice on Instagram, and it never actually makes our lives easier.

sandra_bennett593d ago

...and it's not just coffee machines either. I've noticed it everywhere now. You go to replace something simple like a toaster or a set of measuring cups and everything has bluetooth or a touchscreen that'll probably die in a year. Nobody makes the boring reliable stuff that just works anymore because it doesn't look good on a shelf or in a review. Same reason you can't find a basic manual can opener without some weird ergonomic handle that breaks off after a month. We traded function for looking fancy and got the worst of both worlds.

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