Clarification of Answer by
jbf777-ga
on
23 Apr 2003 11:16 PDT
Hello again -
I had a lengthy discussion with the David Shull, National Sales
Manager of Capresso about this product.
This product is a Philips-design product with the Capresso sticker on
it. It was made for years by Philips, and Capresso acquired exclusive
contractual right to distribute it within the U.S. It is a very
bells-and-whistles-free product, almost low-tech compared to others.
When it came time with renew the contract, Capresso decided not to,
because they wanted to move into other products that were more
technologically advanced. The model 461 was a "fringy" product, had
no timer, clock, etc. The American market wanted more high-end
automatic machines, and this product didn't deliver.
In addition, Capresso carries nothing over 15.5" tall. The standard
cabinet in America is 16", and the Capresso is simply too tall.
In addition, there was something called the "banana war" a few years
back that involved taxation of bananas importing and exporting through
Portugal. The tax somehow came to involve coffee makers, and this
created an additional tariff on the import of coffee makers from
Portugal, posing a financial disadvantage to continue importing the
line.
David insists that there was absolutely nothing due to health reasons.
People on the net speak very highly of this Capresso model,
particularly in the newsgroup alt.coffee, with no mention of the
malfunctioning you're experiencing.
There's a possibility your particular one is defective.
Here is a response I received from someone:
| Capresso claims they discontinued the Aroma Classic, model #461,
| because it was "too tall" for most kitchens.
Piffle.
Capresso doesn't make machines, they just get exclusive US
distributorship and put their own label on them. The Aroma Classic
was/is the Philips Gourmet, widely sold in Europe where kitchens are
not generally higher than those in the US. I first saw one in the
late '80s, at a design/ergonomics exhibit in Chicago; when was
Capresso founded again?
The reason Capress is discontinuing these is almost surely because
they
couldn't cut a satisfactory deal with Philips, or they decided they
could
make more money with different machines. Most people in the US market
for a drip coffee maker want features like timers, thermal carafes,
ease of use, and so on - you can sell a cheaper machine with such
features more easily than you can sell a slightly awkward machine
which happens to make excellent coffee.
- David R.
-------
In addition, this thread [from '00] in a newsgroup posting touches on
it [the homeandbody link is dead]:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=3ca9a1c7%240%241426%24272ea4a1%40news.execpc.com&rnum=1&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dcapresso%2B%2522aroma%2Bclassic%2522%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26selm%3D3ca9a1c7%25240%25241426%2524272ea4a1%2540news.execpc.com%26rnum%3D1
Particularly this section of the thread, quoted below:
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=f67ofs83nsdrhps87qt2u3ni2llvmmc6qs%404ax.com
>Anyway, I would like to ask if anyone has or knows about the Capresso
Aroma
>Classic and why Capresso has discontinued this brewer? I bought one
about 8
>months ago and love the hell out of this thing. I had never had
better
>coffee since owning it. (I've BEEN purchasing my coffee from Peet's,
I live
>in Utah... I'm OK thanks)
AFAIK, Capresso hasn't "discontinued" it as a product being made,
because they don't make it. They just rebrand it, and are no longer
purchasing that particular model, which is made by Philips (Euro
company, lots of exposure in Canada, less so in the US).
I believe Philips still makes the device, it is available in Canada if
you look hard enough. Their webpage is frame based and frankly, far
too difficult to navigate (they sacrificed navigation for style, a
mistake IMHO), but here is the sorta direct link:
http://www.homeandbody.philips.com/Series/main.asp?Action=DisplayP&FamilyGroup=Food+%26+Drink&MainGroup=Hot+Beverages&ProductGroup=coffee+makers&Series=Cafe+Gourmet
Yikes.
Called the "Coffee Gourmet" by Philips.
Re Capresso.... Capresso.... sigh. I've heard so many things about
this company, in here, on the phone, in email, I don't know what to
believe. I think, to use a military term, they are a bit of a
cluster#### in the stuff they do. (excuse my French... I meant to say
"seal"... clusterSEAL... yeah)
I'll give you one example. When Capresso first launched, they actually
had a really cool, functional, and above all, professionally designed
website.
Take a look today: www.capresso.com - looks like the owner's kid did
it cuz he got a copy of Front Page off the juarez channels or
something. It constantly amazes me each time I visit that site how
completely uncool it became.
Another example - they get cool and innovative products (rebranded),
then discontinue them for no apparent reasons. This isn't to say all
their products are first rate - some are very crappy and susceptible
to normal wear damage that renders them unusable (the grind and brews
come to mind).
Lastly, the reason why you see Capresso products everywhere online is
because (I've been told by two sources) they offer probably the best
wholesale/retail markups in the biz, making retailers lots of dough on
sales. If this is true (and the numbers I've heard are accurate), I
can a) sorta see why they don't have a pro site any longer, and b) I
can't figure out how they are still in business.
All the above is based on second and third hand info, so take it for
what it is worth.
Mark
--
Mark Prince - Web Developer and Coffee Kid
mark @ coffeekid dot com Work: www.webmotif.com
Home: www.spiffle.com/webthing Fun: www.coffeekid.com
Consumer Reviews on Coffee & Espresso machines: www.coffeegeek.com
