Mainstays Is Walmart's Private Label

Mainstays is Walmart's brand of home goods offered at affordable prices. A wide range of furnishings includes bedding, bath, furniture, home décor, kitchen, dining, patio and garden, mattresses, and arts & crafts. The products are probably made by different vendors for Walmart.

In helping my senior Mom, I've had to buy several home goods that she has overlooked in her elder years. I found some of her kitchen tools to be either outdated, inconvenient to use, or simply in need of replacement. So, I've become familiar with Mainstays' line of kitchenware and am duly impressed! You get decent quality without breaking the bank. In making decisions for her, I am relearning a lesson in getting good value for the money! 

A Mainstays kitchen tool is a great deal! Buying the top-of-the-line isn't always the right decision. Good value for the money is based on an item's purpose and frequency of use, as well as our judgment of "do we need the top-of-the-line or an item that's good enough?" If a good enough article can be replaced 25-30 times before reaching the top-of-the-line's price, we will come out ahead even if we must replace it.

Speaking from experience, we've replaced 2 12-cup  programmable Black & Decker coffeemakers with a 12-cup programmable Mainstrays coffeemaker which was offered for a rollback price of $12. The former is a great brand and we can say the same for Mainstrays, which was 1/3 of the price. Our latest coffeemaker does everything a customer needs it to do! You couldn't pay me to be in the same room if my mom sips anything less than a hot cup of good coffee in the mornings!😳

Some of Mainstays' prices seem too good to be true. We haven't tried its full line of products, and yet we haven't bought anything from the brand that has disappointed us! I'd recommend Mainstays as comparable to name brands of like commodities. When we need good enough housewares, we'll always consider Mainstrays.

You may also enjoy:

Laytner's Linen & Home

Washcloths, Save Or Splurge?

Home Goods As Gifts For Less

The Best Places To Go For Antiques And Home Decor

Which Area Rug Do You Like Best?

Click to enlarge

Take a look at two area rugs: Both are 100% wool and made in India by established rug merchants. At full price one is 4 1/4 times more expensive then the other (and likely of slightly better quality). And yet, both are machine woven (as opposed to top of the heap hand looped rugs) -- so these two are more or less equivalent quality-wise.

As expected, hand weaved area rugs are thousands of dollars higher than machine weaved rugs ... costing about $8,000 - $15,000+ for an 8' by 10' versus about $1,500 - $5,000+ for machine weaved. A consumer must decide if s/he wants to put his/er money into home goods that get walked on daily. It's what I had to decide in replacing my area rug.

So as not to influence your choice I will only say: Of the 2-machine weaved area rugs above: 

Rug pads extend the life of your rug.

A) I loved one best upon sight in the store.

B) The other was a lovely online closeout find. It had the similar colors and warmth as the original that caught my eye ... for less.

I had 3 criteria in choosing my rug. I desired something: 

1. Well-made for the money spent;

2. 100% wool, no synthetic fibers;

My old rug

3. Consisting of the color family of my old rug (so I wouldn't have to change everything else in my apartment to match). Moreover, my old rug had striking pops of color, yet still bestowed a warm cozy feel to the room. (In fact, I loved it a little too much but now must move on as my hookah smoking upstairs' neighbor's fire ruined it.)

Rugs can pull a room together as my old rug did. If you love certain colors, there is no need to change them. Begin with what you like, and go from there.

How do we decide when to pay a higher price for articles including area rugs? Here's how I decide: If something is 10 times more than the other, I ask myself if I like it 10 times more. When the answer is yes, pay the piper. When the answer is no, save.

I never lie to myself by pretending to like both equally, but sometimes I don't like them enough, or value them enough to pay the piper more. At times I decide to save the difference if a cheaper alternative fits the bill.

So now readers select your rug: Which rug do you like best? And ... do you spend thousands of dollars for hand spun rugs as some people do ... and why? This could be an interesting discussion. For what items will you pay up?


You may also enjoy:
Buying Light Bulbs
Do You Have A Design Challenge?
5 Kitchen Tools I Will Never Buy Again
The Best Places To Go For Antiques And Home Decor