Please unplug your plastic toaster, or, Will your cheap toast kill you?

A woman thanked my husband recently - she had heard about our fire and Patrick told her it was probably caused by the toaster, he told her to unplug her toaster when it wasn't in use. So last week she ran into him and said, "Thank you!" She had adopted the habits of unplugging her toaster when not in use, and standing nearby and watching it when she was toasting bread. Her toaster caught on fire! "It wasn't the bread," she said, "it was the plastic, it melted."

Plastic components in a toaster??

"Where'd you get your toaster," Patrick asked her. "Wal-mart," she replied.

Guess where we bought our toaster?

I'd heard about the inferior products sold by Wal-mart. The company insists on low prices, so the manufacturers of even heavily advertised brand name products have to make a separate line of products for Wal-mart, made with cheaper parts.

The systems administrator at the library told us that computers sold by Wal-mart have cheap plastic components that break easily. I know from my own frustrating and aggravating experiences that bicycles bought from Wal-mart are junk.

[Apparently Best Buys also follows this practice. My husband works at a furniture and appliance store and has heard many customer complaints about major brand appliances bought from Best Buys. (The customers bring their complaints to our local store because they sell the same brands.) When Pat and his boss, the owner of the store, look at the appliances - they aren't the same as the models in their store - parts made of plastic, very cheap and flimsy.]

Is cheap toast really worth the cost of having your house burn up? Is it worth the possibility of your pets and children burning to death? Maybe it's time to dredge up the cash to buy one of those sleek, shiny, retro toasters you've been admiring. But wait, check first and make sure it's not plastic. In the meantime, unplug your plastic toaster!