By Sage McHugh on November 19, 2009 in
At an eyebrow-raising price of $3 apiece, Chefmate kitchen appliances are among the cheapest doorbusters we've seen in Target's leaked Black Friday circular. The $3 Chefmate specials include a 12-cup coffeemaker, toaster, slow cooker and sandwich maker.
Walmart has a similar Black Friday doorbuster: your choice of $4 appliances, including a mini chopper, a 2-quart slow cooker and a hand mixer.
Theoretically, you could equip your whole kitchen for $17. These gadgets are priced as impulse buys, but we couldn't find reviews for any of them, and several of the pieces aren't very practical.
The advertised kitchen gadgets appear to be sold exclusively at Target and Walmart and are only offered during their Black Friday promotions, meaning it's impossible to do any research on them ahead of time. (None of the items are currently available on Target.com and Walmart.com.)
Based on the research we performed for our reports on slow cookers, mixers, toasters and electric grills, here's our take:
Skip the $3 and $4 Target and Walmart slow cookers. That's because they are both very small -- only 2-quarts for the Walmart version and 1.5 quarts for the Target version. These sizes are mainly only good for keeping sauces warm; they're too small for cooking family meals.
Take a pass on the $3 coffee maker. A coffee maker is something most people use daily, and a crummy one can ruin your morning. This cheapo Chefmate model looks really bare bones, with no programming features or settings. Our instincts tell us to stay away from this deal.
Wal-Mart's $4 hand mixer is promising. Hand mixers are fairly simple, basic appliances to begin with, and you don't use them every day, so this one looks like a decent deal.
It's a maybe on the mini chopper and sandwich maker. These two appliances may be more of a hassle to clean and store than use. In the time it takes to clean then, you could probably just chop and onion or make a grilled cheese sandwich in a skillet. But at least they're cheap; if you only use them once or twice, you won't be out much.
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