The Buy It For Life movement is the best thing that has happened for Western consumers. There was a time when it was cheaper to fix stuff... And then manufacturers found ways to make their products for ten cents on the dollar in the developing world. Now the developing world is developed, is selling the products directly without Western manufacturers making their cut, and consumers are longing for the chance to buy something un-crappy enough to be worth repairing. Injecting John Deere into the mix is kinda bullshit, though. John Deere locked down their operating system. That we're talking about tractors with operating systems (that cost more than your house) kinda doesn't matter when we're lovingly describing the act of lubricating one-moving-part hair clippers. I am also not willing to believe they fixed the Christmas lights.
I found the John Deere part a bit out of place myself, because while the issue is still important, it is different. If anyone on here every watch any episodes of Mayberry R.F.D., there's a recurring character that owns his own repair shop that fixes small appliances of all kinds. I remember the first time I saw that and thought how cool of an idea a shop like that was and disappointed by the idea that we don't have those kinds of shops today because of our throw away items. It's really cool that these guys are bringing the idea back and hopefully it catches on. Along a similar line, the whole concept might be a partial solution to China no longer wanting to process and recycle western countries' electronic waste. If we have less places willing to recylce our stuff, that's might give governments the incentive to pressure manufacturers to make things A) more durable and B) easier to repair. For a small example, I'd love to see cell phone manufacturers walk back from having sealed units, where people can't even easily replace batteries.
The economics are pretty straightforward: What do you need to earn per day to make a living, including overhead? And how many widgets can you fix in a day? Here you are in the sticks. Let's say you need to make $1000 a month to cover your shop and $3000 a month to cover your life and family. You need to make a thousand a week or $200 a day or $25 an hour. Can you fix hair clippers in half an hour? Can you charge someone $12.50 to do it? A bitchin' $75 Wahl, maybe. A $20 Norelco, probably not. I dunno if the iPhone battery/screen repair shops have sprouted like mushrooms where you are but around here, there are plenty of people willing to do it for less than Apple. But then, Apple probably pays $80/sf for retail around here. We needed our Kitchenaid rebuilt. It cost $70. But then, it's a $300 kitchenaid. Amazon gives me 110 results for "stand mixers" under $70.
That's one of the complaints I have against sealed phones. I shouldn't have to pay someone money just to do a battery swap. It's a battery. Provided the device is designed right, there's pretty much zero ways to screw that up. I actually know of one place in town that does phone repairs. I keep on meaning to give them a call. I have a tablet sitting in my desk drawer right now that's only not working because it suffered the death wiggles (aka fucked up charging port). I keep on meaning to see if I can get it fixed, if even just so I can get the hard drive wiped and recycle the thing (but if I can get Android to update on it, it might be worth keeping). I wonder how the sub $70 stand mixers compare to your kitchenaid.
I want to agree but I've let the smoke out of a couple cheap eBay iPods doing the battery change. There's a difference between a non-serviceable component connected directly to the board and a user-swappable accessory. Making the battery swappable makes it marginally more expensive but it also complicates the design and "complication" = "bulk." I will bet you there's a surface-mount connector on the board that is proprietary and not available to strip-mall fixit shops.
LEDs are a whole 'nuther animal. It's invariably a short in the "bulb" and it's invariably the first of many. Fix one and there's gonna be another eight that fail tomorrow. The problem is they're weather-proofed against approximately half a season of North American winter.