A few years ago, the air fryer was the star of the kitchen. Then came the breakfast sandwich maker, the multi-function hot pot, the blender that promised to turn vegetables into health. On social media they looked wonderful. In real kitchens, a lot of them now sit at the back of a cupboard, some still in the box.
China's secondhand marketplaces tell the story plainly. Resale listings for air fryers jumped by around 170 percent in a single year. Roughly four out of ten small kitchen appliances sold online are no longer being used, and for blenders the figure is closer to eight in ten. Many listings carry the same two phrases: "brand new, never opened" and "used a few times." Most sell for less than half the original price.
Surveys point the same way. Popular kitchen gadgets get used, on average, fewer than five times a year — by some counts fewer than twelve. That is less than once a month, for a machine that took up a whole shelf.
Li, an office worker in Beijing, knows the feeling. She bought a breakfast machine picturing warm sandwiches and fresh eggs before work. Then she found out how long it took to clean. It now sits in the corner of a cupboard, a small daily reminder of an impulse buy.
Why the dream dies
Industry analysts point to a simple mismatch: many of these products were built for a need that was never really there. An egg cooker, a tiny dough mixer — these solve problems most people don't have, or don't have often enough to give up the counter space. Compare that with a rice cooker or a microwave, which get used every single day.
Then there is the experience of actually using them. Multi-function pots have grooves that trap food and refuse to come clean. Blenders are loud enough to wake the neighbours. Small frustrations, repeated three or four times, are enough to end a relationship with a machine.
Repairs finish the job. Many trendy brands do not make their own products, so quality varies. When something breaks, fixing it can cost more than the appliance did. So it goes in the bin — or onto a resale app.
What comes next
The market has noticed. Sales of kitchen appliances in China fell in the first half of this year, and the number of units sold dropped much faster than the money spent — a sign that shoppers are not only spending less, they are buying fewer machines. Brands are cutting back on the number of products they sell and putting money into things people actually asked for: cookers with smarter temperature control, blenders that clean themselves, safer materials.
There is a bigger lesson hiding in all those unused cupboards. When we buy something, we are often not buying the object at all. We are buying the version of ourselves in the advertisement — the person who makes a fresh breakfast every morning, who drinks green juice, who has time. The machine arrives. That person does not.
Which suggests a better question, the next time a beautiful gadget appears on your screen. Not "does this look good?" but "when exactly will I use it — and who is going to wash it?"