What's behind Whirlpool's "recession-level" sales decline?

It’s not an easy time to be a maker or seller of consumer goods right now, and that seems to be especially true for purveyors of big-ticket items.

Case in point: Whirlpool.

The maker of dishwashers and fridges said Wednesday that sales of major appliances in North America fell nearly 7.5% last quarter amid soaring energy costs and falling consumer confidence. Whirlpool’s earnings report described the situation as “recession-level industry decline.”

David MacGregor, president at Longbow Research, said recession isn’t too strong a term for the company’s drop in sales.

“The last time we saw numbers down this much was back in the great financial recession,” he said.

This time around, the war in the Middle East has led to higher energy costs that have stressed consumer budgets. And Whirlpool has had an especially strange time with all the back-and forth with tariffs — it makes more of its appliances in the U.S. than competitors do, so MacGregor said the IEEPA tariffs last year were actually good for the company.

“In terms of creating a more level playing field,” he said.

But in February, the Supreme Court struck down those tariffs as illegal.

“At that point, a lot of the competitors turned much more promotional in anticipating refunds,” MacGregor said.

Those refunds mostly won’t be going to Whirlpool.

There are also broader challenges facing the industry. Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData Retail, said there are few main drives of demand for appliances.

“One of them is repair and replacement, so when things break, you can either replace or you can buy new,” he said. “On that front, we do see more people repairing because it is often more cost-effective.”

That means parts might be selling OK, but shiny new appliances aren’t selling so much. Saunders said the next driver of demand is upgrading.

“So it's saying, ‘Well, look, my product isn't broken, but I'd quite like a new one with new features,'" he said. “And their demand has been very sluggish.”

And finally, there’s one of the biggest drivers of appliance sales — the housing market, which Zonda chief economist Ali Wolf said is sagging in both the U.S. and Canada.

“Every new home that gets built needs a washer and dryer, they need a refrigerator,” she said. “They’re getting the one-two punch of two very large economies having slower housing markets.”

And with interest rates still elevated, Robert Dietz, chief economist with the National Association of Home Builders, said the situation may not improve soon.

“We expect single family home construction in 2026 to be down about 3% to 4%,” he said.

And Dietz said every home that doesn’t get built means about $12,000 that doesn’t get spent on appliances.