Getting a new washing machine

Our current washing machine, the one that was already here when we bought the house, had been giving us error messages randomly for a month. We were limping on by restarting the cycle and shutting off the water to the whole house temporarily. Like most families with young children, we don't have disposable income to spend on things like a new washer when you can make do with the one you have. Finally, several days ago, the washer wouldn't stop running water. Even after shutting off the water to the whole house and restarting the washer, it just wouldn't run. I use the washer not only for clothes and cloth diapers but also to wash and preshrink fabrics for my cloth diaper business. You can imagine how hard it would be on our family to not have access to a washing machine. With 3 youngins under 4 years old, going to a laundromat is not an option. With clean clothes running low and my cloth diapered baby in disposables, we needed a washer and fast. After price comparing and researching ratings online, we visited several local "outlet" appliance shops. More expensive than online?? D'oh! We visited a shop literally around the corner from our house. Luckily, they had one model left of an old GE style; high efficiency, top loader, 3.9 cu ft, with 16 wash cycles and rated 4 out of 5 stars. Not only was it available to be delivered and installed 3 days later, but it was $100 cheaper than anything we found online. Score!