A lot of people think Bob Barker is retiring because he's 83 years old. They believe his decision to finally leave "The Price Is Right" has something to do with wanting to rest after spending 50 years hosting TV game shows.

Maybe. But what if Bob is leaving because giving away free refrigerators is not the big deal it once was? What if America's favorite game show host is leaving the stage because home appliances — a staple among prizes on "The Price Is Right" — are not the solid, dependable products they used to be?

This possibility occurred to me as I was arranging to have a new refrigerator delivered to replace the one I bought six years ago.

You're not supposed to need a new refrigerator after six years — especially when the warranty was for five. Refrigerators are supposed to keep running long after their warranties and aesthetic quality have expired.

My refrigerator still looks like it just came out of the box.

To my 6-year-old daughter, Carly Grace, who excitedly helped me choose our newest refrigerator, six years is a very long time. She could not understand why I didn't share her happiness over our shopping experience.

"Things break," she said with a shrug, "and then you have to buy new ones."

That's about the same response I got from a salesman days earlier at the national chain where I had purchased the broken unit.

The young man listened to my sad story and quickly fell under the misapprehension that I had come expecting something for nothing.

"If we marked down items for everyone who bought something here that broke," he actually said to me, "we'd be discounting stuff all over the store."

Realizing that this person has very likely never had to buy a refrigerator — he wasn't even born when Bob Barker abruptly stopped dying his hair — I tried explaining that I was merely hoping for the best deal I could possibly find on a replacement refrigerator.

I was under the impression that my situation was unique. I believed the store, where I had so relatively recently spent more than $1,000 on a now worthless icebox, might go out of its way to help minimize my pain.

But apparently my pain is common. The repairman who gave me the bad news said it; the salesman at the store where I eventually bought a new refrigerator said it, too.

"They don't make refrigerators like they used to."

The refrigerators they used to make never really stopped working: They only got ugly after 30 or 40 years. That's why our parents bought new refrigerators.

They wanted one that looked modern — like the ones Bob Barker was giving away on TV.

Barker's last day on "The Price Is Right" is supposed to be sometime in June. As that day nears, note the look on contestants' faces when they're guessing the price of peanut butter to win a new refrigerator.

It's a look that says, "Unless there's a 20-year warranty on that machine, I'd rather have the peanut butter."

Bob Barker is adored by little old ladies and college students alike. He is to game shows what Billy Graham is to television evangelists. If Barker doesn't want to risk that reputation by giving away substandard modern appliances, who can blame him?

I'm going to miss Bob Barker. There's some talk about keeping "The Price Is Right" on the air even without him.

It'll be a cold day inside my 6-year-old refrigerator when I watch that show.

Mark Rutledge can be contacted at mrutledge@coxnc.com