Community Chat

[wishmoon]

The 50/50 tour has been replaced by Lori Grenier on Shark Tank bringing in up and coming inventors to the Q.

[shoppersince1989]

I miss the lucky # drawings!

Remember those, you had to call within a certain time, and you got credit ($) to your account.

I won a few of those.

Jean

[AngelPuppy1]

---

@Plaid Pants2 wrote:

I admit that I buy hardly anything on here anymore. Nothing excites me, nothing says to me, "Ooooh! I MUST have that!"

I have even cut way back on my watching of the Q. I might tune in for five ot ten minutes once or twice a week, but that's about it.

I miss the 50-In-50 tour.

That brought new products, and small time inventors to us.

I miss the Tic-Tac-Q game that they would play.

Heck, I even miss the "pub" that they would have for an all-day St. Patrick's day show.

Now, it's just dullsville.

It just isn't exciting to me anymore.

---

@Plaid Pants2

I do agree with you.  I used to watch it just for the entertainment factor.  I loved the staged sets. Hosts dressing up for a particular show or event.  The hosts would really get into it.  And there was just a whole different feel to it.  A lot of times you felt like you were watching a variety show instead of a shopping channel.  And I mean this in a good way!  They did this and still were very informative about the products.  I don't watch but once in a blue moon.  I purchase pretty match from looking on-line now.  It's just not the same.  Times change I realize but I just loved the way it was.  

[stevieb]

While it's absolutely true that things change and 'you can't go home again', for me, the issue is on how things change... Do they evolve or do they devolve... To be sure, we all change too, our needs and wants change and what we once found appealing or interesting aren't static. Many of the late lamented products, tours, games and so on predate my involvement with QVC anyway, so I don't really miss them. What I do miss is variety. What I also miss is actually enjoying watching the shows. What I further miss are hosts who weren't consistently spinning like a top... It isn't so much about what QVC isn't doing, for me, as it is about what they are doing. And what they are doing has so little validity for me that I've essentially stopped watching after many years of being a regular viewer. For me, it's become boring and unnerving and simply is no longer fun.

[Havarti]

In the beginning, QVC and all shopping channels –(it is just QVC did it better) were working very hard to get people to trust and feel comfortable with this new way of buying. Because of that, they were very customer focused. They also had the problem that many, perhaps most, well established companies wanted nothing to do with them, so their buyers had to be creative in sourcing many new items and new vendors. That meant tracking down small innovative companies with products that had a hard time getting much exposure. This was a perfect venue for them because they could not afford much advertising and this provided a way to get massive exposure. Because QVC was just getting going, the quantities needed were more manageable, too, so small companies could afford to participate. The challenges faced on both sides of business proved to be to the viewers benefit because we were presented with a wide variety of items not seen in most stores, or advertised on TV or in magazines, or even featured in catalogs. Those initial buyers poured themselves into the adventure of finding products that would work on air and making sure there was enough variety to fill a day…and then another day, etc. The hosts were learning about all these products at the same time and passing their new-found information on to the viewers. I learned so much back then. And I bought so many things I never knew I needed & wanted, but also never knew even existed. It was fun!

Now, that QVC has grown into such a giant corporation, with acceptance by many large name-brand companies that shunned it years ago, it is all about numbers, partnerships & profitability rather than customer-focused. Don’t get me wrong, I understand a business has to be profitable to stay in business and I am all for profit. And I know they have stockholders expecting a good return on their investment. But the actual products & the customers seem to have gotten lost in the process of super-sizing the company. There is more than one way to run a business, but…when you forget about the importance of meeting the customers’ needs the money in their wallets eventually moves elsewhere – where their needs are being met more successfully. They have invested in or bought certain companies/lines that now operate in a vacuum and have long since gone stale…but they stay on-air because they own it. QVC has been so caught up in their partnerships with giant companies (like Xcel Brands who owns Isaac Mizrahi, Judith Ripka, H Halston, C Wonder, Liz Claiborne NY, etc. as well as cosmetics conglomerates, etc.) that can bring them many lines and therefore wheel & deal on terms based on more volume, that they have been ignoring the real source of their money…the customers. At one point QVC was the Amazon of that day, and then Amazon exploded into so many new areas and found innovative approaches to meet their customers’ needs. With some losing interest in the new shopping channel approach, and so many retail stores closing, there is something on the brink of being the next BIG thing…we just have to watch the business world evolve to find out who/what it is.

[esmerelda]

---

@shopper since 1989 wrote:

I miss the lucky # drawings!

Remember those, you had to call within a certain time, and you got credit ($) to your account.

I won a few of those.

Jean

---

@shoppersince1989  I had forgotten about that until I saw an old video of Mike Rowe recently (selling the Katsak) and they showed the lucky number on the side of the screen. 

Yeah, the good old days.  More fun.

[minkbunny]

Hello All,  I was just thinking about the good old days when I happened to put on a pair of the original Denim and Co jeans (before the stretch was added), they have to be 25 years old plus as I remember having them when my daughter was in high school and she is now 44 years old ! But then, my son will be 49 this week

I then walked around the house and realized that I have some beautiful quilts, some beautiful Spode Blue Italian dinnerware in my china cabinet, CorningWare, T-Fal (as Jeffery (don't all him Jeff) would say, Nothing sticks to T-Fal but good cooks), several sizes of the Nesco Roasters ( in the house and cabin- loved Virginia Olsen), nice flatware, some pretty Fenton ware (loved Steve and the Fenton guys together) etc. etc., Quality stuff, now I don't even watch and really haven't for so long that my husband of 13 years doesn't even know what QVC is.

Sure, things change but I don't think QVC changed for the better. 

And for those who never got to see Kathy Levine dressed as a saloon hall gal for the GoldRush specials, well -

just sayin'

ETA, I won the lucky ball four number drawing several times for the credit and once got a bouquet of flowers delivered to the house - was it a Mother's Day drawing gift, I can't remember....

[StraytoStay]

I can't put my finger on when, but some of the hosts are now rapid in their speech and the feeling is rushed. I just can't relax and watch Qvc in the late evenings as I used to be able to. I agree with who said the hosts were unnerving. I don't remember so many interruptions to vendors either. Does anyone higher up even watch these shows?

[DREAMON]

I too miss the nights when I use to put my kids to bed, put my PJS on, and tune in to QVC. I would laugh out loud with Kathy Levine. I can't tell you all the things she sold me that I didn't need.

I do think the times have changed with a zillion websites that sell everything under the sun. 

Technology and TV watching are so different now .....I don't think the QVC of yesteryear would fly today.

[RedHeadedWench]

One of the main reasons I do not watch QVC, is because it is DULL. I remember the 50/50 Tour...and I loved it! I never missed a show! I remember a show they did in New Orleans with Bob Bowersox and they were showing potato chips...my kids were all over me to order those things...and I did.

I do not miss the Italy shows, sorry, they were boring. Hours upon hours of jewelry presented on a free trip to Italy. MHO only.

QVC needs to rethink some show presentation ideas.