On 2/16/2014 Dreamer13 said: Okay maybe I shouldn't feel,lied to but I have shopped with QVC since Kathy Levine & Bob Bowersox presented a show together. (years ago) I have a lot of faith in the company and when they says a product is exclusive to them. I think it should be! I shouldn't be able to walk into a store and find it on their shelves!
You are a long time Q shopper! I think back in the day, before internet shopping and such, Q did have exclusive lines, and everything was made better than we are getting today.
I've notice over the years (I go back to watching Q a little over a decade, anyway), they have had to change the mantra a little bit. They still use the word exclusive with some brands or lines, but will now say that this color is exclusive, or this line is exclusive until (fill in some date), or this is our house or proprietary brand. And brand is just that. A name on something that is often manufactured for many companies, then given a brand mark and color or pattern that makes it look slightly different, than the other hundred "brands" just like it going out to other vendors.
It is amazing how those of us who are a little older can remember a day when a brand was important, because it had a history, and a quality, not just a good marketing team. You bought the same brand your parents and grandparents had used, and the quality was consistent over the decades. No more. Many of the brand we grew up with and that were domestic produced fine quality, last for generation names, have now been bought up by one large international company, and are being manufactured cheaply (not to be confused with inexpensive) over seas. One example, World Kitchens, has bought out brands like Pyrex, Corelle, Corning, Chicago Cutlery, Bakers Secret, and I thought at one time, even Revere and Farberware had been under their umbrella. Some lines still have some products manufactured here, many not.
I think the feeling that you've been lied to, at least for me, is because the hosts and vendors still present these products or others like them, and hearken back to those days of trust in products and brands, and we buy into the idea that we will be purchasing that same quality and history. They tend to do this with TT, a relatively new brand, by repeating how "our grandmothers and their grandmothers cooked with ceramic/stoneware". They sure did, but a whole different breed. Domestic made, heavy, and would last for decades.
I guess it is up to us to see this is not our grandmother's stoneware, and decide is it of value to us, based on the cost, the length of time it will last, and the pleasure we do (or don't because of problems with it) get out of using the product.
I feel your frustration. I look at things made today and shake my head. I would gladly pay more for shoes, clothing, linens, kitchen wares, that matched the quality of my grandmothers day. We do a lot of thrift store, auction, garage sale shopping to find the old stuff, some of it used for generations and still better than anything on the shelf today, to get that quality.
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