New Thing #208--Shop From Your Couch

I'm on vacation this week, with no big plans. I felt really lazy today, and decided not to even leave the house after I got back from the gym this morning. My laziness put me in the family room after lunch today, where I watched shopping channels on TV.

I have never voluntarily watched more than a couple of seconds of one of these channels. If I fall asleep on the couch with the TV on at night, there's usually an infomercial on when I wake up. That's my clue to get upstairs into bed! If I'm going to buy something, I like to be able to research it ahead of time and compare prices at several places. I can't imagine ever buying something that's been advertised "as seen on TV".

I couldn't believe how many shopping channels were listed in my Program Guide! I flipped back and forth among five different channels, which I picked because the title of their shows was something other than "Paid Programming". What I watched (in order of entertainment value):

• GemsTV--By far my favorite channel to watch. The host, Lyndsey, had real personality. She seemed like a salesperson I would find in a real jewelry store. This channel used a "reverse auction" system-a start price was quoted, but it kept dropping until people started calling in to buy. Usually the selling price was just a small fraction of the original price!
  
  
• QVC--Coincidentally, this channel was also featuring jewelry. The show was called Epiphany Platinum Clad Silver Diamonique Jewelry. Fake diamonds, pretend platinum jewelry. However, the hostess was personable
  
  
• HSN--The show was called Home Solutions. During the time I watched, they sold a "top of the line" Singer programmable sewing machine, a Hoover vacuum cleaner, and a shower water filter system. There was a product "expert" and a show host that worked together to sell the product.
  
  
• CRTV--The show was called Scrapbooking Made Easy. They were selling a personal electronic cutter that cut intricate shapes without a computer. The most notable feature of the show was a crowd of scrapbookers cheering and shouting out the name of the cutter.
  
  
• Celebrity Shopping Network--This seemed to be a standard infomercial for a drink to cure arthritis pain. I gave it 30 seconds, then moved on.
  
  

I'm glad I've spent some time watching the shopping channels. Now I'm SURE I won't be giving any of them my charge card number any time soon.