Are Our Linens Being Resold at Discount Stores?

[scottcooks]

I was just dropping off some donation items at Goodwill and walked back through the store--there on a rack were new...
-PC Hearts towels, 2 for $2.99
-PC lilac Dots towels, 2 for $2.99
-PC avocado Dots towels, 2 for $2.99No, not with PC packaging of any kind, but I know what I saw.Last summer, I saw our Patriotic Towels similarly priced at a B-grade grocery about 100 miles away. Have you seen them for sale?Hmmmmmmmm...

 

[Teresa Lynn]

Tuesday morning sells our woven servers (without our stamp on the botton of course)
Did you look to see if they had PC tags sewn on them maybe a consultant donated them since it was goodwill

 

[KRISTI'SCOOKING]

I saw our Pinch bowls (with no lids) at Old Time Pottery. Our little hat was on the bottom.

 

[pampchefsarah]

Only those items with the chef's hat in the catalog are exclusive to PC. Similar items are sold by the manufacturer's in stores, but never quite the same style (or, of course, quality) as PC.

 

[Melissa78]

Well now they took away the CHef hat icon in the catalog so now no one knows... The pie gate that we sell is IDENTICAL in all forms (even the stamping on the item) to the ones sold for $3 at Walmart. I bought one in a pinch at WM and compared it to the PC one a guest got and every millimeter is exact.

 

[lockhartkitchen]

Winco carries the heart towels. and now the fourth of July towels.

 

[ChefCat]

Only those items with the chef's hat in the catalog are exclusive to PC. Similar items are sold by the manufacturer's in stores, but never quite the same style (or, of course, quality) as PC.

Where is the chef's hat in the catalog, I don't see it listed under the 'key to symbols' on page 3??

 

[emiscookin]

What makes me mad is that almost EVERY store out there that has cooking stuff tries to copy the Pampered Chef!! Some are better at it than others, but...they really should not be allowed to do that imo. Cause you only want people to buy them from PC!!

I don't wanna hear this kind of crap all the time:
"Well, 'so and so' sells the same thing for cheaper."

My answer: (Not exactly said in this way )
"I got news for you! Theirs is NOT a quality item and it will crap out within months. PC's will last you for years! So, for how much you spend continually replacing your crappy item it would be LESS than what you will pay to get this quality product from me!"

Anyway, enough of my ranting...

 

[BethCooks4U]

What makes me mad is that almost EVERY store out there that has cooking stuff tries to copy the Pampered Chef!! Some are better at it than others, but...they really should not be allowed to do that imo. Cause you only want people to buy them from PC!!

I don't wanna hear this kind of crap all the time:
"Well, 'so and so' sells the same thing for cheaper."

My answer: (Not exactly said in this way )
"I got news for you! Theirs is NOT a quality item and it will crap out within months. PC's will last you for years! So, for how much you spend continually replacing your crappy item it would be LESS than what you will pay to get this quality product from me!"

Anyway, enough of my ranting...

My answer to that is "I used to think so too. After all it looked almost the same. Well, I learned when I had to buy that item again, ...and again that the quality WAS different.

Two things I bought that way were the batter bowl and the small scoop. I have tons of customers who have bought choppers and then come to my party just to buy ours.

 

[pampchefsarah]

Where is the chef's hat in the catalog, I don't see it listed under the 'key to symbols' on page 3??

Sorry, I wasn't aware they had removed the chef's hat from the new catalog. Ugh, I wonder if that means there are no longer any PC exclusive items.

 

[DebbieJ]

Sorry, I wasn't aware they had removed the chef's hat from the new catalog. Ugh, I wonder if that means there are no longer any PC exclusive items.

They mentioned this at Spring Launch. 80% of our catalog is still exclusive, but they removed the chef's hat to clear up the visual clutter.

 

[DebbieJ]

Scott, those very well could have been ours. Pampered Chef has been known to donate or salvage their overstock. All the linens you mentioned are discontinued, so HO can do with them whatever they want. You were in a Goodwill store, not a regular retail store, so it's very likely that they were donated or sold as salvage by PC. A few years back some of our dc'd linens showed up in Big Lots as well.

 

[ChefCat]

Sorry, I wasn't aware they had removed the chef's hat from the new catalog. Ugh, I wonder if that means there are no longer any PC exclusive items.

Oh, I see. And I didn't see the post after yours until now either. :blushing:

It sounds like it was a nice feature. I wonder too, if that means nothing is exclusive?

 

[emiscookin]

My answer to that is "I used to think so too. After all it looked almost the same. Well, I learned when I had to buy that item again, ...and again that the quality WAS different.

Two things I bought that way were the batter bowl and the small scoop. I have tons of customers who have bought choppers and then come to my party just to buy ours.

Ditto! Oh my gosh, I got a chopper for our wedding that came from Target. It is the crappiest thing EVER! It does not chop very well and is SO hard to clean! It still smells like onion to this day (three years later) because I wasn't able to fully clean it out. Never used it since. I have always wanted the Pampered Chef chopper and I am gonna get it in my starter kit!! Yay! But of course I will have to buy a seperate one for home so I am not using the same tools at home that I will use in my cooking shows.

 

[adnoel]

You can get Twixit Clips at IKEA for about $2 a pack, but I don't think those have ever been exclusive to PC.

 

[cochef]

Well now they took away the CHef hat icon in the catalog so now no one knows...

Bummer - I used that little icon as a great feature to show off our products and how exclusive they are!! Hadn't yet noticed it was gone

 

[mrshamel3808]

I haven't run into anyone complaining about this yet - tho when I first started PC my entire kitchen was Martha Stewart from Macy's and I use it to compare to PC ALOT because I was VERY disappointed in my MS stuff. My knives rusted, my whisk rusted and a tine broke and scratched me, my cannisters chip very easily, and only the clear guard on the food chopper comes off for cleaning (GROSS). I've also used the example of the "Slap Chop" being sold "2 for the price of 1" so that you don't bother them if the first one breaks (which it most likely will).

Sorta related but not exactly, I had an AtHome America lady here for an open house I did and another DS consultant was looking through her catalog and was like "oh look, this looks like the plaque you have over your fire place" and I was like "oh, my sister got that for me cheap at Target". The she goes "wow, this is the exact same one...the details are exactly the same" (which they were) and it was selling in the catalog for $30 when you can buy it at Target for like $12. The AtHome America lady seemed really awkward after that...oops!

 

[Kelly8]

When we came out the lavender and light green dots colored towels, I saw them at the local Pfaltzgraff store. Pretty sure they weren't donated from PC then (heehee). I think too PC follows upcoming trends, so it's no surprise sometimes, especially in linens, to see some of the same styles.

 

[Pedey]

My small scoop from PC is identical to one my MIL got me from a local cooking specialty store. I scoured over it meticulously to try & find a difference - the only one was the logo. But of course I feel the need to be loyal to my PC one! LOL

 

[PCMomto4]

You will see products identical to ours at Williams Sonoma, one I know that I have seen is the meat tenderizer, just missing the pc logo. But I will tell you everything that i have seen there is more expensive than in our catalog. The meat tenderizer was five dollars more than ours!

 

[Shawnna]

I got some of those Discontinued towels at Big Lots. I was excited to find them because I was needing some more to match...but also a little disappointed. You know if they sold them as salvage they didn't get full price for them...probably not even close...so why couldn't they offer them to us...and our customers...at a super sale price? I know they probably just wanted to clear them out quickly, but still. And, I have a lot of people ask...every season change...since these are being discontinued are they on sale?

 

[BethCooks4U]

My small scoop from PC is identical to one my MIL got me from a local cooking specialty store. I scoured over it meticulously to try & find a difference - the only one was the logo. But of course I feel the need to be loyal to my PC one! LOL

I had a small scoop - no PC but exactly like it - and it was JUNK. I couldn't see anything different about it but it broke rather quickly.

I have seen products exactly like ours at WS too and some are much higher in cost but some are lower too. I feel THEY are our real competitor.

Shawnna - I totally agree. They should discount things being dc'd to help clear the shelves. I bet that would help our sales in Feb and Aug!

 

[DebbieJ]

I got some of those Discontinued towels at Big Lots. I was excited to find them because I was needing some more to match...but also a little disappointed. You know if they sold them as salvage they didn't get full price for them...probably not even close...so why couldn't they offer them to us...and our customers...at a super sale price? I know they probably just wanted to clear them out quickly, but still. And, I have a lot of people ask...every season change...since these are being discontinued are they on sale?

That was before they started the Online Outlet if I remember correctly.

 

[Shawnna]

Yes it was before the outlet. I have a website and have had several customers buy outlet items...but I wish that we could sell these things at our shows...maybe for a month...Something like "these items are being discontinued next month so they are being discounted 20%". I love the idea that they will eventually end up on the outlet, but not everyone has a website...for lots of reasons. I have to say that my website does not pay for itself. My area is just not big on using the web for shows and stuff...now if we could do it on facebook they would be all over it, but otherwise no.