Home shopping parties, Las Vegas Sun, March 12, 1996

More Vegans joining the pack of those who shop on their seat instead of their feet Lisa Sciortino Tuesday, March 12, 1996 | 11:59 a.m. You'd like to go shopping, but the thought of fighting mall crowds leaves you queasy. Maybe, between work and the kids, you're just too tired or busy. Or maybe the item you're searching for -- say, ummm, an adult toy -- can't be found in a department store. You may want to host a home party. Once strictly Tupperware territory, in-home shopping parties have ventured far beyond the old "burp-and-seal" bowl bonanzas. Nowadays, you can purchase just about everything under the sun in the comfort of your living room, a kind of real-life version of the Home Shopping Network that you invite 10 to 20 of your friends to. There are candle, crystal and cosmetics parties; cookware, clothing and craft get-togethers; interior design and book-buying shindigs. Cash, check and all major credit cards accepted, of course. In the hectic '90s, home parties are "a good excuse to get together with your friends and show off your new house or your new child," says Julie Calloway, a part-time Pampered Chef cookware representative. Zesty fajita pizza is just one of the goodies Calloway (a stay-at-home mom by day) prepares and serves to her party customers to demonstrate the company's product line. "One of the hardest parts of my job is not licking my fingers," she quips. Though they're often compared to Tupperware parties, Pampered Chef shows are a bit different: They feature more cool kitchen gizmos (pocket meat thermometers, vegetable choppers and such) than microwave-safe plastic food containers. "It's cooking equipment, so even if you don't like to cook, you'll find something there that you like," says Calloway, who's directed 18 parties since she started with the company five months ago. Like the crinkle-cut garnisher tool ($8.50), the Magic Mop (for soaking up the surface grease on soups and gravies, $5) and the swivel-action vegetable peeler ($3.50), because, after all, "people kind of have a personal relationship with their vegetable peeler," Calloway says. If she says so. A must-have item for many of her customers is an all-in-one gadget, the apple corer/peeler/slicer ($27.50), which makes readying apples for pies a snap. "It usually stops people in their tracks because they've never seen it before," she says. Not neat enough, though, to convince Doris Cook to whip out her pocketbook. "I'm terrified to go home with anything because my husband will expect me to cook," says Cook, an art director at The Mirage. Luckily for Calloway, most shoppers end up purchasing something. A typical order averages $40 (she gets 20 percent of that). Not bad for someone who had never even been to a Pampered Chef party before she started hawking its products. "I don't even know if I do the right stuff," she says. 'It's all luck' Jodina O'Neill, on the other hand, has the home-party format down pat. In September, a month after she went to work for Princess House crystal parties, the decades-old company designated her as its top local sales rep. What's her secret? "It's all luck. It's not how good you are," says the mother of three. "I think it's how available people are" to purchase the pricey Princess House crystal cruets ($23.95), canister sets ($24.95), cookie jars ($29.95) and more. No surprise that most of O'Neill's party customers are longtime collectors of the pretty pieces. "It's too expensive to buy all at once," she says. So she extends the company's "points system" (collected through purchases, although some party companies award points for bringing a friend to a party) that customers can use later to receive free items. It's just one of the advantages of home parties, O'Neill says. "You can't go to the store and say, 'I want that picture, but could you give it to me if I bring a bunch of people to the store?'" Couples parties Though home parties have long been considered girls' night out, couples parties are becoming commonplace. Especially the wildly popular sex-toy soirees. Renee Rand, a "romance specialist" for the Las Vegas-based Party Gals company, has been the life of its parties for the last decade, handling more than 150 local gatherings a year (the company does about 50,000 parties nationwide). The company offers a line of products designed to spice up things in the bedroom, from camouflage-colored condoms to romantic board games. No need to blush, though. Rand strives to keep the atmosphere casual by kicking things off with a few titillating party games to "calm everybody down." At ladies-only parties, she has guests introduce themselves by using the first letter of their name to describe "how you like your men." Then, Rand says, "they'll start talking about (a product) to a friend and (someone else will) say, 'Oh I tried that, I loved that.' I almost don't have to do anything." Except circulate samples for the guests to smell, touch and taste. The stuff practically sells itself, she says -- especially the rubber "Love Mittens" ($10-15) and the candy- and fruit-flavored body lotions. "Everybody gets a little warmer once she's passing around the different lotions and (explains) what they're for," says Carrie Lentz, who recently hosted a Party Gals gathering at her Green Valley home. A handful of her female friends and family members attended. "It's funny," she says, "some people have never even seen some of these things." Nevertheless, "everybody wants it," Rand says. "They can't buy this stuff in the grocery store. "Nobody wants to go into one of those (adult entertainment) stores with the sticky floors. Then, if you find something and you want to ask a question, are you gonna go ask the scuzzy guy behind the counter? Gimme a break!" Hence the reason one of Party Gals' goals is also to educate women about their own sexuality: "So they can share that with their partners and become a lot more sensual with their partners." Or at least pry the credit cards from their hands. "He's scared to death about how much she's gonna spend at a Tupperware Party," Rand says, "but he'll never flinch for a minute on what she spends at one of these parties." Tupperwave lives! So where do all of the newfangled home parties leave Tupperware, the granddaddy of the business? Still at the head of the pack, says local distributor Barbara Schiffmacher. "The party lives. The party plan is such a good method of getting to the public. So many people have gone into the system because it works," she explains. "The party plan is still based on the way we used to do it," following the basic principle that "people enjoy seeing the Tupperware in their homes and the demonstrations." The company has, however, "adapted to keep up with the times" by offering in-office parties and "stop and shops" -- convenient, informal, parties to drop in on the way home from work -- for its busy, career-minded customers. They're even doing "theme parties" with demonstrations to teach party-goers how to make meals in Tupperware's Stackable Cooker and offer ideas about organizing each room in the house with the plastic products. "We've changed our line to meet the needs not only of the public but of the other party plans. We have a lot of similar products at better prices," Schiffmacher says. The one thing that hasn't changed about Tupperware is its philosophy, she says. "It's easier to shop in the comfort of your home, or as we like to say, 'On your seat instead of on your feet.'" archive