QVC, which stands for Quality, Value and Convenience is headquartered out of little old West Chester, Pennsylvania. We all recognize the name QVC and it is probably the granddaddy of all home shopping channels. There are others, many others. I don’t want to pick on QVC in particular but they do exemplify the point I’d like to discuss, choice and responsibility.

Your ability to watch home shopping channels, QVC and others and to exercise your right and ability to buy items and collectibles, is your choice. But if you are an unconscious shopper, a compulsive shopper or a stress relief shopper, at what point does QVC go from being a commercial to your downfall and are they culpable at all?

QVC makes it easy to impulsively purchase items with easy payment opportunities and they even issue their own QVC credit card. But isn’t that just good business practice to make it as easy as possible for customers to purchase your product?

All big stores are designed to encourage shoppers to purchase items subconsciously. From the layout of the department store, to the smells piped in to stores (chocolate chip cookie smell sells more sweaters) , to the arrangement of items on the shelves. The goal is to make you want the item, at least a bit more than your will and self-control will hold you back.

A 24 hour retailer like QVC wants you to purchase, as much as you possibly can. They are not regulating your ability to consume, they are not holding you back from buying more than you can afford and they won’t be there to save you when other bills fall behind or go unpaid because you have spent more than you can afford on QVC.

But the brilliance of QVC is that even in the stillness of the dark night you can switch on the QVC channel and meet and talk to your on-air friends and be encouraged to buy, buy, buy. Not for as many as QVC would like, but for some, on-air personalities become their friends. Viewers connect with them, they learn to trust them, and the on-air personality is always encouraging the viewer and caller to buy now before it is too late.

QVC is smart and savvy. They have predictive models that allow them to target segments of their customer base. They are looking to move the maximum amount of product units in the shortest period of time possible. QVC has developed an online television clubhouse where your membership comes in six easy payments. And in the support of capitalism, there isn’t anything wrong with that.

When QVC becomes a problem is when you start buying more than you can afford and wind up with a load of credit card debt as a result. The bank that issued you that overlimit credit card does not care that you fell lonely and isolated, without real friends. The bank promised you fun and excitement to encourage you to apply. QVC promised you a relationship and belonging when you became part of their family and started buying. And now that you are in deep debt, they look at you as a loser.

If you have had a chance to visit the homes of people, like I have, who have large collections of stuff they’ve purchased on QVC, it is hard to see through the clutter. The dolls, decorations, tools, and must have items are everywhere. That’s because the need to purchase those items or collect them is not driven by making good financial choices, but by allowing us to get lost, just for a while, in the excitement that comes with the pursuit of the item to start or complete a series or collection. Shopping becomes the game, the entertainment, the hunt and the distraction and the financial result is just a foreseeable and preventable accidental outcome.

If we want to have free choice and not be told what we can and can’t buy, then smart retailers like QVC will lead to the financial downfall of some consumers. It will just happen. But that does not make those people stupid or losers that got pulled in to the message, desire and hype. But while they are certainly not stupid, they are not victims as well.

At some point we need to be able to exercise will and control over our lives. We should have the freedom of choice, to buy or not buy. But along with that freedom comes a responsibility that those that wind up in too much debt need help, not just punishment.

In our current American economic life, consumers consume and they told what idiots they are by debt collectors who look to intimidate them. At what point will fair and reasonable help be available to help people get out of credit card debt without the limits of credit counseling or the finality of bankruptcy?

Bankruptcy today in America remains the one and only way to legally eliminate credit card debt or reduce credit card debt. It has become the single best way for people to wipe out credit card debt and to get out of credit card debt. It should not be that way. There should be some ways for consumers to be encouraged to repay their debt in a reasonable and affordable way that binds creditors to honor those repayment arrangements without driving people into bankruptcy.

QVC isn’t evil, the process of effectively selling to you isn’t evil but the process of not allowing consumers to have a fair way to repay their debt in down times, well that’s just really evil.

Source: Is QVC Evil?

Other Related Articles to Read

• Searching For a Debt Consolidation Loan or Credit Card Counseling Service
• I Have a Shopping Addiction and Feel Like an Idiot for Being So Irresponsible. – Gloria
• Is Your Lover an Oniomaniac and Likes to Perform Oniomania With You in Public?
• Chapter 2 – What Your Money is Trying to Tell You
• I Was Not a Compulsive Shopper. I Was a Day Trader. – John
• What Do Carmen Electra, 50 Cent & Shaquille O’Neal Have in Common?
• Shopaholic Dies and Goes Missing Under Piles of Her Stuff
• Four Of The Most Stereotypical and Funniest Videos About Debt
• Recent Debt and Foreclosure Videos I Think You Need to Watch
• Be Frugal and Clean. Make Your Own Homemade Laundry Detergent and Save Money

Read the full article at GetOutOfDebt.org, click here: Is QVC Evil?

Trent over at the Simple Dollar posted an article about how to making laundry detergent and enjoying the benefits of homemade laundry detergent, namely saving money. So let’s bump frugality up a notch today and learn how to save money with home made laundry soap.

Trent said he’s been experimenting with making lots of cleaning supplies at home, but this one is by far the craziest – and the most successful. Basically, he made a giant bucket of slime that works incredibly well as laundry detergent at a cost of about three cents a load. For comparison’s sake, a jumbo container of Tide at Amazon.com costs $28.99 for 96 loads, or a cost of $0.30 a load. Thus, with each load of this stuff, he’s saving more than a quarter. Even better – he got to make a giant bucket of slime in the kitchen and his wife approved of it.

Here’s what you need:

- 1 bar of soap (whatever kind you like; Trent uses Lever 2000 because he has a ton of bars of it from a case he bought a while back)

- 1 box of washing soda (look for it in the laundry detergent aisle at your local department store – it comes in an Arm & Hammer box and will contain enough for six batches of this stuff)

- 1 box of borax (this is not necessary, but Trent says he’s found it really kicks the cleaning up a notch – one box of borax will contain more than enough for tons of batches of this homemade detergent – if you decide to use this, be careful)

- A five gallon bucket with a lid (or a bucket that will hold more than 15 liters – ask around – these aren’t too tough to acquire)

- Three gallons of tap water

- A big spoon to stir the mixture with

- A measuring cup

- A knife

Step One: Put about four cups of water into a pan on your stove and turn the heat up on high until it’s almost boiling. Always an interesting way to make your own detergent. While you’re waiting, whip out a knife and start shaving strips off of the bar of soap into the water, whittling it down. Keep the heat below a boil and keep shaving the soap. Eventually, you’ll shave up the whole bar, then stir the hot water until the soap is dissolved and you have some highly soapy water.

Step Two: Put three gallons of hot water (11 liters or so) into the five gallon bucket – the easiest way is to fill up three gallon milk jugs worth of it. Then mix in the hot soapy water from step one, stir it for a while, then add a cup of the washing soda. Keep stirring it for another minute or two, then add a half cup of borax if you are using borax. Stir for another couple of minutes, then let the stuff sit overnight to cool.

And you’re done. When you wake up in the morning, you’ll have a bucket of gelatinous slime that’s a paler shade of the soap that you used (in our case, it’s a very pale greenish blue). One measuring cup full of this slime will be roughly what you need to do a load of laundry – and the ingredients are basically the same as laundry detergent. Thus, out of three gallons, you’ll get about 48 loads of laundry. If you do this six times, you’ll have used six bars of soap ($0.99 each), one box of washing soda ($2.49 at our store), and about half a box of borax ($2.49 at our store, so $1.25) and make 288 loads of laundry. This comes up to a cost of right around three cents a gallon, or a savings of $70.

Plus, you can make slime in the kitchen – and have a legitimate reason for doing so!

See the original of this article here.

Other Related Articles to Read

• Is QVC Evil?

Read the full article at GetOutOfDebt.org, click here: Be Frugal and Clean. Make Your Own Homemade Laundry Detergent and Save Money