When TV home shopping came to Canada in 1987
Home Shopping Club offered jewelry, kitchen goods, and bibles
There was a new way to shop in January 1987 — and it meant you didn't even have to leave home.
"It's the Home Shopping Club, carried free on almost 100 cable systems around the country," said Knowlton Nash, host of CBC's The National, in January 1987.
To join the club, all you needed was "a television and a telephone," said Nash.
In the United States, home shopping via TV had generated "half a billion dollars" in sales, he added.
'Very junky'
"Viewers were intrigued, but not overwhelmed," said reporter Claude Adams, as a group was seen carefully watching a television in what he described as a "home for senior citizens."
But Winnipeg's Marc Bergeron, a young man who'd found himself watching the channel while home recovering from an illness, was more blunt in his assessment. He described what he'd seen on the channel as "something very junky."
Adams said "hundreds" of Canadians had found the wares appealing and bought things like jewelry, a "gourmet rolling pin," a teddy bear and more.
"Even a bible," he said, as his report used an excerpt from the channel featuring a white bible with gold lettering and a depiction of Jesus Christ on the cover.
"This is a very, very nice book, it really is," said a voice pitching the bible. "There's lots of interesting stories in it."
1.5 million homes
Viewers saw only the products on-screen, pointed out Adams, while the CBC camera showed some scenes of the club's crew and call centre at work.
The cable channel pitched products for 14 hours a day, seven days a week, and was aimed "directly at the impulse buyer," according to Adams. He said it reached "more than a million and a half" Canadian homes.
"Would you like a heated ice scraper?" John Goldberg, president of the company, asked Adams. He shrugged. "I don't know, I guess you don't really need it. It's not a bad thing to have."
A consumer and retail analyst seemed skeptical, warning the combination of credit card and telephone could "really be deadly." But Adams said the channel's management was pleased with the first day's performance.
"They said they didn't have enough operators to take all the calls," said Adams.
