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The NuWave Oven and Want Creation

The marketing industry, and the Ronco-type boys specifically, are in the business of want creation, and it seems to be a very filthy "lucre-ative" business, judging by the number of hapless idiots recommending this thing.

They develop a thing or service you really don't need, nor will in a thousand years, then devise an ad scheme that makes you think you want this machine, because here's what it'll do for you and yours—supposedly save time or money for you.

The NuWave Oven is basically a heat source with a lid over it---much like an electric skillet, only the lid's see-through.

The Boy Scouts had the rudimentary version of this: a coffee can with charcoal in the bottom of it, and a pan lid over top. Now, it's been Ronco-ized into a device the modern housewife cannot live without--now she can make her rotisserie chicken in 20 minutes!

With a little pre-planning, you can make just about any meal in 15 minutes or less (glamour not included)...meat can thaw overnight in the refrigerator, frozen veggies don't have to stay that way--they, too, can thaw overnight in the fridge. In their thawed state, they cook in very little time, and without tying up precious minutes of your time with constant supervision requirements.

The pre-planning goes like so: while at the store, buy large packages of meat and frozen veggies on sale, and simply subdivide into meal-size zippy bags for the freezer. Difficult? No. Time-consuming on the front end? Yes, but my family's worth it. Zippy bag-and freezer space- consuming? You betcha, but again, my family's worth it.

Back to the NuWave Oven: How much time are you able to buy for $49.99 or whatever the cost is? The ads say a meal can be prepared in 20 minutes. How often is this thing going to get used before you grow tired of it, and relegate it to your next yard sale? How long will it take you to actually pay off that $49.99 (now including interest) on the credit card bill? And how much did your last set of pots and pans cost...you know, the ones you STILL have and use regularly?

Meanwhile, these devices have been mass-produced in some sweat-shop labor country for about $1.00/apiece, and you are paying all the overhead for the marketing scheme, the shipping, the storage for QVC/HSN, the on-air hawking time, and countless other costs involved for a thing YOU didn't even want until it was paraded in front of you!

Now that you have your very own NuWave Oven, guess what? It likely can't go in the dishwasher. It probably has to be cleaned by hand with a certain non-abrasive cleaner and non-stick-cookware scouring pad (additional costs you weren't aware of). And the all-important question: Where do I put it? My pot-and-pan cupboard/under-stove storage area is already FULL! Your time saved from cooking has just been transferred to the grocery store searching for that special cleaner and scouring pad, not to mention additional time at the sink.

Three months later, while shopping through your local Target or Wal-Mart store, you spot the very same device for about half what you dutifully sent in to the infomercial highway robbers...and then, it hits you.

Six months later, while browsing yard sales, you notice lots of these devices on tables, along with other unwanted or broken-down appliances...priced at a mere .50 to $1.00. You think to yourself, "If they didn't want it, why did they buy it?" They're off to the NEXT big thing in infomercial highway robbery, and you're standing there holding the wreckage of wants gone awry.

...and you can still make your dinners in 15 minutes with a regular pot, pan, or skillet...

Posted by Cute at 11:09 PM

Labels: financial (non-tax)