By Laine Doss, MiamiNewTimes, SouthFloridaReporter.com, Jan. 1, 2016 – There are many items I still want even after getting a mixer for Christmas. A portable induction burner with its own carrying case is one of them.
Celebrity chef Ming Tasi ensures me that my home — and life — is not complete without one. The chef is filming a segment for the on-air shopping giant Home Shopping Network (HSN).
Its parent company, HSN Inc., is a publicly traded $4 billion retailer that allows people to shop 24 hours a day from the comfort of home. The company started in 1977 as the Home Shopping Club, selling can openers on the radio. In 1985, the company embraced cable television as Home Shopping Network, and a sensation was born.
Although the company has a robust interactive online presence, its bread and butter is cable television, where charismatic show hosts, paired with a product expert, push shoppers to buy. Together they play a modified game of good cop/bad cop — the expert lists the benefits of the gadget/garment/widget while the host provides a sense of immediacy by counting down minutes until the sale is over and taunting would-be consumers with dwindling stock numbers.
