Standing next to a clothing rack on a TV studio set in West Chester, Pa., Pat James-Dementri, a host on home shopping channel QVC, urges viewers not to wait to buy a blouse and tank top set. Order now, she says, and get 30 percent off. Then she translates the price into the channel's signature math: "Three easy pays of $16.66." That folksy, old-school style of selling, used by the company since its founding in 1986, is burned into the memories of many people who haven't shopped the channel in decades. A recent Philadelphia magazine article described QVC fans, for instance, as "silver-haired grannies ordering slow cookers and vibrating belly bands from landline phones."
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