With all the celebratory press swirling around M Diddy, this kind of piling on will probably be hushed up pretty quick.
Over at Consumer Affairs, we stumbled across a dark side of Martha's legacy: dozens of folk chewing her out for selling them shoddy outdoor furniture (albeit through Kmart).
While we have had a good experience with Martha's Kmart paint and towels, her outdoor furniture apparently sucks big balls with rapid deterioration and breakage, even when taken care of:
BRIDGETTE: Just the other day, for no apparent reason, my glass top table shattered into a million pieces!
SARA: After one summer the cushions were faded and the chair frames were beginning to rust. This summer the ugly, faded fabric on the cushions is dried out and shredding.
MGR
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Comments (11)
O Martha
My mom has the wooden Martha Kmart furniture from ages ago (say, 1998? whatever the first year of MarthaK) and it's held up very well. She leaves it on her porch year round . . .
What a surprise! It IS K-mart, after all.
I stand by the furniture credo: you get what you pay for.
I also think people sometimes misunderstand the intended use/care for outdoor furniture. Some of it, although deemed "outdoor" comes with instructions to "keep in sheltered areas" etc., and is not intended to sit through year after year of Hurricane Dennises.
(Okay, so a thinly-veiled attempt to yet again defend the Madame Stewart.)
Bridgette and Sara sounds as if they are trying to sabatoge my girl M Diddy.
I mean come on ...FOR NO APPARENT REASON your glass top table shattered before your eyes. ;o)yeah righhhht
And Sara, your not off the hook. Bring those cushions in sometime why don'tcha. Or maybe invest in lawn furniture covers. I'm not sure but I don't think MY AUNTIE Martha, as I have been known to call her, is selling Titanium seat covers. I don't know...could be wrong.
Just when I think I will never comment again on this site, I get pulled back in!
Patrick, PAS and Guido - thanks for making me smile today.
Sigh, I have to agree. While the everyday dishes I bought from her line at KMart held up pretty well, the enamelling on the cast iron cookware chipped more quickly than a ten-dollar manicure. And on more than one piece too, so I don't think it was a fluke.
Um, so what do you expect from a ten dollar manicure?
My two enamelled pots are holding up fine, but half my everyday dishes have broken and two of my cups have handles that squeak... You do get what you pay for.
looking at the price, it would be expected, however martha put her endorsment behind the products which most people would interpret as a sign of quality. kmart is allowed to improve their products and the partnership with martha signaled that was their intention. if the stuff really is junk, it could be that they were misleading consumers so they could make a quick buck or a lapse in quality control on martha's part.
But shouldn't people still have a realistic expectation of "updated KMart" (especially given the price point) regarding construction, even if Martha did indeed bless the designs?
I thought you would take the Martha name as an indicator of improved style and the Kmart name as an indicator of value-store level quality. I love stuff from discount stores but I always assume it is the stuff I will change out often as my tastes change because none of it holds up very well at all. Not Walmart, Target, Kmart, Dollar Stores, none of it. However, discount furniture and accessories can add little touches to a room that is based around more substantial pieces. Of course, I keep threatening to stop shopping at discount stores due to the ethical issues involved, but haven't managed to break myself of the habit.