Move over Tupperware, Avon and Pampered Chef. Hard times have brought a new twist to the home-product demonstration parties that have long been a fixture of North American suburbia.
In some ways the party held one recent Sunday afternoon at Karen Starr’s home in Thornhill, north of Toronto, followed the traditional pattern. About a dozen of Ms Starr’s family, neighbours and friends – including a husband or two – chatted around the kitchen table as they tucked into a goat-cheese dip, bruschetta and fresh fruit.

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