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.
But the guests had not come to buy cosmetics or plastic kitchen containers. Instead, they were there to sell gold and other precious items – in the form of unwanted earrings, bracelets, cufflinks, coins, charms and rings. One brought her mother's gold tooth, another a place setting of silver cutlery.