Can You Believe This Price?

Impulse buying comes to TV as home-shopping shows sizzle

Notice anything different lately about Mom's TV-viewing habits? Does she watch for hours on end, clutching her credit card in one hand and the telephone in the other? Is she smitten with a TV personality named Budget Bob? Has she started getting packages in the mail that contain everything from ersatz diamond rings to brass eagles? And what about Dad? Has he been babbling about someone on TV named Bubblin' Bobbi? Is his workshop suddenly overflowing with tools, gadgets and trinkets that keep arriving via United Parcel Service?

Uh oh. Like many other American consumers, Mom and Dad may be hooked...

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