Ronco No Mo’? Popeil Products Company Files for Bankruptcy
June 22nd, 2007 by Paul Lucas
Legendary infomercial product company Ronco has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Ron Popeil, the “King of Infomercials,” sold his namesake company for about $55 million back in 2005 to company Fi-Tek VII. Even after the sale, Popeil continued to sell his products through Ronco and serve as the public face of the company. Now Ronco needs protection from its creditors—of which Ron Popeil himself is the largest one! (See these news reports: Ronco, Maker of the Veg-O-Matic, Files for Bankruptcy; Sliced, diced: Ronco in Chapt. 11 )
Hopefully, Ronco will be able to continue operation and continue to give us such wonderful infomercials as the Showtime Rotisserie, Veg-o-matic, Food Dehydrator, and—my personal favorite Ronco infomercial—the GLH9 spray-on hair.
One of my biggest regrets was that I didn’t have to foresight to record the GLH9 spray on hair infomercial when it was originally aired on TV back in the 1990s. About two years ago, the Ronco website made full length video available of several Ron Popeil infomercials, including GLH9. I was going to watch it and write a review, but Ronco suddenly removed it before I had a chance. And I didn’t have the wisdom to save the files to my computer. Foiled again!
Here are some video highlights from Ron’s recent Showtime Six Star+ Knife set infomercial:
Does this mean I’ll no longer be able to scarf a spinning hunk of meat off the Showtime Rotissere then hit the clubs with my GLH9 and Pocket Fisherman? NOOOEEESSS!!11!!1
Comment by Kurt — June 25th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Isn’t he also suing Ronco over unpaid contract or something like that? Tough luck.
Comment by Mike — June 28th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
But he promised my six star cutlery set in limited edition white handles would have a lifetime warranty…what if my one, no two, no three, wow four steak knives breaks. Or one of the other four steak knives they threw in free because I called in the next thirty minutes???? Surely Ron will stand behind his products…
Comment by chad — August 26th, 2007 at 12:43 am
I purchased a replacement wheel for my rotissere in December and to date have not received it. I tried to call the company only to find the phone was disconected. Could this mean that I was scamed into payiong for a product they were not going to ship?
Comment by pam — January 21st, 2009 at 9:18 am