Two on Target

I was at Target the other day, and though I didn’t get anything, I noticed two interesting things.

The first was the new Dirt Devil Kone Cordless Hand Vac (which comes in other colors, by the way). Very stylish, but I have no use or space for it. Also, how good is it? Handvacs always seem underpowered. The timing means that Target thinks it’s a nice stocking stuffer, no doubt. And the look is quintessential Target (that’s pronounced, “tar-JEY”).

koneMain

[Item #2 after the jump]

Wine glasses

The other thing I found impressive was a half row devoted to Riedel glassware. Joseph told me that he has a set of expensive wine glasses from Austria and the first name that popped into my head is Riedel. This is the company that popularized having a glass for every sort of situation: Like you need a Red Burgundy glass, a Pinot Noir glass, and a House Red wine glass. (Red Burgundy is French Pinot Noir.) In California, if you’re drinking from someone’s nice crystal, chances are that it’s a Riedel.

My camera is a Nikon, my computer a Mac, my blender a Kenwood, my chair a Humanscale. Obviously, I don’t own Riedel. 😀

The actual reason is that Riedel uses lead in their glasses. A lot of it: around 24% lead crystal. Playing with figurines in my Dungeons and Dragons days and living in California apartments with lead paint. I’ve had enough of lead, thank you very much.

So I avoided it and bought a more pedestrian set of machine-blown lead-free glassware from Stölzle-Oberglass.

(By the way, have you ever thought what is the deal with adding lead to make fine crystal? The answer is simple physics: a higher index of refraction.)

Riedel makes three lines of glassware: Ouverture is for the budget-minded; Vinum is the next step up and probably the most popular you can buy it as the highest end stuff at BevMo! Sur La Table, etc., and the flagship Sommeliers series. Only the last is hand blown which, in addition to making it slightly thinner, pushes it past $100 for a set of 4. When you buy into Riedel’s “glass for every wine” marketing machine, you’re looking at some hefty out-of-pocket dollars.

Now where it got interesting is that the ones at Target are none of the above, they’re a line called Vivant. According to the bottom of the box, they were made by Riedel especially for Target. A couple other observations: They’re under $10 a glass; they toned down the line to one red wine glass, one white wine glass, one champagne flute, etc.; and this glassware is entirely lead-free.

I wish I knew about these earlier.

6 thoughts on “Two on Target

  1. Now those vacs have got to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing. I’ve always wondered why if women were doing the vaccuming, they looked like something made for men…besides very unusable 😉

  2. I couldn’t find the white, light pink, and blue ones on Amazon’s site so I didn’t link them. There are 6 colors in all. Just in case you are thinking of getting one. I’m a big fan of getting the color you want, even if this means buying from someone else or paying a bit more. (Not necessary “Apple Black MacBook” more, but you get hte idea.)

  3. Rose and I have the Riedel Vivant wine glasses 🙂

    We bought a 4-pack of red wine glasses and a 4-pack of white wine glasses. We’ve only used them a handful of times so far, but we’ve been very satisfied – although I’m not sure if it was the glasses or the wine that was responsible for the satisfaction 😉

  4. I saw that vacuum at The Sharper Image and almost bought it. Fortunately I didn’t, because the Dyson Root 6 I’d had on pre-order from Amazon and totally forgotten about arrived a few days later. Apart from the short battery life (so many people complain so loudly – it’s for spills and minor dust removal, not cleaning the whole house!), it’s just about perfect. I can’t imagine wanting one of those old dust vacs now that I’ve used one that actually has enough power to pick things up.

  5. Chris. I’m not a big fan of Dyson. My question is is there an engineering reason to make the vaccuum out of clear plastic? If not, then I have to second guess every decision they make.

    But the Root 6 looks like a great handvac, if you like the Dyson look. Congratulations. I’m glad to hear it works great for you.

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