As Never the second release ...

[onehorserace]

Wine, apricot spread and honey. I think we've had all the suggestions for names already ?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14832085/amp/Meghan-Markle-new-products-rose-wine-apricot-spread.html

Oh yes, the public brand is most definitely Meghan herself.

M the perfect wife.
M the perfect mom.
M the perfect entrepreneur.
M the perfect friend.
M the perfect princess.
M the perfect feminist, ‘having it all’.

Trouble is, it’s not at all aspirational in 2025. It wasn’t even aspirational when the myth of women ‘having it all’ was being propagated by the media in the 1980s/1990s as part of the backlash against second wave feminism.

M seems to have a very shallow knowledge of feminism in all its forms for an alumna of North-Western, irrespective of degree subject(s). There must have been so many societies to join, books to read, conversations to be had. My university days in the 1980s were profoundly formative in my understanding of feminist politics and cultural influences, and hearing M parrot her empty clichés from where she is situated is so, so disappointing.

That’ll be it then! She cannot help herself can she !!

Re volumes - I think they are carefully making sure they always sell out. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a lot more stock but are dripping restocks onto the site to keep it always selling out. (Obviously if they get to the point it sells out in 2 days not 1, the Daily Mail will then run a story about its failure - they really hate even the hint of H&M doing anything, it annoyingly makes me cheer for H&M because I want to see how the Daily Mail will stick a negative spin on it!)

It’s interesting it’s sold out this time so far from her tv show. Unlike a lot on here, I do hope it’s a massive success. If she’s running a business empire that’s essentially “expensive things to put on toast” with occasional food based tv shows to keep the brand popular, it’ll lessen the need for other money making schemes.

Problem is though, we don’t know what volume has been sold. She could have sold a thousand of something that she had in stock, or just 10 🤷‍♀️. It’s not going to make much money with low volume sales and as others have previously alluded to, there has been no sign of any of the items being re sold on eBay etc. which suggests they are not that sought after

How is it different from limited edition Highgrove honey?

Highgrove proceeds go to charity. That's a big difference

Highgrove honey also comes from Highgrove bees collecting pollen on the Highgrove estate, which is organic. Meghan's honey comes from a shelf in a warehouse that slaps other company's labels on some generic, mass produced product.

And Highgrove honey's not a white label drop with a pretty label printed over the top. It's actually made locally to Highgrove with detailed provenance.

X post!

Well, that's quite a different product.

I found that photo really upsetting she looks like she's hanging herself really inappropriate who on earth is advising her that this 'carefree, barefoot claptrap' is still the way to go. Sad.

When With Love, Meghan first aired I did hope that it would be successful. She needs to find success, and not just because their lifestyle must be eye wateringly expensive but also because everyone likes to feel they have achieved what they set out to do. It wasn't my thing but I hoped it would work.

As Ever I can't get behind because she is fleecing her fans with cheap generic products that are sold in fancy packages at inflated prices. If a celebrity wants to make money selling stuff to fans I think they should at least make sure it is good quality and well priced.

I try to be fair to Meghan (Harry i can't stand) but with this business she "founded" I feel she is being less than authentic.

The big issue for M is that nearly half of Americans work in a small business so have a reasonable grasp on how to run a business from daily experience. Layer on the entrepreneurs, the investors and the rest of the finance community (economists, valuation experts, bankers, accountants) and popular reality shows like shark tank, well there are a lot of people who can eyeball a situation and say...that doesn't add up.

And Americans are a vocal bunch and have not been shy to savage M's business with very negative reviews from across the political spectrum.

As for the economics, I would bet on the following arrangement:

-Netflix extended M some sort of loan (aka passive investor) to source her products. (It is quite telling that Netflix did not give M access to the same third-party manufacturer Netflix uses to make its highly rated Bridgerton food and drink product range)

-M then pre-paid Snow to make and ship products. Snow does this and takes its agreed-upon cut of any profit and remits any balance to M. Snow would also levy additional charges if M wanted last minute changes not covered in the original contract.

-M then needs to cover all additional costs (marketing, advertising, PR, Netflix loan repayment with interest).

I suspect this is why M attempted to cut costs by using Snow, despite its poor ratings so she could pay as little as possible to source products. Not quite sure how there is any profit from this arrangement, if this is what is happening.

Is it? Surely it’s people selling stuff using their name as marketing? I mean, obviously Meghan is crap at it and the King is quite good at it, but I don’t see why it matters where the money goes? I don’t think all the King’s products go to charity either, do they? Don’t some of them go to maintaining some of his buildings? How is that different from going to buy Meghan’s wafty linens and avocados?

The process all go to charity .

The top of the landing page for the Highgrove shop tells you that all proceeds go to charity.
Further down the page it tells you which charity (The King's Foundation).

The other difference between As Ever and Highgrove honey is the provenance - clearly described on the website for Highgrove honey.

You seriously can’t understand the difference between the money going to charity and it being used to line H & M’s pockets?
Fascinating that you’ll happily admit to this…

Isn’t one of the charities the Royal Collection- which looks after Royal pictures and so on? I could be wrong. But I honestly don’t see why it matters. It’s using your name to make money. Meghan, the King, Paris Hilton, Jamie Oliver….why is it a problem?

I think one of the main differences is that Meghan is fleecing her customers, selling the rip off generic 'spread', at stupid prices, not high quality jam/honey for quite a bit less. There is absolutely nothing 'authentic' about what Meghan is doing, despite her claims. The whole enterprise is built on lies and obfuscation.

There's a huge difference between a commercial enterprise to make money for yourself, versus one where the profits go to charity.

The reason why people are drawing this distinction is that there's a well trodden comparison made between Duchy Originals and As Ever, which fails to recognise that it's false equivalence because the purpose of these two enterprises are very different.

The King Charles Charitable Fund website covers off how they receive their income and what they do with it - for example, one of their current social inclusion grants is to Carers Worldwide.

From global feminist humanitarian or whatever the label was she put on herself to a shallow money obsessed wannabe housewife. It’s a bit of a comedown.

Typical from "complicated cancer narrative." You can't expect better from someone eager to propagate such a vile narrative.

Isn’t one of the charities the Royal Collection- which looks after Royal pictures and so on?

No - the proceeds go to the King's foundation, as I said in my previous post and as is clearly stated on the website (I can't upload screenshots as they are too large).

Also to mention the Royal Collection doesn't just care for the collection, but also supports access, as it's held in trust rather than owned by the monarch as an individual.

There will doubtless be posters here who are far more knowledgeable on the subject than I am, but my understanding is that there are few art collections of this size and scope and history, which are publicly accessible.

ETA - spelling.

Like others have said, whatever they do, they’re going to get slammed by the media. When they first moved, I wanted them to succeed. I could understand the feelings of wanting to be free from a suffocating life, free to chart their own course - I just didn’t think they’d do it by selling the family secrets. I think that’s largely the source of all their trouble. I watched the documentary and read Spare (doing so with an open mind) and honestly, it sounded like ordinary family squabbles to me. If I wrote a book about all the mean squabbles my siblings and I have had over the years, it would make yucky reading but actually we love each other fiercely.

In Spare, it came across as though they were a family blown apart by Diana’s death but underlying it, his dad and brother (and later Kate) really loved him but like every family, sometimes they screwed up. It didn’t read as particularly abusive - just a family struggling to find sense after a massive loss. Somewhere along the line Harry seemed to have been sold the concept of special victim status as though his pain was worse than anyone else’s though.

Anyway, I still think it would be good if they could make a genuine new life for themselves but I just don’t understand the approach. From a business/marketing POV, it’s totally chaotic. I used to work in celeb PR so I know something of how this world works. In just a few years, they’ve had several reinventions. They started out as ‘serious philanthropists’, setting up a foundation, aligning themselves with worthy causes like the environment (very Obama-ish) and then it was reality TV/Netflix and now it’s a weird mix of Martha Stewart/domestic goddess blended with twerking mama.

None of that makes sense! It’s like they don’t even know the end goal themselves. Maybe they don’t.

After this second drop and quick sell-out, I'm sticking with the theory that she's agreed a data supply contract with Snow. By announcing a new product every few weeks (wine this time), she gets a new batch of email addresses. Meanwhile, the attention she gets is a beneficial side effect. The question is how long she can keep it up for. In other words, there is no genuine desire to build a brand. She's playing at it and for now, it's amusing.