America's Store
 | |
| Type | cable, shopping television network, satellite television network, broadcast television network |
|---|---|
| Country | |
| Availability | National |
| Owner | IAC/InterActiveCorp |
Launch date | 1988 |
| Dissolved | April 3, 2007 |
Former names | Home Shopping Club Overnight Service (1988-89) Home Shopping SPREE (1989-97) America's Jewelry Store (1997-98) |
America's Store was a US shopping television network. It was the spin-off channel to the Home Shopping Network (HSN). On April 3, 2007, America's Store ceased broadcasting permanently.
America's Store (AS) began in 1988 as the Home Shopping Club Overnight Service, which aired on broadcast stations around the USA from midnight to 9am and, in particular, on WWOR-TV from 3am to 6am in the New York City metro area. In 1989, HSN purchased a number of low-power TV stations and began operating the service 24 hours a day as Home Shopping SPREE. In 1997, the name was changed again to America's Jewelry Store to reflect a switch to selling exclusively jewelry. This incarnation met with limited success, so in 1998, the selection was expanded to include all of HSN's inventory categories, and the word jewelry was removed from the network's name. In 2003, AS was added to the DirecTV lineup.
The low-power TV stations owned by HSN with partners and affiliated companies were located in every major metropolitan market - including a transmitter atop the World Trade Center until September 11, 2001.
Much of the merchandise presented by AS was distressed inventory from HSN, so the prices were usually dropped until liquidated or removed from air.
Competitor QVC had a spin-off channel called "Q2", which only lasted during the mid-1990s. Following Barry Diller's exit from QVC and purchase of HSN many former Q2 employees followed him to HSN and America's Store.
Hosts
Home shopping hosts that appeared on America's Store at the time of its closure included (in alphabetical order; names in bold denote hosts who have still worked at HSN into the present):
- Liz Benbrook
- Tina Berry
- Alyce Caron
- Bill Green
- Rich Hollenberg
- Brian Hyder
- Lori Leland (now one of HSN's guest product experts)
- Diana Perkovic (later worked only at HSN, where she left on December 13, 2013)
- Alan Skantz (later worked only at HSN, where he left in 2011)
- Perry Slater
- Marlo Smith