It was the kind of spiel heard every night at home product-pitching parties across the nation. “These are the best tongs I’ve ever used … I’ve got some of this at home … I’m going to wrap this up quickly, because I know you’re here to socialize.”
Except that there was nary a plastic bowl or pink-hued garment in sight. And the semi-rapt audience was husky and hairy, broader-shouldered and deeper-voiced than one would expect.
Probably because they were, not to put too fine a point on it, men.
The event was a ManCave gathering, and the items being pitched included a 15-inch-square spatula, 34 kinds of bratwurst (including the popular jalapeño-pineapple) and a beer cozy with a pager that belches when prompted. This was not your mother’s Tupperware party.
“It’s just like Mary Kay, except that it’s geared toward guys,” said ManCave Worldwide CEO Nick Beste, who concocted the concept last October upon realizing that “there’s absolutely nothing like this for men.”
That might help explain why a company less than a year old has two to three “meat-ings” every week in Minnesota alone, and in eight other states stretching from Yucca Valley, Calif., to New Hampshire.
Logo from ManCave