Woman in Real Life

Do you ever start a collection unintentionally? I picked up a couple of pieces of this cheery vintage orange flowered dishware a few years back. And then, as I said in this Flower Power post, my lovely blogging friend Jill sent me a whole bunch more matching pieces. And a collection was born.

So when I saw these matching lidded soup bowls at the thrift store this week, how could I pass them up? We may never use them, but they sure do look pretty with the mugs. These pieces were made in Japan for the now defunct Consumers Distributing stores. I believe they are from the seventies.

If you are a regular visitor to this blog, you might remember these cool vintage jars I picked up while happily thrifting with my sister.

When my blogging friend Jill saw these little pieces of flower power on my blog, she emailed me and kindly offered to send me some matching pieces.


Jill, who is a great collector and a member of The Pyrex Collective, also lives in Ontario, but several hours away. Not only did she give the pieces to me as a gift, but she sent them on a journey to me through family members, so that I only had to go to her son's nearby GTA home to pick them up. Thanks so much Jill for your kindness and generosity!


Here is my happy little orange set now. I love the feeling of the round coffee cups in my hand, and the bright flowers bring a smile to my face.


Jill pointed out that one of the pieces has a sticker on the bottom indicating that they were made in Japan for Consumers Distributing. That brought back some memories for me. I recall going there often with my mom and waiting eagerly for employees to bring out our selected items from storage.


Wikipedia explains that Consumers was a catalogue store in Canada and the United States that operated from 1957 to 1996. At its peak, it operated 243 outlets in Canada and 217 in the United States, including stores in every province in Canada and in the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California and Nevada.

Consumers Distributing aimed to reduce costs for customers by stocking merchandise in a warehouse type stocking system instead of displaying them in a costly showroom. Customers made their selections from a catalogue, filled out a form with product identification, and waited for stock staff to retrieve the items from the warehouse.


I had completely forgotten about Consumers until Jill mentioned it. I even had friends who worked there.

While some online sources indicate that these dishes are from the seventies, they look like the eighties to me. What do you think?

Did you shop at Consumers?

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