Regency Beauty Institute, Newport News reviews

Newport News. Previously Avon Fashions. That's how far back I go with them...1985-86. Was once a club member.

What was once a very affordable catalog, with a wide selection of merchandise for both fashionable and mainstay, has gone a bit more exclusive, mirroring their sister site Spiegel (that's next on my list...)
It was once my favored go-to for sweaters and dresses.
Now, I do like that the fashion trend has improved.
I miss some of the wardrobe staples they used to carry, however, I can now find something there that might otherwise be found through Anthropologie, or on Spiegel for more $ (odd how they do that...) but the selection is so much slimmer, and values are harder to find.
You know the whole Lacie thing that VS is doing? Avon Fashions had a full line back in the 80's, and the quality, fit, was better.
They had silk intimates, lots of leather, and items seemed to run a mean retail of around $20.00.
Home fashions - I have some killer, solid-colored quilted rayon comforter covers from the 90's era - still BoHo beautiful. One garnet, one emerald, and one black. Even in the 90's, still rea$onable.
After the name change, as the merchandise 'look' improved, the prices stayed down. Catalogs (that I don't see in my mailbox anymore, sigh) offered promotions for mail OR online ordering.
It seems once Spiegel and NN became one, NN started carrying similar items but in lesser fabrics. If silk on Spiegel, poly satin on NN...and then the prices started creeping up and return policies started getting stricter.
The online codes went away. THAT hurt.
Instead of the vast assortment I'd always known them for, what they offer now is a single page of each category - and the pricing game is annoying, jacking up items to obscene luxury levels and then offering ' promotional discounts' off that...for what the item might have regularly cost in the catalog two or three years ago, or what t would cost at another department store.
I can't pull up anything by search - no archive. All you can buy is what they have showing that day. On another box I have links for limited (sizing or quantity) clearance items, but I'm not sure if that'll work any more...2011.
Shipping has also just bumped up.

I see from perusing the newly overhauled site that there is another owner, so that may account for the most recent changes. But I can't help but wonder what s