Grocery Store Porcelain Still Popular

(ARA) - Family heirlooms come in many guises. For some, it is their Grandmother's cookie jar, for others a treasured piece of furniture, and for many others, the family porcelain holds a place in their hearts.

“I love my porcelain,” says Susan Durrell. “It is very special to me.” She fondly describes the pattern as white with green flowers and yellow flower baskets. “It's really pretty,” she adds. You might be surprised to find out that Durrell is not talking about an expensive set of Wedgwood or Spode dishes, but rather about a set of dishes she collected 25 years ago as a special promotion at her local Publix Super Market.

The Tampa resident explains that when she collected the porcelain, she was newly married and the mother of an infant. “The porcelain was very affordable, it was pretty, and it was an easy way to collect a nice set of dishes, since I was shopping at Publix anyway,” says Durrell. She notes that the store also offered silver-plated serving pieces to complement the porcelain.

Durrell collected a service for eight, and says, “This porcelain is as special to me as any fine porcelain. It has been part of my family for a long time and has a lot of memories.” She was sad to discover after a recent move that one of her soup bowls had broken.

She wasn't optimistic about finding a piece of porcelain from a set sold at a grocery store a quarter of a century ago, but thought she'd try her luck with Replacements Ltd., a North Carolina-based company that tracks down discontinued porcelain, silver and crystal. “The only markings on the back of the plates say ‘fine porcelain, Japan’,” says Durrell. “I was flabbergasted when I went to the Replacements Web site, typed in those words, and a picture of my porcelain popped up on the screen.”

Porcelain sold or given away by grocery stores accounts for hundreds of the 175,000 patterns represented in the vast inventory stored at Replacements' warehouse, which is the size of four football fields. Liam Sullivan, the company's director of public relations, notes that there is a big demand for these patterns, since they were manufactured in limited quantities exclusively for the grocery store, so when they were sold out, they were out of circulation. “Also, most people never collected a whole set, because they acquired a piece at a time and the stock may have been depleted before their set was finished.”

Customers who are searching for a specific pattern can simply call 1-800-REPLACE or visit the company's Web site. “If they know the manufacturer and the name of the pattern, that makes it really easy,” says Sullivan. However, the experts at Replacements can also research porcelain using a photo or a photocopy of the front and back of a dinner plate.

The company prides itself on helping customers track down pieces they need, even if they're not currently in stock. Customers can give Replacements a “wish list,” and the company will notify them when they have the piece available. “I was very impressed by the friendliness of the customer service people,” says Durrell. She also appreciates knowing that the company stands behind every piece it ships. She is now using Replacements to find pieces from her Grandmother's silver as well as a set of collectible wine glasses.

“We understand that people are looking for a piece of their family history, not just a piece of porcelain or silver,” says Sullivan. And with over 10 million pieces of porcelain, crystal and silver in stock, these modern day dish detectives come to the rescue.

For more information or to find out if your pattern is available, call Replacements at (800) REPLACE or (800) 737-5223 or visit their Web site at www.replacements.com.

Courtesy of ARA Content