Lol. I love that Cutco is on this list, despite them having such a bad reputation.
I sold those knives as my sole source of income for about a year. That was about 25 years ago.
I also happen to be a welding and metal fabricator and went to a two year trade program for it, have collected pocket knives most all my life, and as a hobby I sharpen knives and straight razors. Also, I’ve worked several other sales jobs besides Cutco.
All the hate they get is mostly from people who sold them or know someone who sold them, and it’s pretty deserved. Their main tactic is to bring in naive kids with no sales experience and get them out selling to friends and family, and letting them then fizzle out before they make enough sales to earn big commissions on their sales. Very few people can get past that barrier. Setting up appointments and scheduling and selling to what turns into total strangers in their own homes all together is just a set of skills that needs to be trained into and also naturally gifted at. Then, traveling around and doing all the appointments and keeping it all organized and dealing with cancellations all kind of sucks. Even if you make enough money like I managed to, the job wasn’t worth it. I went into advertising sales after I quit there.
The knives themselves (which is why I mentioned all that non sales crap above) are great looking knives that hold up for ages (I’m still using my 25 year old knives, they get tossed in the dishwasher, and they still look great) without much fuss, but they are overpriced for how they’re made. They’re high nickel stainless steel full tang stamped knives with a high quality plastic handle. They will continue to look shiny and new, they’re dishwasher safe, and they have a fantastic and easily useable warranty, but the steel is cheap for the cost of a set. It’s great for people who want pretty and easy to care for, at the expense of a good set of knives you’ll have to wash by hand and wipe dry.
The steak knives will last forever, the straight blade knives like the chef knife and butcher knife will last forever if you know how to sharpen them, and the bread knife will last forever. The other few knives that use their serrated looking edges will last several years, but you’ll eventually want to send those back to get them sharpened (free) unless you have the right knowhow to do it yourself.
Their warranty is so bullshit free that you can find some janky trashed ones at a garage sale (I’ve never found a danged set at a garage sale before) and just send them in and they’ll sharpen or replace them all. Like 70 year old company and their warranty has no paperwork or ownership attached. The knives themselves are warrantied.
For the curious, in 25 years ago money, I could sell the homemaker basic set for around $850 and I’d pocket over $400. Commissions got up to like 55% as you kept selling, your commission would permanently increase more and more to that cap and it could actually climb fairly quick. Just most people wouldn’t make more than like 10 sales before quitting.
Ok knives. Last ages. Look great. Best warranty. Very high price .
Dunno why I wrote all this. Guess I was a bit bored and it brought up old memories.
I’m an old guy. I have no idea who she is.
“I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary to me.”