While the global markets brace for Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff doom, for the Sussex Squad April 2 will go down in history for the launch of Meghan Markle’s (sorry, Sussex’s) official rollout of her lifestyle brand As Ever.
It was a online shopping frenzy comparable to the annual Glastonbury Festival ticket scrum. By the time I logged in, all the $15 Flower Sprinkles and $28 Limited-Edition Wildflower Honey With Honeycomb had been snapped up.
I raced to shove the Raspberry Spread With Keepsake Packaging ($14) in my cart, only to be thwarted by the sad reality that As Ever only ships to the United States. By the time I had dug out one of my American relatives’ address that, too, was sold out. Probably for the best. I doubt I could afford the multiple postage costs even before the trade wars start in earnest.
Predictably, the British press is collectively losing its mind over the prices. But she’s charging $9 (£6.94) for the Raspberry Spread (215g) versus King Charles’ own Highgrove Organic Strawberry Preserve with Marc de Champagne (350g) is £6.95.
Plus food in America is, like, expensive. You could easily drop that amount on a burrito or a couple of takeaway coffees. It’s clearly an achievable price point for As Ever, as people didn’t hesitate to buy it en masse within the hour.
The Duchess of Sussex didn’t even have to do a vast amount of marketing. There was a newsletter yesterday teasing that *something* might be coming — and to remind us that you can wash out a jam jar and use it again (groundbreaking). A couple of Instagram posts. Then an exclusive interview with The New York Times dropped, the website opened, and the fans rushed in.
There has been some grumbling online that the puff piece in the NYT wasn’t puffy enough. Sure, it dared mention the previous Netflix flops and Meghan’s sorrow that regulations insisted her products be labelled spreads, not jams. But it’s in the public interest to know that chez Meghan has a freezer stuffed with tater tots (basically hash browns and thus relatable) and that at least some heirs to the throne are getting chicken nuggets for tea.
In all seriousness, it also highlighted the vitriol directed at Meghan for being a black woman living a soft life with expensive Le Creuset pans. With Love, Meghan may not have been everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s demonstrated that she can sell out anything she wears and influence people everywhere to make her one-pot pasta. The Duchess wants very much to be an entrepreneur, and she has shown that she’s good business.
It is, however, far too early to call As Ever an unmitigated success. As celebrity brand-watchers know, selling out is the easy part. Now the shipping has to happen fast and with no mistakes, or people will be quick to complain. And those products have to be perfect, from the unboxing to the eating.
Remember the cautionary tale of Molly-Mae Hague and her £140 Maebe blazer backlash. Her debut collection sold out in 24 hot minutes, but the shoddy construction of its flagship piece cost her brand an estimated £500,000 to fix. Although if anyone takes to TikTok to claim the jam is bland or the flower petals stale, Meghan can always turn to her good friend Gwyneth Paltrow. After all, her brand Goop not only survived but thrived in the wake of the exploding vagina-scented candle fiasco.
As ever, the proof will be in the pudding. Literally, in this case.
