Wherein Your Correspondent Attempts to Slap Around the Gray Lady (The NY Times)

So I’m home not even 24 hours when I pick up Wednesday’s NY Times to read a review of the Housewares Show.  I nearly choked on my Grape Nuts as I scanned the article focusing on the preponderance of small electrics with “fast food settings.”  It seems that microwaves with settings for store-bought cookie dough and frozen pizzas foretell the destruction of our civilization as we know it. “Expensive knives…and canning equipment” are “popular in some circles…But the big money is made selling appliances designed on the assumption that cooking skill matters less than shopping skill.”

Nary a mention of the rapidly growing range of green products and initiatives: cutting boards and accessories made of sustainable woods, more bamboo than ever before, water bottles and food-storage items made without BPA, insulating items made from recycled plastics, nonstick cookware made without PPFA or PFOA, improved manufacturing techniques that are cleaner and more energy efficient.

A lot of these trends weren’t around several years back but are now not only helping to increase sales but also positively impacting the manufacturing end as well. 

As a long time attendee of the Housewares Show, I see this broad change as the trend.  The fact is, small electrics have always thrived on wild gadgeteering and some unusual and even innovative developments.  If it’s got an electrical cord, the profit margin is minuscule, perhaps even  nonexistent.  A basic item such as a microwave or a toaster is often the same despite its manufacturer.  So segmentation is needed not only for the product but also for the mega-retailers that will be selling the nearly identical products to the consumer.  It’s really more about product differentiation than product development.  Hence the article’s featured toaster with built-in egg poacher.

It’s always been this way in small electrics and probably won’t change.  From where I sit, it’s a nonstory. 
Writing about tricked-out toasters, making snarky remarks about “the farm-to-table ethos,” and quoting Good Housekeeping and ConAgra is lazy journalism.  Looking into the nonelectric categories that are definitely growing in this economy requires hard research and lots of questions.  I submit that much of today’s preference for green products has been a bottom-to-top movement.  One where consumers and independent store owners have made purchasing decisions that have pushed suppliers to make some real and significant changes.  And if you walked the South building at McCormick it was all there to see.

Where You’ll Find Us

The reality for the manufacturer’s representative at a trade show is this:  Some accounts don’t want to be locked in to an appointment and choose to drop in to your booths as they pass by.  Others want to adhere to a strict schedule and prefer to meet you at a specific place and time.  Working out all the details so you can see everyone in a few short days becomes just a little less complicated than juggling chainsaws:  If everything goes right you look like a real hero…if you slip up, chaos and messiness is sure to ensue.

That being said, here’s a list of our manufacturer’s booths, all in the south building.  Swing by and there’s a reasonable chance that you’ll bump into me as I’m coming or going.

Sagaform 1460

Out of the Woods of Oregon 1469

Thermos 2443

Marinex 3225

GreenSmart 3649

Pillivuyt 3851

Chef’s Planet 4410

Buzz: Real or Imagined?

In a few short days the Chicago Housewares Show will be opening.  I’ve been attending this extravaganza for, GASP, about thirty years.  Yes there have been a lot of changes and no I’m not going to go on a rant about them.  There was one change however that made a difference for me: It was when the Housewares gods moved the show from January to March.  The stress of hoping one’s travel plans would not be wrecked by blizzards and sub-zero temperatures was certainly ratcheted down a few notches.
 
The “good show” phenomenon still exists.  As in, “Do you think it’ll be a good show?” “Are you having a good show?”  Did you have a good show?”  This year I’m hearing from a lot of folk that they think this WILL be a good show.  And that’s from both manufacturers and retailers.  The cynics believe that the show will be a success because retailers have finally run out of merchandise.  The rational thinkers believe that nothing could be as bad as last year.  And a startlingly large segment of participants speak of a vague “positive vibe that seems to be in the air.”
 
There’s about a million reasons why a sunny outlook in these troubled times can be dismissed.  So when our manufacturers and accounts decide to be gutsy and buck the trends, it’s time to sit up and take notice. I’ll take the optimism wherever it comes from. 

An Introduction....

When I was a kid growing up in Queens, NY, I had a buddy Steve down the street whose dad was a cookie rep.  Yes, a cookie rep.  Steve’s old man represented different bakeries around the city and sold their baked goods to restaurants, delis, whatever.
 
After school we would be playing stoop ball or box ball on the sidewalk in front of his house and Steve’s dad would come walking home from the bus stop, lugging this big, black wheeled case.  He’d wearily enter the house, remove his coat, glance at us and say, “If you guys want a snack, I got some cookies inside the sample case.”  And then he’d turn, go to the kitchen, and grab a can of Rheingold Beer.  And as Steve and I rummaged about inside the sample case, opening boxes, pawing through crumbs, we’d hear his dad cursing in the kitchen as he looked for a can opener.
 
I thought Steve’s dad had one of the coolest jobs around.  And no, that did not set me on a course to be a rep.  I wanted to be an astronaut.  When that didn’t work out I became a rep.
 
My current sample case can take the form of a briefcase, a duffel bag, or a backpack.  It’s often jammed with notes, catalogs, porcelain bakers, cooking gadgets, water bottles, and all manner of kitchen and tabletop items.  (There are often cookie crumbs in there as well.) 
 
When I meet with an account I like to bring more than samples:  creative ideas, special offers, insight, industry news, a bit of fun, and perhaps some cookies.  And that is exactly what this blog will try to bring to you.  Except for the cookies…unless you have one of those new USB cookie dispensers plugged in.