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HOME STYLINGS

For retailers headed to the International Home & Housewares Show this week, the world is their oyster -- or at least the exhibit floor at McCormick Place is.Using every category from traditional bakeware and gadgets to higher-end tabletop and celebrity chef brands merchandised throughout the store, supermarkets continue to turn their housewares departments into five-star destinations."For a while,

For retailers headed to the International Home & Housewares Show this week, the world is their oyster -- or at least the exhibit floor at McCormick Place is.

Using every category from traditional bakeware and gadgets to higher-end tabletop and celebrity chef brands merchandised throughout the store, supermarkets continue to turn their housewares departments into five-star destinations.

"For a while, the growth was primarily in-aisle. Now, we're seeing more culinary sets as major focal points throughout stores," said Julie Griffin, culinary director, Lund Food Holdings, Edina, Minn.

Lunds offers full-line culinary departments in eight of its 20 stores, and plans to add two more in 2004. The sections include a complete in-aisle set of bays and fixtures within the culinary department, as well as an extensive cross-merchandising program. Griffin said she has divided the department into two areas: preparation and presentation. Covered in those areas are everything from peelers to olive dishes to serving platters.

"Virtually any item in the housewares business, depending on the mission of the supermarket, is a merchandisable item in grocery stores," said Perry Reynolds, vice president of marketing and trade development, International Housewares Association, Rosemont, Ill.

Andronico's Markets, Albany, Calif., has developed an extensive tabletop business, which keeps pace with design trends in larger houseware-focused stores. The store's No. 1 category is still gadgets, but tabletop -- not traditionally something supermarkets of the past turned to -- is second.

Tabletop is currently the category that is cooking for Andronico's, but the store does "everything," said Connie Taylor, housewares and general merchandise category manager, Andronico's. It carries gadgets ranging from basic supermarket items to high-end products.

Finding a balance between basic cooking items and newer, trendier products is important for supermarkets. Challenges to achieving this balance arise due to the unique retail pattern of supermarket shoppers, retailers said.

"The thing about being a grocery store is that we get the same customers three times a week. We have to get in and out of products very quickly," Taylor said.

The housewares category is also an aggressively competitive area. Cathy Kennedy, general merchandise and nonfoods buyer for Bashas', Chandler, Ariz., said she doesn't see a huge growth in the chain's housewares or general merchandise business for one reason: mass merchandisers. She's attending the Housewares Show for the first time in a long time this year, however.

Bashas' merchandises eight-foot sections of gadgets, bakeware and Rubbermaid items with four-feet of Pyrex, and a limited two-foot section of cookware. The chain also has a specialty housewares section in 15 of its stores with items such as woks and Italian cookware.

Competition with mass merchants doesn't have to be a huge problem. Lunds' Griffin said it makes perfect sense for consumers to pick up preparation or presentation items as they are purchasing food items. The store set up an olive table on-site, and successfully merchandised olive dishes. When consumers are shopping for food is the ideal time to proffer preparation and design-styled presentation items, Griffin added.

"What we have coming into our stores are the same customers that are shopping at specialty stores and department stores. We find they have a good reaction when they come in to do their grocery shopping and they see that we carry housewares products, too. It's convenient for them to pick those up in our stores while they shop."

Indeed, higher-ticket items associated with food products can offer retailers opportunities to move toward higher-margin items.

"The consumer is moving to more of an upscale product, away from the inexpensive ones. This does not seem to be prevalent only in the higher demographic areas any longer. So there is a huge opportunity for retailers to increase sales and profit dollars by merchandising higher-end goods," said Bill Mansfield, a nonfood supermarket executive formerly affiliated with Tom Thumb, Harris Teeter and, more recently, Marsh. Mansfield is also the immediate past chairman of the General Merchandise Distributors Council, Colorado Springs, Colo.

This shift toward merchandising household items with the appropriate foods has bled into other channels as well. Housewares retailers find the high-end gourmet food categories increasingly attractive. The trend has reached a level high enough that the Housewares Show will include a new pavilion this year dedicated to gourmet food items called the GOHO district.

"The consumer no longer seems to be constrained by shopping for certain items in certain places. If she feels comfortable in the environment she's in -- be it supermarket, mass market or specialty -- the consumer will make a purchase if a product is presented in a way that appeals to her," noted Reynolds.

In particular, cross-merchandising solutions are growing as channel lines blur, he said. Supermarkets can, and are, benefitting from those blurring lines, he added.

Griffin said she finds that items with more design flair do well because consumers are used to seeing these items in other channels, as well as in Lunds and Byerly's stores, she pointed out.

Design trends have overlapped with the burgeoning of celebrity chef-endorsed products, as exemplified by Nigella Lawson's release of a mod line of tabletop. Television and fashion help drive tabletop in particular, Taylor noted. Andronico's carries Lawson's line as well as Emeril Lagasse's line of cookware.

Lunds also has entertainment-related items on its radar, according to Griffin. In addition to Lawson's and Lagasse's products, she noted Jamie Oliver's oven-to-tableware and Daniel Boulud's cutlery and cookware, all of which have driven growth in the housewares and cookbook categories.

Consumers are increasingly receptive to such high-quality merchandise as a result of their exposure to celebrity chefs, industry observers said.

"Cooking has come back into fashion, and customers that have operated with very inexpensive cooking pans, gadgets and appliances are watching any one of a dozen cooking shows on TV. And each of those shows is using high-end, upscale appliances, gadgets and cookware. It is helping to promote that upper-end tier," said Mansfield.

Ingredients for Success

CHICAGO -- Supermarket buyers headed to the International Home and Housewares Show later this week can expect to see an increased product offering.

In addition to altering the event's name and date, the International Housewares Association will introduce the Gourmet Home & Food District (GOHO), the Patio Park Expo, and the Uptown, Tabletop destinations, which open up even more categories to show attendees.

"I've talked to supermarket retailers who will be in Chicago looking for very upscale product, and I've talked to those that will be there looking to upgrade their presentation of current product and perhaps broaden that. That cuts across all the categories at the show," said Perry Reynolds, vice president of marketing and trade development for the International Housewares Association, Rosemont, Ill.

Retailer visitors will be looking for a number of different items, they report.

Julie Griffin, culinary director, Lund Food Holdings, Edina, Minn., said her buyer will scout for anything new for the summertime grilling season, as well as products for the fall and holiday seasons. Kitchen tools accenting the trends toward comfort foods and Asian-influenced cooking will also be on the buyer's mind.

Cathy Kennedy, general merchandise and nonfoods buyer, Bashas', Chandler, Ariz., has no particular category agenda for the show. "We're just going to walk it this year. There's nothing specific that we're looking for right now. We're going more to see what's out there," Kennedy said.

There are quite a few categories retailers will focus on at the show. According to Reynolds, supermarkets are no longer limited to just functional, convenience items. He points to diverse categories such as kitchen electronics, upscale tabletop products, food storage items, gadgets and tools, and gourmet food that will get attention from supermarket attendees.

"It doesn't appear that there are any categories off the radar in terms of what is at the show," said Reynolds.

Besides new categories and show districts, a session specifically for supermarkets was added this year. The General Merchandise Distributors Council will offer a presentation on "Retail Trends: Creating Housewares Opportunities" this Saturday from noon to 1 p.m. During the program, GMDC's David McConnell, president and chief executive officer, and Roy White, vice president of education, will draw information from the upcoming "GMDC Merchandising for Success" study, set to be released later this year.