Nonfoods Forum: Building Housewares

Let’s start out by stating the obvious. Grocery operators have made significant progress in harnessing the sales and significant profits offered by housewares. 

The question really is: Have they maximized the potential yet?

A GMDC panel moderated at the 2016 International Home Housewares Show investigated the burgeoning housewares trade in supermarkets. They started with food prep, but that is not where it ends. 

As Mark Mechelse of GMDC proposed in his introduction to the panel discussion, an emerging cohort of consumers—the much-discussed Millennials, along with their aging predecessors, the Boomers—are driven by convenience. Not only could supermarkets adapt to the Baby Boomers empty nest lifestyle, now they could impress these new, young shoppers with a full menu of home solution tools during their frequent visits to purchase food. 

So the question is, how to drive that extra profit and take away the assortment advantages that mass merchants, who also sell food, have over supermarkets? 

Years ago, senior grocery leaders worked on a food first approach and general merchandise was viewed as an amenity, a support to food sales that captured some extra volume at a pleasingly high profit. But as competitors evolved and began creating full or partial food sections, the game changed.

Thought leaders in the industry like Wegmans and H-E-B moved to a customer-first approach that opened the door for their creative merchants to introduce assortments that celebrated cooking, helped grocery shoppers prepare meals in the same way that the in-store demo chefs did, and made a shopping trip not just about buying the ingredients but about complete meal preparation. 

As grocery stores got bigger, adjacencies were simplified and in the case of one major national chain, enough space became available in some prototypes to insert a full home and housewares section. So as the mass merchants came to look more like a supermarket, supermarkets countered by improving their offerings in food prep, wine accessories, cookware, bakeware, electrics, home organization and other home care categories. 

The key realization? Supermarket shoppers today are very likely not just an opening-price-point consumer. However, that was the only type of product that was offered a generation or two ago in supermarkets. Function became more important. Well-designed products came along to match the shopper’s expectations—and the customer responded.     

For those who are not there yet, how do you make the leap? Tools abound, as do opportunities. However, looking for suppliers can be daunting. Trade magazines can be helpful. Reps and sales managers are welcome resources. But the most robust directory of suppliers is at Housewares Connect 365, housewares.org/housewaresconnect365. Buyers can search by product, category or keyword. They can see videos, view product shots and browse catalogs. They can see links to sales managers and websites. 

And of course, we would be remiss if we did not mention the 2017 International Home Housewares Show which will occur March 18-21 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. More than 2,200 suppliers will be on hand ready to do business. Many of those suppliers value the business they do in supermarkets, which collectively rank in the top five for channel sales of housewares. 

Some 500 supermarket purchasing executives will make the trip to Chicago. Some will be on hand for the next iteration of research by GMDC into the fast-growing category of food storage. Most will visit supplier partners. Many will assign time to dig for game changing new products. Some will arrive at 8 a.m. on March, 18 prior to show open, for the New Exhibitor Preview where 90 first-time exhibitors will offer a peek at the newest of the new.      

Perry Reynolds is vice president of global trade development for the International Housewares Association. He can be reached at [email protected].