Despite shifts in product priorities, the housewares business remains a vital core of the retail bridal registry business, and vice versa. Recharging and sustaining this mutually beneficial merchandising marriage requires a fresh outlook on bridal consumers.

Regional supermarkets have cemented trust and loyalty among their core shoppers over the years through a focus on homebred selections and community-centric marketing campaigns. That’s a significant advantage in the battle to capture and hold consumers once again embracing the virtues of supporting local businesses.

Personalization has evolved into a most prominent lifestyle trend the past couple of years. Housewares suppliers and retailers that can successfully infuse their marketing and merchandising strategies with genuine personal touches figure to have a leg up on appealing over the long haul to an ever-fickle consumer base craving special attention.

The worth of any supplier can be compromised if its identity and sales proposition can’t transcend individual items.

For three hours on a spring-like day in the middle of winter in New York, the industry got a chance to bask in some well-deserved recognition for its hard work during this year's Housewares Design Awards ceremony.

Target’s recent letter to vendors asking them to help prevent online-only retailers from undercutting store selection and pricing didn’t specify Amazon.com. It didn’t have to. Any plans to level the playing field, however, have to go deeper than asking vendors for more help.

The housewares industry deserves not only credit for its game-changing ideas. It also deserves a fair chance to be a long-term stakeholder in the concepts it pioneers.

It didn't take long for incoming JC Penney chief Ron Johnson to fire an explosive first shot in his mission to remake the department store chain. It is now difficult to comprehend any scenario in which JC Penney and Macy's can share the Martha Stewart brand.

A resolution of more cooperation between retailers and vendors is not a quick fix. It’s a long-term strategy. Forecasting more effectively requires looking ahead to the next several moves. And doing it together.

Congratulations to the finalists for the 2012 Housewares Design Awards. Winners in the 12 core awards categories and the Green House category for eco-responsible design will be crowned during the ninth annual luncheon and ceremony, January 31, 2012, at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.

The suggestion that stores are totally defenseless against the online sales surge is, of course, extreme. But the clock could be ticking for stores that don’t adapt to a world where electronic shopping options are an ever-present convenience.

Word has it the long-rumored plan to move Bed Bath & Beyond’s Long Island buying operation to the retailer’s New Jersey corporate hub could become a reality in 2012. Are they confident the chain’s merchandising playbook can be handed to new recruits without any hiccups in day-to-day execution?

As we head into the heart of the entry period for the 2012 Housewares Design Awards, the industry should take note of the first major revisions to U.S. patent law in more than half a century.

Millennials: You might know them as Generation Y, the Net Generation or Echo Boomers. Whatever you call them, they are a prime group of on-their-own-for-the-first-time shoppers who could determine the winning retailers for a generation to come. Millennials already influence $1 trillion of spending. In other words, you need them in your stores now if you want them in your stores later.

The unpredictable tremors in life and business that rumble under our feet come from all directions and in all magnitudes. We deal with them in our own ways.

Stressed from the roller coaster ride that is the stock market? Wondering if a consumer that seemed on the mend can stomach all of it in time for some soothing holiday spending? If everything is spinning out of control again, try to take your mind off of it by taking control of what you can. Stress-relief hint No. 1: Run your business. Stress-relief hint No. 2: Enter the 2012 Housewares Design Awards.

If you could arrive at an acceptable compromise in six months or less, wouldn’t you prefer that option? That’s the promise of alternative dispute resolution.

Shoppers are releasing pent-up demand on their own terms and at their own pace. Discretionary consumer spending cycles have abandoned their traditional regularity, and that’s in direct conflict with a retail industry averse to the mounting cost these days of flexibility.

The democracy of online forums for consumers to review products is commendable and helpful... as long as e-tailers and other online user review resources do everything possible and reasonable to separate fact from fiction and ensure such reviews are reliable.

As Ron Johnson moves to the helm of JC Penney from his groundbreaking post as architect, builder and caretaker of the Apple Store phenomenon, many might wonder how his hardlines-honed philosophy will translate to an apparel-heavy promotional department store brand.

What have you done for me lately? It’s a question being asked by both office store merchants and their furniture suppliers as the retailers wrestle with how to recharge overall foot traffic and suppliers labor for reliable growth again from a channel core to their business.

The IHA gave retailers the extra show time many said they needed. Now, those retailers owe it to exhibitors to make good use of that time.

The selection of Macy’s as this year’s HomeWorld Business Retail Champion marks an important achievement for the retailer and its housewares strategy.

It hasn’t been easy for independent hardware dealers. But with a lift from the buying and marketing benefits of co-op affiliation and with the determination of seasoned and fledgling entrepreneurs, the helping-hand, familiar-face, neighborhood-centric spirit of independent retailing has been difficult to extinguish in the hardware market.

Perhaps it’s time for the housewares industry to have its own slogan, a tagline to promote a business that finds itself at the epicenter of a new consumer sensibility.

I wrote in this space earlier this year about the promise of new job growth in housewares and the importance of hiring the right people based on their potential to contribute to long-term goals and not solely on how their basic skills might fill current needs.

The housewares industry is at a crossroads where it can’t reduce costs further without reducing quality; and where it can’t increase function further without increasing prices. Take the latter.

CHICAGO— The charity of the housewares industry is exhibited during every International Home + Housewares Show. And for the 14th year tonight, the Housewares Charity Foundation will celebrate the industry’s heart and philanthropy at the annual HCF gala at the Chicago Hilton. Crate and Barrel CEO Barbara Turf will be honored as the 2011 HCF Lifetime Humanitarian; and Helen of Troy Chairman, President and CEO Jerry Rubin will be recognized as the HCF Humanitarian of the Year.

CHICAGO— With Ambiente occurring just three weeks before the International Home + Housewares Show this year, it’s safe to expect the tone and activity in Chicago to closely follow what everyone experienced in Frankfurt.

CHICAGO— It’s the first day of the 20th anniversary of my first Houseware Show, and I remember how insurmountable all those aisles and booths seemed at the time.

NEW YORK— Talk about going the extra mile. That literally was the case for the many who attended this month’s Housewares Design Awards ceremony in New York City, which took place in the middle of a week that saw 29 states and more than 100 million people impacted by one of the worst winter storms in years.

NEW YORK— One critical takeaway from President Obama’s State of the Union: Don’t get too excited about the growing economy until lingering high unemployment is resolved.

NEW YORK— Grounded by a winter storm that buried the Northeast for the second time in three weeks and turned the unsuspecting Southeast into the world’s largest, most treacherous ice rink on the eve of the Atlanta International Gift Market, I am reminded of the first rule in retailing when things don’t go as well as planned: Blame the weather.

Buckle up. The race for housewares retailing success in 2011 gets out of the gate immediately in this new year with a steady string of trade shows that could help propel the most curious, alert and confident buyers to an early lead.

A read through HomeWorld's annual Year in Review edition confirms the housewares industry stayed on its course during this pivotal year to deliver value-added household solutions, navigating around challenges of a still-tender but healing economy en route, hopefully, to new growth opportunities.

It’s that special time of year again. The anticipation is building. And the next few weeks will be spent preparing for that big annual celebration in the heart of New York’s Times Square. That’s right . . . it’s almost time to ring in the 2011 Housewares Design Awards.

There seems to have been an increase in recent years of articles and supplements in HomeWorld Business covering notable anniversaries of housewares companies.

The sourcing squeeze in China may be old news now, but the helplessness is palpable in the tone of many housewares executives I’ve talked with since their recent return from their yearly autumnal swing through China.

Still looking for a centerpiece for the housewares industry’s recovery? I think I’ve found it. Cupcakes. Yes, cupcakes. Don’t snicker. This cupcake thing, if you haven’t been paying attention, is serious business.

NEW YORK— You’ve probably noticed something new about HomeWorld Business this week.

With apologies to Ben Franklin, in today’s world, perhaps nothing is certain except death, taxes and one-day sales.

This month officially kicks off the 2011 Housewares Design Awards competition.

If you’re looking for lessons in perseverance, a good place to start is the independent gourmet housewares retail channel.

The housewares industry and its retail customers find themselves in murkier waters than they might have anticipated after the positive start to 2010.
We’ve all heard the joke about the guy who swam halfway across the English Channel, decided he couldn’t make it and swam back.

I’d like to take credit for summing up why expanding U.S. manufacturing and warehousing programs by housewares companies have regained favor among retailers. But I can’t.
The credit goes to Chris Robason, national retail sales manager for veteran U.S. cookware producer Regal Ware, who, while being interviewed for a story in this issue, said, “Now [retailers] can manage their business instead of managing their inventory.” Sums it up nicely, doesn’t it?

NEW YORK— I’d like to take credit for summing up why expanding U.S. manufacturing and warehousing programs by housewares companies have regained favor among retailers. But I can’t.

NEW YORK— To get a sense of how drug stores rate as housewares shopping destinations in the minds of consumers, let’s go to the HomeWorld Forecast 2010 annual consumer survey.

Before I started at HomeWorld Business 20 years ago, I never— and I mean never— had a full cup of coffee.

NEW YORK— It’s become something of a running joke among our editors, wagering who will be the first to spot Bed Bath & Beyond buyers at the Long Island airport from which they and we always seem to be leaving on the same flights to trade shows.

The New York Tabletop Market confirmed the housewares-wide optimism is set in stoneware, if you will.
Proposals for meaningful orders during the market were well received by retailers hungry for new goods. Still, the fragility of a tabletop recovery— of an even broader housewares rally, actually— was not lost in all the enthusiasm.