Color to enhance kitchen gadget sales

Discount Store News, May 20, 1996 by Teresa Andreoli

NATIONWIDE DSN REPORT - Kitchen gadgets, the hohum area of the housewares category, is poised for hot category status this year, driven by the increasing use of color and coordination programs offered by a number of manufacturers.

Propelling the growth is consumers' renewed interest in cooking and serving at home, the healthy-eating craze that has brought vegetables to a higher status at the dinner table and the role that gadgets can play in making a fashion statement in the kitchen. Playing off this trend is also the "giftability" of gadgets, and manufacturers are quick to note that sets o kitchenware are hot, whether they be as small and specific as Progressive's health-conscious egg peeler and egg white separator kit or as fully outfitted as Ekco's 15-piece bakeware gadgets collection.

Retailers that coordinate cookware and gadget colors or styles, cross-merchandise them both in more than one area of the store or promote the category through a bridal registry program will probably wring the most profits from the category. Margins can be 50% or more.

Bradlees is trying to tie the success of cookware sales into the kitchen categories by devoting 8 linear ft. on one side of its 36-ft. gadget valley for Farberware tools to 4 linear ft. of Farberware cutting boards and 4 linear ft. of T-Fal cooking accessories.

Cookware-branded tools perform extremely well when double-merchandised in cookware and gadgets departments, manufacturers said.

In suburban New York stores, Kmart cross-merchandises its gadgets in aisles outside of the gadgets valley, hang-tagging a $9.99 cookie-dough scooper from Wilton next to a display of AirBake sheets and pans in the bakeware aisle. Manufacturers like Ekco and Progressive have debuted gadgets with bigger handles, funkier designs and new colors that mirror the new trends in cookware. Kmart devotes 14 linear ft. to Ekco's various lines of kitchenware, including 2 linear ft. to Best Results, Ecko's professional gourmet line, which includes heavy-gauge metal products such as a $6.99 garlic press and a $7.99 heavy-duty can opener. Ekco's basic black-and-white handle line of kitchenware barely bumps above the $4.99 mark.

Tapping America's pre-occupation with reducing fat and calories, Progressive has introduced specialty tools under the Healthy Kitchen name. These items, finished in hunter green, are geared specifically to encourage healthy cooking and eating, and at least in the Caldor and Bradlees aisles, they stand out in a slew of white and black product.

Green and cobalt blue will probably be the next new colors to appear at the discount level, but industry insiders predict that yellow and a chili-pepper red are making their way to mass.

Licensing has reached into the gadget category. At Kmart, for example, Winnie the Pooh, Shari Lewis' Lamb Chop and even The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers dominate the 2-linear-ft. cookie cutter section.