Snack cookware starts a micro-wave at retail - snack food cookware

Discount Store News, April 1, 1996 by Teresa Andreoli

NATIONWIDE DSN REPORT - Snack food cookware?

Americans' interest in all things healthy has created a new niche cookware category that As-Seen-On-TV manufacturers have embraced with relish, and microwave manufacturers view as a potential spark to sales.

In fact, As-Seen product makers have just begun shipping to retailers specially designed kits for making potato and other healthy snack chips in the microwave. And they promise that more innovative microwave accessories will come. Several microwave oven manufacturers are already looking for cross-merchandising opportunities to maximize the potential for replacement sales.

What's the rush?

It appears that Americans are finally ready to use their microwaves for more than just heating up coffee, left-overs, frozen dinners and popping corn. And according to Robert LaGasse, executive director of the International Microwave Power Institute, new information suggests that 20% of households are adopting a second microwave, often located in the garage to more easily facilitate barbecue cooking.

What consumers appear to be doing is combining their greater interest in microwave cooking with their hunger for low-fat foods and snacks and the need for quick meal and snack preparation.

The trend has even made the pages of high-end cuisine magazines. The March issue of Food and Wine magazine features scrumptious-looking red and sweet potato chips, carrot, radish, squash and other vegetable chips presented in a bowl below the headline "Low-Fat Snacks - How to make your own." According to the article, the chips were made in the microwave.

The new chip trays now hitting retail shelves - similar in theory to Bacon Wave, the Emson product that has shipped 3 million pieces worldwide since its launch last fall - have a bushel of sales potential, but some stiff retail testing ground to hoe.

At the Housewares Show in January, K-Tel launched Micro-Chip, a cookware device that turns sliced potatoes into chips without the high-fat frying process. This followed on the heels of Emson's Bacon Wave, the accessory that gave consumers a healthier alternative to the paper towel process of making bacon in the microwave.

Emson has just launched Chip Wave, its similar take on the potato chip craze, but will officially debut Sausage Wave/Hot Dog Wave at the Gourmet Show that kicks off May 8 in San Francisco.

The chip trays have a lot of the right attributes to make a sale. They are new, carry a promise of low-fat, healthful snacking, offer a cooking activity not commonly undertaken due to the maintenance and greasy mess of potato chip frying, priced under $20 and will be in stores in time for Mother's Day.

"I expect to ship about a half-million pieces this quarter [which includes Mothers Day]," said Larry Nussbaum, president of New York-based Emson. The Emson Chip Wave will retail for $14,99, a $5 difference from the patented Bacon Wave that opened at $19.99. Meijer, Service Merchandise, Best Products and supermarket chain ShopRite have already signed on.

K-Tel launched short-form advertisements (not full-length infomercials) in December for Micro-Chip. Caldor, Norwalk, Conn., currently shows the ad on a TV/VCR display in the cookware section of at least one metro New York-area store. It also ran a print ad ($14.99 on promotion) in its March 17 circular.

K-Tel's $19.99 package contains five units, a "halo" or chip ring with 38 spaces for sliced potatoes (so that both sides of the slice are cooked evenly), two slicers (one straight slicer and one that makes waffle-style chips) that ensure the chip width matches the space on the ring, a pusher to guide the spud through the slicer and a steam cover. The kit also includes seasoning ideas for potatoes.

The Plymouth, Minn.-based marketer learned of the chip ring through one of its vendors over the summer, said Marshall Masko, K-Tel's senior vp and general manager. "It was selling for the past year only through catalogs, but it hadn't been a successful product for anyone," Masko said. After a brainstorming session, Masko and other K-Tel associates developed a plan for a complete kit and marketed it directly to consumers.

K-Tel suggested that the ring be used for regular potato chips (no yams or sweet potatoes), corn or flour tortilla chips, bagel chips, pita chips and for steaming other vegetables.

How will it sell? At press time, the jury was still out. Retailers value the turns and sales that As-Seen products provide, and most buyers interviewed think that the idea is fresh, innovative and on target with consumers' interest in healthy foods. However, one buyer from a Southern-based national chain voiced concerns about the new wave of chip makers.

"Products that save time and are perceived to make consumers' lives easier will sell," he said, but he pointed out that the potatoes need to be cleaned, sliced, dried, cooked, let to cool and then cooked again. And only 38 chips are produced at a time.

"The idea still has merit because its new and unique," said Paul Bein, Venture's new dmm, housewares. He mentioned, though, that it took four to six cooking sessions to get the amount of chips desired.