Housewares show their true colors - National Housewares Manufacturers Assoc. show in Chicago

Discount Store News, Nov 24, 1986

Housewares Show Their True Colors

New colors on old signs failed to catch the eye of most buyers at the National Housewares Manufacturers Association show--but new colors on old products did.

Despite all the hoopla over a new color-coded show format, buyers came away unimpressed because they found they had to do more footwork at the show, rather than less.

The color coded aisles and merchandise classification system--intended to help get buyers off their feet by condensing the area they covered --worked worse than expected. The color coding was indistinctive and the classifications were, for the most part, too loose.

Also new at this show was a new products wing carved out of the lower level of the west building. While most buyers liked being able to see new products in one place, separate from vendors' full line displays at the booths, manufacturers weren't as positive.

The new products display area was unmanned by manufacturers, which meant vendors couldn't see which buyers were interested in their merchandise unless they came by their booths.

While the numbers on show attendance weren't available at press time, most buyers and manufacturers agreed that traffic seemed low.

Because of the opening of the new north building, which added 369,000 sq. ft. of exhibition space, it was hard to tell whether a lot fewer people were attending than last year or the same approximate number of buyers were spread out.

Even though buyers overlooked the colors in the new layout, color was one of the more pressing items on their agendas.

Some exceptions: in bakeware, it was non-stick, in microwave it was low price points, in cleaning accessories and related lines it was product signage. But most other lines, the prominent selling feature was plastic colors.

Tabletop, bath, furniture, closet and storage, clocks and personal care appliances were among the categories where solids and color combinations made old products seem new.

Color is so important to Gold Circle's buyer, Derek Dubin, that he is working with venders to develop new colors in existing plastic lines exclusively for Gold Circle stores.

"Color is moving plastics from a basic to a fashion item, which means more profit,' Dubin said. And the profit comes from higher volume, not higher price points.

"In fact, even dusting is a fashion business,' he said, shrugging his shoulders. "One manufacturer offers dust pans in three colors and there are even colors in mops, brooms and extendable dusters.'

Bold and muted magenta, purple and turquoise, as well as white and black are the colors consumers are purchasing, Dubin said.

One might expect Dubin, who buys everything from kitchen chemicals to plastic furniture and closet lines, would need to walk the entire show to meet all the vendors he wanted to see.

But what about a buyer like Clover's Jan Clausing, who concentrates on ready to assemble furniture?

"I found the show pretty well categorized, but I was still compelled to walk the whole snow because it wasn't really cut and dried,' Clausing said.

"Some vendors made a point of positioning themselves away from their competition. I imagine some of them told the NHMA they'd fit in better with a different category to avoid being side by side with their competitor.'

As far as the enlarged show size was concerned, Clausing thought it was a plus.

"The increased space opened up displays, showing more product and showing it better.'

Joe Osowski, general merchandise manager, hard lines at Rose's, said he also noted the color changes at the show. He said show traffic seemed low, but added that it might just seem that way because the show was spread out.

Danner's 3D buyer Don Richardson also said traffic seemed low. He said he was at the show mostly to let manufacturers know the company --which has suffered financially since the summer--is still doing business.

Brian Casey, NHMA show director, said these are some of the tasks on the NHMA's things-to-do list for the April show: stronger definition among the product categories; more noticeable category colorization, and the creation of a panel of judges to review new products.