The latest trends in GM rally together at Marketplace

Drug Store News, August 3, 1998 by Allene Symons

* Around the house. Osram Sylvania showed its "merchandising by application" system of merchandising for home lighting products. Telebrands offered the easy potato peeler, Rotato, and Chefs Mist, a non-aerosol, low-calorie gourmet spray. A first-timer at Marketplace, House-wares International showed its decorative glassware and hand-painted-look ceramic ware. Media group showed the Window Maid, designed to keep dirt off windows, and the Closet Butler, a new space-saver storage system. Emson offered something to make preparing food easier: the fast way to segment grapefruit and oranges. Citrus Express.

* Organizing is profitable. Mead featured its poly-look Expandable line in new frosted colors for organizing, filing or carrying a long papers and documents, while Signature offered a new Porta View Photo Organizer for print and negative storage, as well as its own DocIt clear poly-look folder/organizer.

* Stuck on sales. Manco featured its new and more forgiving Removable Duck Tape ART, its EZ Start & EZ Tear tape, and Easy Liner shelf liner, which has a peel-and-stick repositionable adhesive. Also new from 3M is its Removable Mounts and a new lint roller.

* And there's more ... Avery Publishing Group showed new displays for its health-related books and featured its new book series FAQs (an acronym for the phrase Frequently Asked Questions, which originated with Internet users and is coming into popular usage). Winner Holdings offered The Club Pepper Spray, which it is promoting as a non-lethal form of protection for women.

All of the above comprise just a sampling of the general merchandise shown at this year's Marketplace.