May 14, 2010
- More Pleasureable Cooking With Creative Gadgets
Cookware is a vital tool for any chef, both novice and professional. There are the necessary pots and pans, but you can also expand your collection based on your cooking needs. (…)
March 23, 2010
- Cookware - Back to Business or Not
Observations at the trade shows this Spring consistently indicate increasing optimism among US suppliers and retailers. This was buoyed by the surprisingly strong year end retail sales performance that has carried through into the first part of this year. The side benefit has been the clearing of on site inventory which means retailers can start buying replacement products sooner than expected. (…)
March 11, 2010
- Non-stick Cookware - Misinformation is Prelevant
[caption id="attachment_329" align="alignright" width="141" caption="Teflon - circa 1960 by Roadsidepictures (Flickr)"][/caption]
There is a lot of misinformation or just bad information regarding non-stick cookware floating about in the Internet. (…)
March 10, 2010
- Cookware in 2010
The International Home and Housewares Show is opening this week end in Chicago. This event sets that tone for housewares retailing for the year. After two years of pessimistic participation, this year looks like there will be a lot more optimism. (…)
February 17, 2010
- What's happening with housewares for 2010?
Have your heard of the "new normal"? This is the phrase coined to define the ways things will be in the recovery of the recession/depression of 2009. The inference is that as things recover, they will not recover back to what they were two years ago. But the new normal will be very different. Customers will behave differently. Suppliers will behave differently. And the new economy will seem much different in many subtle ways. (…)
February 2, 2010
- 2K10 to 2K20 - What Does This Decada Hold for US
So now that we have reached the start of the second decade of the new millennium. What will 2K20 look like for business, retailer and cookware in particular. (…)
November 26, 2009
- Happy Thanksgiving from Your Smart Kitchen
Happy Thanksgiving from Your Smart Kitchen
As the snow starts to find its way here to Northern Nevada and the Tahoe ski areas, does it seem that winter is arriving earlier this year. Skiing for Thanksgiving in not usual in the Sierras. But one thing that normal is the increased activity in the kitchen. This is a great time to walk in from the cold brisk outdoors into a warm house with the inviting smells of freshly baked bread, cookies and other temptations. To say nothing of the smells created from the preparations for traditioanl holiday dinners. (…)
November 23, 2009
- Butter Ball Hot Line
I was going to write a post about preparing your turkey for the holidays. The closing line was going to be:
"If you do not have time to brine your turkey and do all of the other preparation work, then just go to your local grocery store and get a Butterball Turkey and work from there."
Then I ran across this newsletter from a friend and thought this would be a better post for the time. So with thanks to John Graham —
Why is the Thanksgiving turkey such a mysterious creature? (…)
November 9, 2009
- Holiday Snacks - Tasty, Satisfying but Low Calories
As the holidays get closer there are more and more opportunities to grab a quick snack. Instead of empty calories snacks or candy other goodies that seem to multiply at this time of the year, here are a dozen or so of nutritious and tasty snacks that you can have available or whip up in a flash. (…)
October 8, 2009
- Halloween Spending Down - Challenge for Online Retail
According to a recent survey released by the National Retail Federation, consumer spending for Halloween will be down this year. Last year Halloween came before the full impact of the down turn was realized. (…)
October 5, 2009
- 2009 Food Trends - What do you think?
Early in this year, I read an article about Food Channel's predictions for the Top 10 Trends for 2009. Now that we are getting closer to the end of the year, it seems to be a good time to assess these predictions. (…)
September 5, 2009
- Is This the Year of the Home Cook?
From much of the press in both the local and national paper, it seems there is a lot of speculation that this will be the year of the home cook. (…)
August 30, 2009
- Rethinking Values: Implications and Trends for Housewares
Over the past year there has been a dramatic change in American lifestyles changing from a long history of consumerism to a new model of "hunker down" mentality. (…)
August 28, 2009
- Amazon - Channel to Competitor
Amazon started as the best source for books in the world and then moved on to being the best channel for finding most anything. Unlike eBay, who seemed to always be interested in making their users successful, Amazon has had a fairly aggressive model toward business. (…)
August 22, 2009
- Has America Forgotten How To Cook
I see more and more articles and assessments that Americans are eating at home more and going out to dinner less. That fast food places are seeing declines in business for the first time in decades. (…)
August 16, 2009
- Trends in Down Economy
Between March and August, there has been a lot going on but one thing the seems to be consistent in that period is the observation that most of us have changed our attitudes about eating out. (…)
August 12, 2009
- Gourmet Show - Observations
One of the fun things about going to shows such as the Gourmet Show in San Francisco or the International Housewares Show in Chicago is discovering new product and interesting old products that had been missed before. Also trying to figure out the trends for the next year as perceived by the manufactures and marketers. (…)
August 11, 2009
- Gourmet Houseware Show - My Perspective
My wife and I were at the Gourmet Housewares Show in San Francisco on Saturday. (…)
August 7, 2009
- Green Trends in the Market
I am not an environmentalist and I do not demonstrate or wail at the oil industry or auto industry or others. (…)
August 1, 2009
- Cookware Materials
In looking at Tweets, blogs and article postings it is surprising to me how many questions come up about cookware materials. What to get, what materials work for what applications and so on. So here is the first of what I hope will be several posts on cookware materials and related. (…)
