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IHA’s blog features informative posts written to keep the housewares industry educated and informed about key strategic issues and IHA member services.

Retail Profile: Pamplemousse

Retailing is like parenting: adding another kid (or location) to the family doesn’t double the work— it triples the effort. Diana Manahan, who opened the doors to the second location of her successful store Pamplemousse in Reading, Mass., more than a decade after opening her first store in Salem, Mass., agrees. Partly because the second store is the one she always wanted to…

Future Shift and Transformation: 2017-2037

Futurist David Houle Looks at the Big Picture: Prepare for Massive Changes Day two of the CHESS conference will begin with David Houle outlining his views on global trends that are transforming us. Houle, known as the “CEO’s futurist,” expands beyond the insights about brand shift he shared at the 2015 CHESS and challenges us to consider the dynamics and forces that impact…

IHA Partners With Good360 on Hurricanes Harvey, Irma & Maria Relief Efforts

Your company can help Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico recover from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. As residents of Texas, Florida, and now Puerto Rico, continue to struggle with the destruction wrought by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, IHA is partnering once again with Good360 to provide hurricane victims with home products as they rebuild their lives and homes.…

Global Retail Intelligence – September

To follow is a brief review of retail news from around the world: September 27 - Carrefour Is Rumored to Being Bought by Amazon According to French publication, "Les Echos", Carrefour share had the largest increase of the CAC 40 ((Cotation Assistée en Continu), a benchmark French stock market index) on Tuesday, an increase of 3.45% to €17.09. This revaluation follows a…

Stats: Americans Seek the American Dream

Despite reporting that their current financial position is healthy, most Americans still aren’t satisfied. It is a dour mood that could have an impact on what you sell at retail. That’s according to new research from Mintel, which says that half of all Americans consider themselves “middle class,” even though most report they can pay their monthly bills with money left…

ILWU Extends Labor Contract

Shippers remember all too well the chaos and congestion that engulfed US West Coast during the 2014-2015 labor contract negotiations between the ILWU (International Longshore Warehouse Union) and the representatives for the steamship lines. It took the threat of getting Washington DC involved before the parties agreed to a contract. By the time the contract was finally signed,…

Trends: Daily Coffee Consumption Up

Americans once again are waking up to coffee. The percentage of Americans drinking coffee on a daily basis is up this year, thanks in part to better-tasting gourmet brews becoming more popular across all age groups in the U.S. That’s according to The National Coffee Association’s 2017 National Coffee Drinking Trends tracking report, which found that the percentage of…

Retail Profile: Plum’s Cooking Company

When Penny Klinedinst learned her friend Caroline Peterson, then owner of Plum’s Cooking Company, was retiring and planning to close the much-loved cookware shop, Klinedinst knew she had to find a way to keep Plum’s open. So she bought the store. “She was going to close the doors and that didn’t sit well with me,” says Klinedinst, who also owns a neighboring store in the…

August Currency Outlook

In their August 2017 Currency Outlook report, Tempus, an exchange rate and global payments company, provides a detailed report including the following topics and sections: In Brief US GDP growth lower than anticipated US Dollar weakened against major currencies such as Canadian Dollar and Euro Stock indexes thrived, hitting all-time records Euro-zone economies…