Gourmet Home

IHA Gourmet Home provides independent retailers, suppliers and manufacturers' representatives with tools and information to support the growth of the gourmet trade industry

Stats: Older Customers are Happier Customers. In Some States.

Although much ado is made about the millennial generation’s potential influence on retail, Americans above the age of 55 are a key consumer group to retailers. The Baby Boomers have the money and many have the leisure time to get involved with hobbies, like taking cooking classes, which might lead them to buy new cookware, or DIY classes that might lead them to pick up a new…

Retail Profile: Kitchen a la Mode

Owner: Ben Salmon Location: South Orange, N.J. Founded: 2008 Square Footage: 1,000 sq. ft. Many retailers use Facebook. Not so many enjoy using it, choosing to turn the medium over to tech savvy underlings or to outsource social media altogether. Ben Salmon of Kitchen a la Mode in South Orange, N.J., is a bit different and he doesn’t shy away from Facebook. In fact,…

Stats: Caffeine Habit Begins Early

Coffee consumption in the United States continues to rise, especially among millennials. And the caffeine habit is starting up at a younger age. Folks between the ages of 18 and 24, have caffeinated the demand for, well, caffeine. And that is having an impact on the world coffee market. According to a report from The Bloomberg Commodity Index, coffee prices have the…

Healthy Eating Heats Up

Americans are always talking (but not acting) about eating better, but signs from small retailers indicate that more and more people are taking healthy eating to heart by stocking up on kitchen tools that make it easier to cook a bit lighter. By far the hottest product, retailers say, are the plethora of spiralizers: tools that shred such veggies as zucchini into pasta-like…

Coffee Perks Up Sales

Retailers say that coffee-making products are helping to caffeinate their top lines as more consumers attempt to make their special brew at home. And in a reverse move from Nobel laureate Bob Dylan going electric at the Newport Jazz Festival, consumers and retailers are unplugging their machines. Sales of pour-over cones, borosilicate glass containers, vacuum brewers, burr…

Stats: Craft Coffee Brewing Heads Home

Millennials are at the center of the niche for craft brewing at home, according to The NPD Group. A recent report from NPD doesn’t specify whether millennials are brewing coffee in their own homes or in their parents’ basements, but the important thing for specialty retailers is that craft brewing is making it out of the coffee shop and into a home kitchen. Some key…

Trends: Grinding The Beans

Millennials are at the center of the niche of those who brew craft coffee at home. That’s according to the new Craft Coffee Report from Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD Group, and it is great news for retailers who stock those sort of specialty items and who also on the lookout for ways to attract millennial customers. Craft coffee brewing is not your grandmother’s…

Retail Profile: Now You’re Cooking

Retailer: Now You’re Cooking Owners: Jerry Martins, Barbara Lynn Location: Ithaca, N.Y. Founded: 1986 Square footage: 1,500 net sq ft When is a kitchen sieve not a kitchen sieve? When it an aphid separator, says Jerry Martins, who should know. As one of the owners of Now You’re Cooking, in the college town of Ithaca, N.Y., Martins and his business partner Barbara Lynn count…