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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 Wishlist

(A quick look at what independent retailers want from their vendor partners) Janie Williams runs The Biggest Little Kitchen Store with her two sons, a full time staffer and a couple of part timers. She stocks more than 5,000 skus in her bustling, 2,600 sq. ft. store, and in addition to day-to-day customers, she also orders product for bi-monthly store demonstration…

Discovering Design: Meet Corkcicle

By Vicki Matranga Design Programs Coordinator A cork on top of an icicle? In 2011, inventor Ben Hewitt and entrepreneurs Eric Miller and Stephen Bruner created Corkcicle, an icicle inserted into a wine bottle to chill the contents from the inside. Simple in design, yet high in functionality, this market-disrupting idea changed adult beverage drink cooling. The original…

Lost in translation – Wal-Mart stumbles hard in Brazil

Reuters reported today that Wal-Mart’s challenges in Brazil continue to grow. The story says that “Some securities analysts have speculated Wal-Mart could exit Brazil, as well as other markets in Latin America where it is already closing an additional 55 stores.” For more information, please click here. …

Brazil Retail Sales Fell 4.3% in 2015

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that “Brazilian retail sales declined in 2015 for the first time in more than a decade, as Latin America’s largest economy shows no signs of recovery from recession. “Retail-sales volume fell 4.3% last year, compared with the prior year’s expansion of 2.2%, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, said Tuesday.…

Discovering Design 2016: Meet French Bull

French Bull debuted in 2002 with a line of tableware acclaimed for its mastery of pattern and color. Today, the company’s celebratory style and LIVE VIVID™ message can be found across a wide range of categories including kitchen appliances, home decor, and fashion accessories. French Bull’s distinctive designs in melamine dinnerware and accessories such as kitchen textiles…

Inspire Your Customers Now to Create Sales in the Future

As a retailer, I want to live in a world where my existence contributes not only to the lives of my customers but to the greater good. I don’t want to live in a world where I am perceived as pushing “stuff” on customers who don’t need it. This most certainly should not be the case, but instead, inspire customers to create sales in the future. Decor that is more than skin…

Have A Library Card? Bake a Cake

Cake pan rentals are becoming the rage at local libraries. Packed up with instructions for baking and decorating, the pans are being offered by libraries nationwide and can be checked out with a basic library card. The Brookline, Mass. Public Library is on the leading edge of this lending trend offering some 50 pans to its members, ranging from Bundt pans to those embossed with…

Emeril Lagasse, Aarón Sánchez, Most Recent MasterChef Junior Winner Added to Cooking Theater Line-up

Famed chef Emeril Lagasse, Food Network chef Aarón Sánchez and, Addison, the most recent winner of MasterChef Junior, join the line-up of celebrity chefs appearing in the Cooking Theater at the 2016 International Home + Housewares Show, March 5-8 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. Other chefs recently added include Ron Ben-Israel, host of the Food Network’s Sweet Genius and guest…

Stats: Millennials Not Starting Up New Households

Housewares retailers trying to sell to younger shoppers are stymied by the fact that even while the economy has rebounded, Millennials are still living with their parents. And that appears to be a trend that is going to have long-term effects on a number of markets, from retail to real estate. A report from the Pew Research Center shows that despite improvements in the labor…