Riedel Marketing Group

The housewares marketing authority.

My PICKS AND PANS From the 2002 Housewares Show

Movie critics often come out with their Picks and Pans – lists of the movies that are “winners” and the movies that are “losers” in the eyes of that critic.  In the tradition of those movie critics, here are my “Picks” and “Pans” from this year’s Housewares Show:

PICKS

George Foreman Wheel It and Grill It folding outdoor grill:  Folding grills are not a new innovation but Salton has done it again with this grill.  The Wheel It and Grill It LOOKS really cool, is good quality, and when folded up, is not much larger than a golf bag...looks kind of like a golf bag, too.  Should be popular among those who are in to tailgating and beach picnics.

WearEver Perfecta pans: These pots and pans have a temperature thermometer built into the lid so that it is convenient and easy to gauge the doneness of the food based on temperature.  Maybe someone at Mirro was listening when I told Cookware Manufacturers Association members that the issue of food safety was of increasing concern to consumers at the CMA annual meeting last May!

Hoover FloorMATE:  Proctor and Gamble pioneered a new product segment with the Swiffer Wet, a floor-cleaning system comprised of a lightweight battery-operated sweeper with a push-button sprayer and a swivel head, throwaway cleaning pads and a liter of floor cleaner.  This product goes the Swiffer Wet Jet one better.  Not only does it wash and dry hard wood floors in one easy step but it also vacuums.

Select Brands CorningWare Slow Cooker with removable French White casserole pan:  Slow cookers with removable ceramic liners have been around for years but the liners themselves have never been pretty enough to take to the dinner table.  The Select Brands slow cooker makes it possible to cook in the slow cooker then take out the casserole pan and take it directly to the table with pride because it’s an elegant Corning French White casserole.

Haier Access Plus freezer: The percent of meals served with a frozen main courses reached an all-time high in 2000 of 11.5%, up 22% from five years ago according to The NPD Group's sixteenth annual edition of its Report on Eating Patterns in America.  We are serving more frozen pizzas, frozen entrees and frozen meat dishes.  We are going to need more freezer space to store all that frozen food and more and more of us are going to buy a chest freezer to hold the overflow.  This freezer is not your grandmother’s chest freezer.  It has a top compartment that stores food like meat and fish that can be “flash Frozen” to retain freshness and flavor. The bottom storage drawer stores already frozen foods at a slightly higher temperature so things like ice cream stay frozen but are soft enough to spoon.  This freezer looks really cool, too.  

Media Corp. Salad Blaster: A home version of the MacDonald’s Salad Shaker ™ only even better.  The lid stores the dressing away from the salad so the salad does not get soggy.

KitchenArt Pro Spice Carousel:  Most of the time, American want to get the food on the table as quickly as possible and use prepared foods and speed scratch cooking techniques to accomplish that.  But a significant percent of Americans do some scratch cooking.  One of the tasks that takes time when scratch cooking is opening up jars of spices, measuring out the precise amount you need, and then closing the jar back up.  This spice carousel speeds up the preparation of scratch recipes that use a lot of herbs and spices.  It has twelve spice canisters on a rotating base.  Each canister features three dispensing options: automeasure dial, garnish port, and pour port.

Mark Feldstern’s Timeless Treasures Clock:  We are undergoing what J. Walker Smith, president of Yankelovich Partners, calls “a tectonic shift in consumer priorities.”  We are buying things not for the status, not just to accumulate the most possible toys, but so that we can connect with the people we love, our family and friends.  When family is not around, the next best thing is to have photos around.  The Timeless Treasures clock has places for twelve photographs and announces each hour with your custom recorded message.

PANS

Fork with a mini pizza cutter attached so you can cut your pizza while you are eating it:  Maybe I am the only one in the U.S. who picks up the slice of pizza and takes a bite rather than cutting it with fork and knife....but I just don’t get it.  How many people use a knife and fork to eat pizza?  How many of those are in such a hurry that they can’t use a traditional knife and fork?

Hello Kitty waffle maker: Hello Kitty is popular with school age girls.  Do school-age girls buy small kitchen electric appliances?  Would their mothers buy Hello Kitty waffle makers that they know they will be stuck using long after their daughters have lost interest in Hello Kitty?  I don’t think so.

Salton LemonAde maker: How many U.S. households make lemonade from scratch when there are so many good tasting alternatives on supermarket shelves and in store coolers?  What percent of U.S. homemakers are going to want to devote precious kitchen counter and storage space to something she will hardly ever use?  This fad product may do okay during the Mother’s Day 2002 season when well-meaning but clueless husbands buy their wives yet another electric appliance.  But that will be it.

Whirlpool air cleaners in colors: Every air cleaner focus group I have ever listened to has said that they want an air cleaner that blends into the decor and is unobtrusive.  Whirlpool air cleaner in translucent colors reminiscent of the first i-macs do not fit the bill. These might get attention at retail because they add color excitement but I can’t see any of them going out the store door.

Sponge Bob/Square Pants clock: Anyone who wants to listen to the insipid Sponge Bob Square Pants theme song every hour on the hour has got to be nuts.  Need I say more?

The Bosch Kitchen Machine and the Electrolux Assistant kitchen machines: How many times are housewares manufacturers going to try to cram combo appliances down the American homemakers’ throat?  Historically, the American homemaker has never warmed up to the idea of combo appliance that are supposed to take the place of several kitchen appliances.  Her thinking is that this combo product probably does not do any one of the functions as well as a standalone appliance does. Leave it to the European companies to come in and try it again.

Salton’s Icebox: a kitchen entertainment center that rolls TV, DVD player, CD player, home video monitor, and Internet appliance into one appliance.  This is the third year that Salton has featured the Icebox in their booth.  Salton tried to make it new news this year by announcing an agreement with Microsoft to use it’s Windows CE.Net operating system.  I have no doubt that Internet appliances will be a common fixture in U.S. kitchens within a couple of years.  But with a price tag of $3,500 for the high-end version, I am not sure that the Icebox is going to be the internet appliance that will win the war for ownership of the American kitchen.