Potpourri of New Housewares

digital fever thermometers.

There were many more home security products, including an indestructible Alarm Box for jewels and other valuables that has a pickproof English lock and an easy-set alarm that goes off and continues ringing for two hours, if anyone moves the box.

The cookware scene highlighted electric woks with non-stick surfaces, non-stick pots, pans and other cooking vessels, microwave accessories and gourmet work centers, such as the Chef Mate, a complete food preparation unit with a genuine marble slab set into a hard rock maple top, two additional drop-leaf sections for extra working space, two touch-to-open doors for easy access to hidden canisters and dowels for drying pasta.

Other newsmakers from the NHMA Housewares Show that are likely to show up on retailers'shelves in the months ahead include: o Dimension series of ultra-slim wall clocks that measure only 5/8 of an inch thin, and are said to be the thinnest wall clocks available. o A Blind and Shutter Cleaner for mini and vertical blinds and louvres with seven soft nylon brushes that dust andclean topand bottom of seven slats with a single motion, because of its easy-grip handle. o The Sleep-Easy clock with an instant warning system, a fullfeatured bedside alarm clock that alerts the sleeper to activated smoke detectors via wireless remote sensors, sounds a distinctive siren and flashes the word "FIRE" on the clock display, and then identifies the fire's location. o A glass whistling tea kettle can be used on gas or electric stove tops, can be easily cleaned because of its wide-mouth opening and has a heatresistant Bakelite handle. o Fix-it-yourself Home SurviveR kit especially designed for women has a complete set of tools and a 64-page instruction book for home repair and decorating tasks, all packaged in a fabric-lined wicker basket.

Story at a Glance

Intemational Housewarcs Exposilion's optimistic useful, olf-beat new products next show: March'84.

o Match-A-Patch hole and tear mender, a simple-to-use, hand-held electric appliance that makes sturdy, nearly invisible, professional quality repairs on holes and tears in most fabrics, including cottons, wool and synthetics.

o Medusa dial-a-diet scale determines the number of calories by weight for foods, beverages and recipe ingredients; the pound/gram section of the scale can be used for normal kitchen use or gramlounce diets.

o Electric Sauce Master, an automatic mixer made of white plastic, has a heating plate, a one-liter glass mixing bowl and two-speed operation.

Homemakers Like Housewares

America's homemakers give high marks to the myriad housewares products they buy in today's marketplace for being responsive to their consumer needs, and they think those housewares items are both reasonably priced and well made.

That's the word from Ronald A. Fippinger, managing director of the National Housewares Manufacturers Association and spokesman for the nation's giant housewares industry, whose sales last year totaled more than $20 billion by manufacturers and close to $zt0 billion at retail.

Fippinger based his comments on findings of the NHMA's justpublished "Survey of Attitudes and Purchase Habits of Consumers of Housewares Products: A 1983 Profile of the American Housewares Consumer," the third in a series of comprehensive consumer studies.

The study for 1983 tells a lot about how, why and where American consumers buy their housewares today. It is based on a sample of 2,400 homemakers selected at random from a national consumer panel of 125,000 representative households projectable to the overall U.S. population. A total of 1,940 recipients responded to the lengthy mail questionnaire, for an 8090 return.

Briefly, the study compares the image of housewares to five other leading consumer goods industries: automobiles, clothing, food, furniture and toys. It ranks the relative importance of six key factors affecting consumer purchase patterns: brand, color/design, price, selection, sizes and warranty. It explores consumer attitudes toward six specific housewares product categories: bathroom accessories, cook and bakeware items, kitchen tools and gadgets, outdoor products and accessories, serving products and accessories and small electrical appliances. In addition, it details consumer preferences for color and decor in kitchens and bathrooms, along with lifestyle trends that relate to housewares purchase patterns.

Highlights of the findings are: o Housewares ranks third among leading consumer goods industries, behind food and clothing, but ahead of automobiles and toys. o Housewares is rated especially favorably by younger and more affluent consumers, while "singles" households are even more positive in their ratings of the industry than the general population. o Consumers continue to rank price as the most important factor in the purchase of housewares products, but its relative importance has pretty well leveled off and, in some cases. declined since 1979. o The importance of both color/ design and selection have increased over the past four years, and product warranty provisions do not appear to be particularly important to consumers. o Apparently after having dealt with inflation and rising prices during the late '70s and early '80s, American consumers expect high prices and accept them, but they have reached the point where they also expect more styling, colors and selection in return for higher prices. o Most housewares categories are given relatively high product quality ratings, with cook and bakeware

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