Housewares sales continue strong

By Dolph ZaPtel Managing Director National Housewares Manufacturers Assn.

tf HE recent 64th NHMA National I Housewares Exposition proved to be a bellwether indicator, indeed, of the country's comeback economy during its Bicentennial celebration.

There was widespread optimism and enthusiasm for the year ahead among the thousands of industry leaders of America's $19 billion housewares business, who gathered in January for our vital semi-annual national marketing event in Chicago.

And that spirit of '76 among manufacturers, housewares buyers and merchandisers, alike, certainly was well founded. It was based on renewed consumer confidence in the nation's economic turnabout that marked the closing months of 1975'. and which led. in turn. to increased consumer spending during the year-end holiday season.

Fortunately, retailers were well prepared, with their store inventories built up far greater than they had been throughout the earlier months of last year. So retailers had a good Christmas and came to our January Show with inventories down once more. And they were ready to stock

Storyata Glance

Seemingly recession-proof , housewares sales were extremely strong at the recent national show. . .now a $19 billion busness, new housewares products, especially energy-saving, are generating increased customer traff ic.

up again with bright new merchandise, to take advantage of the American homemaker's ongoing confidence in the recovery of recent months.

Similarly, housewares manufacturers also ended 1975 in good shape. Their production facilities were already wide open from the previous inventory build-up; and they stood ready to resupply their distributors and retailer customers with provocative new goods to maintain consumer interest and demand.

All of this, it seems to me, is a good indication of just how successful housewares has long been, as a moreor-less "recession-proof" business. It has proved that it can weather the storm of economic uncertainty, such as we have all seen in recent years, considerably better than many of those industries that deal in bieticket consumer items.

Certainly one reason for this is that most of the countless thousands of home-use products which make up the vast housewares market in America are themselves low-ticket items that are easily affordable by most consumers. And by-and-large, most housewares tend to be everyday necessities for homemakersl or else they are impulse items and especially good as grfts.

There are other good reasons why housewares is in a good take-off position for a positive 1976. Housewares prices proved more stable in 1975 than they were the previous year: and shortages of raw materials were no longer the critical problem they had been in 1974.

As always, there were many innovative new housewares introduced at our recent January Exposition, along with traditional home-use products that make housewares "housewares"-pots and pans, plus! This was especially true for energy-saving products geared to help consumers combat today's higher cost of home heating.

One manufacturer showed a fuelsaving device which claims to reduce fuel costs as much as 16%, when it is mounted with a timer below the thermostat to provide automatic control. Another exhibitor introduced a product that eliminates air stratification in either heated or air conditioned rooms, by mixing warm ceiling air with cold floor air to bring down their teniperature difference to five degrees or less.

These housewares are singled out only as illustrations of the ongoing creativity of a unique industry which got its beginnings in the old wash boiler and copper pot days of years ago. But today's multi-faceted $19 billion housewares business-with countless thousands of home-use products for the everyday living needs and wants of America's homemakers and their families-is a far crv from that time, indeed.

Housewares '76 is a promise of continued fulfillment for the ever-changing American lifestyle, as our nation's Bicentennial unfolds.