It's Back to Basics for Housewares

Trade Show Reflects Leaner, DIY Times

CHICAGO -- America's ongoing lifestyle correction has pulled the plug on status cappuccino makers and vacuuming robots. Here, at the annual International Home & Housewares trade show last week, manufacturers of home goods reacted to leaner times by going basic. They were responding to consumers spending less money and more time at home doing their own cleaning, cooking and chores.

The crowd of 60,000 store buyers and exhibitors at McCormick Place circled booths demonstrating simple domestic innovations: a hair-clog gadget, an electric boot dryer, tomato slicers and a car-cleaning kit to replace pricey detailing.

Roy Rodman and Judy Newman attended the show to shop for the three Washington area Rodman's stores: the flagship on Wisconsin Avenue NW that attracts an international crowd, plus shops in Silver Spring and Kensington. For more than 50 years, Rodman's has been known by a

posse of loyal customers as a place to find well-priced toasters or barbecue aprons while refilling a prescription for Lipitor or picking up some canned Latvian sprats.

Rodman and Newman, who has been in the housewares business for more than 40 years and a buyer at Rodman's since 1997, have a good line on what locals fill their shopping carts with: water filtration products to combat their distrust of the District's water, paper plates and cocktail napkins for all those political fundraisers and air-filtration products for the area's bad pollen season.

The products they eventually order might show up in the stores in a few weeks or later this year. Value has always been a hallmark of maverick Rodman's, not only in tough times. "Utilitarian items are popular and strong during downturns," says Rodman, president of the store his father founded. "We know this from 50 years of listening to what the neighborhood wants."

One of the first booths Rodman and Newman like to visit is that of OXO Good Grips, a best-selling line of ergonomically designed gadgets and stylish kitchen tools. They were intrigued by a new travel mug, the OXO Good Grips 360 LiquiSeal. "We've definitely seen an increase in travel mug sales," Newman said. "I guess more people are making their own coffee at home to save money." This mug has a non-slip handle and a 360-degree opening around the lip, which allows sipping from any direction while driving. Three silicone seals prevent leaks, and the tapered design fits snugly in most vehicles' cup holders. Rodman and Newman thought the OXO Pole Caddy, a storage system for walk-in showers, would be good for apartment dwellers.

Newman says consumers in Washington are increasingly willing to open their wallets for products they view as Earth-friendly; the green-cleaning department at Rodman's has grown substantially in the past year. Newman was drawn to the new line at Casabella called Eclipse, which comprises cleaning tools made of recycled soda bottles. The same pole fits a microfiber sponge mop, a broom and a microfiber floor duster.

Newman and Rodman have seen a lot of pitches at this trade show. They aren't easily impressed, and they can be a tough sell.

"We don't want a redesigned lettuce knife," Newman said to a marketing rep in the Zyliss booth. He nervously moved on to his next offering, a pizza slicer with a special edge that cuts quiche and sells for $14.99. "I don't know," Newman said. "That's the price of a whole pizza."

And they were off to see more. They liked Nescafe's Dolce Gusto coffee maker, a bright red machine that makes frothy and other sexy brews using capsules. After tasting a macchiato, they were sold.

They debated the collapsible salad spinner at Progressive that retails for $30. "Everyone has space and storage issues," said Newman, eyeing the jumbo collapsible cupcake-and-cake carriers stacked in a corner. "One thing goes collapsible, and they think the rest have to collapse."

At the booth for Bodum, famous for its French press coffee makers, purple toasters and gravity-operated pepper grinders beckoned. But Rodman and Newman were most intrigued by the candy-colored insulated neoprene covers on the round glass teapots. They agreed, jokingly, that if the covers didn't sell as well as tea cozies, they could double as kneepads in Rodman's health department.

One of the last stops of the day was at the booth of the company that gave us the Chia Pet and the Clapper, which turns household devices on and off with a clap of the hands. The new product is Chia Obama, a clay head of the 44th president that grows hair when you apply the seeds provided and add water.

Rodman thinks there will be differences of opinion about whether this is in good taste. He and Newman could not decide whether to order it. "During the inauguration this year, we did sell a lot of flags and a lot of Obama T-shirts," Rodman said.

They're not sure if Chia Obama, the first presidential Chia, is the right thing for Washingtonians. If they don't know, who does?