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News ..............................................3 Ad Index .......................................23 GENERAL NEWS Whisky Ware 5 NEW INTRODUCTIONS Robinson Home Products 6 GADGET OF THE MONTH Escali: Waterproof Digital Themometer 22 PANTRY Condiments and Preserves 23 VOLUME 24, NUMBER 11 NOVEMBER 2018 n $7.00 Continued on PAGE 8 Tight Labor Market Demands More from Managers BY LORRIE BAUMANN Amazon announced last month that it would be raising starting pay for its employees to $15 an hour, starting November 1, and that the company will be lobbying for an increase in the federal minimum wage. The Amazon wage increase will affect 250,000 full-time, part-time and temporar y workers, as well as seasonal workers. Target announced in March that it would be increasing its starting wage to $15 by 2020. Its 2018 starting rate is $12 an hour. Walmart raised its minimum wage to $11 and offered a one- time bonus to workers following passage of new federal tax cuts earlier this year. It's widely expected that those pay increases, combined with virtually full employment in the American labor market, will put inflationary pressures on other retailers who are competing for BY LORRIE BAUMANN Amazon knows who your best customers are – and the online sales behemoth is after them and their purchasing power. "Millennials are a large segment of global housewares consumers. This population is very large and growing," Amazon General Manager/Director Home Products Michael Popchuk told executives f rom housewares manufacturers gathered for the International Housewares Association's annual Chief Housewares Executive SuperSession, held on October 2-3 in Chicago. "They represent a sizable purchasing power segment in our market space." Popchuk's presentation was the big finale for the two-day event in which the housewares executives had already spent a lot of conversation on Amazon – they're deeply concerned about Continued on PAGE 5 Amazon's Housewares Strategy: Keep the Customer Happy www.kitchenwarenews.com KITCHENWARE NEWS & Housewares Review Build A Cheeseboard And They Will Come See PAGE 14 Never Too Many Cooks At Someone's In The Kitchen See PAGE 16