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News.....................................2 Ad Index.............................22 Cont. on page 10 Uniqueness Sells to the Gift Shopper BY LORRIE BAUMANN Jennifer Boake, Senior Buyer for Abbott, is a self-confessed giftware junkie. "We're really involved in what's going on in both the Cana- dian and U.S. market," she said. She's been with the company for 33 years and loves her job. She spends a lot of time in shops, at trade shows, researching online and flipping through magazines, observing and looking for inspira- tion and then bringing those ideas back to the company's design team to start to create new items and ranges. Then she goes to work finding factories to make them and following up to make sure that the products are right before they're shipped to Canada. "We are con- stantly trend-spotting, constantly looking for inspiration to bring new product to market," she said. "You have to be nimble. The Inter- net has changed the way people shop, and that's continuing to change.... We have to be flexible and listen to customers about what they want to buy and how they BY LORRIE BAUMANN Quiet Mark is a certification pro- gram that rewards consumer prod- ucts that do their part in combating noise pollution. "It's a consumer champion award for so- lutions to noise issues," said Poppy Szkiler, the certification program's Founder. "We're on digital over- load. It's never been a more impor- tant time to surround ourselves with sounds that calm us, rather than ones that induce stress." The certification is a project of the Noise Abatement Society, a nonprofit United Kingdom organ- ization founded in 1959 by Szk- iler's grandfather, who recognized that the noise and commotion caused by World War II hadn't en- tirely disappeared when the war ended. "He was being driven bonkers by it," Szkiler said. "So, he took action and set about lobbying Parliament about the issue." As a result of his efforts, Britain's Parliament passed the Noise Abate- ment Act in 1960, and the Noise Abatement Society turned some of Cont. on page 10 Quiet Mark Recognizes Hushed Appliances www.kitchenwarenews.com KITCHENWARE NEWS & Housewares Review Kiss the Cook in Wimberley, Texas See page 9 Bandon Mercantile Sells Reliability See page 2 Vol. 25 • Issue 5 September 2019 • $7.00