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Retailer Profile RETAILER PROFILE 8 "Dad is the location genius," Collins says. "He finds locations; we work with them." Davenport is a shopping mecca for the rural areas of Iowa and Illinois that stretch from Des Moines to Chicago, and the NorthPark Mall draws traffic f rom a metropolitan area with a population of more than 375,000 people. "People come f rom as far away as Des Moines. They might have family in the area, and that brings them in," Collins says. "The mall brings them in, but I find that we have become a destination in the mall. If they need a kitchen store, they come to us." NorthPark Mall is anchored by five major department stores, including JC Penney and Sears stores, and KITCHENS has been at home there for 20 years now. Competing with large department stores in the same shopping mall has been getting harder and harder over the past several years, although at the Davenport location, the NorthPark Mall store is helped by its position in the mall's original wing between the JC Penney store at one end and a Younkers store and food court at the other. Those customers f requently stop in at KITCHENS on their path between the two department stores. "This wing of the mall is golden," Collins comments. KITCHENS lures traffic f rom the mall and into its doors with the coffee aromas that seep into the atmosphere f rom a fully- stocked coffee bar right at the front of the shop and a display of Godiva chocolates only a few steps inside. The Godiva truffles are sold by the piece. "People come by, and they're shopping, and they splurge," Collins says. The one critical element that helps KITCHENS compete successfully with its mall neighbors is customer service, Collins says: "Customer service means saying hello when people come in. We don't want to smother them." The sales associates at big box department stores just can't match her employees' kitchen know- how and their ability to recommend the right product for a home cook's particular needs, she says. Staff longevity is key to providing KITCHENS' level of customer service, and KITCHENS has many long-term employees, including store managers who opened the locations where they're working today. In the Davenport store, manager Mary Wingert has been a KITCHENS employee for a full decade, and sales associate Marianne Drake was a KITCHENS customer for 10 years before she came in and said she was looking for a part-time job. "Happy employees make long term employees," Collins says. "We accommodate good employees to keep them here longer. That's important because those people know the merchandise and know how to cook. … If you like to come to work, you do a better job." The Davenport store occupies about 2,800 square feet of space, and newer KITCHENS stores are generally about 3,200 square feet, which allows for better merchandising without the islands that inhibit traffic flow and lend the Davenport store a slightly cluttered appearance that just naturally goes along with trying to cram a great many very useful and possibly indispensable kitchen gadgets and countertop appliances into a space that they're trying hard to outgrow. The merchandise mix in all Kitchens (Cont. from Page 1) six of the KITCHENS stores is similar, although not identical, since Collins has done all the buying for the six stores since she joined KITCHENS in 1997 after learning her retail chops in sporting goods stores also owned by her father. She has supplemented the store's kitchenware items with a selection of giftware for weddings and home and hostess gifts that help to draw in the browsers. Merchandise earns its way into the mix by fitting into a category that's already in the store and offering high quality. "I tend not to carry things unless I can really make a story of them," Collins says. "Quality is important. If it doesn't work and customers don't like it, and it comes back, then I stop carrying it. It's your fastest way out of our store." Two of the stores, including the Davenport location, have full coffee departments, offering f reshly roasted coffees brought into the store weekly and sold in quarter- pound, half-pound and one-pound packages and ground to order, so the coffee is as f resh as possible for demanding customers. "I would have loved to keep them in all the stores, but compliance with health regulations became too expensive to keep them up," Collins says. "Like cigars or wines, we have coffee connoisseurs who want the best, and we help them get it." KITCHENS offers the Jura Capresso machines in which to brew the coffee. "I have the big center at home, and I can't go back," Collins confesses. "But Breville is going to give it a run for the money." Each of the stores has a gourmet food department featuring Stonewall Kitchen, Robert Rothschild Farms, Wind and Willow and Sticky Fingers Bakeries products along with the Taste Weavers dip lines and Boscoli olive products as well as a wide range of hot sauces. "We focus a big deal on providing hot sauces. Guys will put it on everything," Collins says. "Ghost pepper is a big draw. They've got to see how far they can push it." KITCHENS has also recently begun offering private-labeled olive oil from bulk supplies. "I don't know how long it'll last, but it's fun," Collins says. "It gets people involved in cooking." About 25 percent of the stores' business comes from coffee and food sales. "People come in because they need a new peeler, and then they see the food," Collins says. Stonewall Kitchens' gluten-f ree mixes are an easy solution for customers who are making food to provide for their dietary restrictions, and those same people are likely to buy bread machines as well. The stores' number one draw is generally whatever gadget is hottest at the moment, and Microplane graters and the Misto olive oil sprayers are currently contenders for that title. "We also have quite a following for our pans and our knives," Collins says. Grilling and barbecuing tools have been growing every year for the past several years, as home cooks have learned to grill more than just burgers and steaks, and those and the hanging trees of gadgets at the back of the store are bringing men as well as women into the store. "We sell tons and tons of recipe boxes and books – anything for organizing," Collins adds. The small appliance selection includes Hurom and Breville juicers, Vitamix blenders and Zojirushi bread machines. "We do the rice cookers too, but that's the best bread machine out there," Collins says. "I even dabble in the All-Clad electrics." The tabletop selection includes Riedel glassware at the upper end as well as a range of glassware at lower price points. "I try to find a little bit of the higher end in everything to give the people here an opportunity to get it," Collins says. KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW ■ SEPTEMBER 2014 ■ www.kitchenwarenews.com

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