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V O L U M E 1 9 , N U M B E R 1 0 News ..............................................3 Ad Index .......................................23 www.kitchenwarenews.com VOLUME 22, NUMBER 6 JULY 2016 n $7.00 BY MICAH CHEEK To navigate the ebb and flow of a college town, retailers often need to think outside the box. W hen school gets out in the summer, the population of Charlottesville, Virginia, declines and retail sales in the city suffer. By emphasizing the wedding registry, The Happy The Happy Cook Puts Smiles on Charlottesville Faces Continued on PAGE 3 Continued on PAGE 14 Continued on PAGE 11 Continued on PAGE 18 Cook brings in business f rom the beginning of wedding season just as students and faculty leave. "It's because of the weddings; it pulls our numbers up during the summer months. That 's a problem we're kind of able to skirt around," says Owner Monique Moshier. "So we're almost exactly flat through the year, with a big spike in December." Many of the couples who hold their weddings in the Charlottesville area are traveling there for a scenic destination wedding. To help make The Happy Cook an ideal registr y for people who can't f requently come into the store, Moshier revamped her website to increase the store's online presence. "We've had an online presence, but our previous one wasn't so robust, this one is fully BY MICAH CHEEK Creative Cookware in Murphys, California, is hitting the Mother Lode with Sierra Nevada gold country tourists who bring their foodie inclinations along with them when they come for a visit. "We have wineries and shops in a historic downtown with shops that go back to the 1850s. We were picked by Frommers [magazine] as one of the top 10 coolest small towns in the United States, and the only one f rom California," says Owner Barbara Blume. "Someone that lives, say, 100 miles away will stay for a couple nights…. We've got one of the large wineries, Ironstone. USA Manufacturing With a History W hen their daffodils are blooming, it's magnificent. They bring these groups up and maybe have a luncheon there." To connect with these visitors, Blume in involved with organizations that bring groups and tours in. "A group of women came in by bus. We had a good number of them in the store and in town," says Blume. "This lady, the head of [UC Davis Master Gardeners] emailed me, wanted to know if we'd extend a courtesy discount for their group. They came up for the day; we hope they come back." Blume also works with a website promoting tourism in the county, as well as a program with the town's visitor's bureau. As a result, more travelers are making Creative Cookware a regular stop on their day trips to gold country. Blume adds, "Part of our job is to really welcome people here so they're going to come back. I can't tell you how many people come in and say, BY MICAH CHEEK Knockoff knives are increasingly making their way into the cutlery market. Tommie Lucas, Vice President of Product Development and Branding, Housewares Division for Kai USA ltd., the company that makes Shun knives, says that part of the reason knives are commonly copied is because of the difficulty in establishing patents for designs. "Where that becomes challenging is where you can't get a strong patent," says Lucas. "In cutlery, a lot of what we do is not new. If we have a feature we can get a utility patent on, we'll try to do that, but you need to make sure these patents are really buttoned up." Recent advances in technology have also made it more difficult for the makers of quality knives to keep knockoff artists from ripping them off. "By and large, it's extremely challenging for all product development – it's become so easy to replicate product advancements with the technology that's there. You can buy a $500.00 palm digitizer and replicate any product in the world," says Lucas. "A lot of that stuff is digitally perfect – even with the flaws. You'll see that they even replicate what's a mistake. On a kitchen product you might need a spectrograph analysis of the blade steel to know its quality level." A large number of these fakes make their way into the market through the internet because online shoppers looking for a deal can't get a close look at the merchandise. That means that a company like Kai has to be constantly on the lookout for online stores selling counterfeit products. When they spot f raud, they bring it to the attention of the company that owns the website, but actually getting the fakes off the market isn't always easy to do. "We're really diligent for getting the accounts shut down, but the real vulnerability for the RETAILER PROFILE n The Happy Cook 11 SMALL ELECTRICS n Breakfast Appliances 17 THE PANTRY n Condiments 20-21 THE KNIFE RACK n Swiss Diamond 18 MADE IN THE USA n Product Previews 13 TRADESHOW CALENDAR n Upcoming Shows 23 PRODUCT REVIEW: JANEY LYNN'S SEE PAGE 8 GADGET OF THE MONTH: FRIELING'S COPPER PRESS SEE PAGE 22 BUYERS GUIDE: SPATULAS & SCRAPERS SEE PAGE 16 H o u s e w a r e s R e v i e w KITCHENWARE NEWS Knockoff Artists Forging Knives Now Kitchenware Tourism in Action BY MICAH CHEEK David Dalquist, CEO of Nordic Ware in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is continuing the company's tradition of making the majority of its products in the United States and has seen a change in perception over the last few decades in how consumers respond to "Made In The USA" labeling. Dalquist became CEO of Nordic Ware in the late 1970s, just before American housewares manufacturers started offshoring their production. "Back in the '80s, there was this huge push to make goods offshore. The U.S. started exporting technology and getting Chinese factories up and running," says Dalquist. The reason for this shift was a greater cost of doing business in the US, combined with an increase in environmental and safety regulations. "U.S. manufacturers just gave up and said, 'I can go to China and not have all of these hassles,'" says Dalquist. "Nordic Ware had these options, but we decided, 'We're going to make the investment here; we're going to be compliant so we can continue to manufacture in the United States.' I would say at first, we had lots of doubts. Our competitors were able to gain some greater market share." Because the company wasn't able to lower its prices, it moved in another direction. "We found a niche where we were able to innovate," says Dalquist. "On

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