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Retailer Profile RETAILER PROFILE KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW n AUGUST 2017 n www.kitchenwarenews.com 14 Maple Run Emporium is celebrating its sixth anniversary at 49 Market Street in Potsdam, New York. The shop opened on April Fools Day 2011, and has been expanding its offerings ever since. "The original idea was to sell maple candy and maple syrup,"said Owner Mary Hilton. "nd it just snowballed. We'e not only a specialty maple shop, but also a kitchen store, gift shop, art gallery, and gourmet grocery. Ultimately, that' an emporium!" With more than 2,000 square feet available in the historic brick building, there was room to grow. The shop now features an Artisan Gallery of local artwork including paintings, pottery, wood-turnings and baskets. The shop' main aisles showcase an impressive array of cookware, knives, cutting boards, utensils, textiles, stemware and books. Maple specialty foods remain the focus of the shop, and there are continually new entries to this niche. "he current trend is bourbon-barrel aged maple syrup,"Hilton noted. "e had only one brand a few years ago, and now we have five." She also pointed out the popularity of maple-smoked products. The smoky maple wood flavor is featured not only in syrup, but also cheese, tea and salt. Maple syrup and maple sugar also add flavor to some unexpected products such as sardines, cocktail mixes and soy sauce. Having the opportunity to taste a multitude of maple concoctions led Hilton to introduce the Maple Run Emporium brand of gourmet foods, which now includes maple teas, maple coffee, maple seasoning peppers, a maple chocolate drink mix and pancake mixes. The most recent introduction is Maple Organic Tea, which was just released this year. The f ragrance of maple is also a wonderful addition to scented products, Hilton said. The scent is created with essential oils and essences and added to formulations for the Maple Run Emporium brand of kitchen and bath products, which includes lotions, hand creams, body scrubs, candles, soaps and cleaners. So far this year Maple Run Emporium has introduced two new hand creams –Maple & Lavender and Maple & Rum. "I love finding new maple gourmet foods and new ways to use the fragrance of maple. And I love all things for the kitchen, especially cookware that is so beautiful and well-crafted that it' truly functional art. I'e discovered a whole clientele of people who feel the same way,"Hilton said. "' always excited to find a unique new item and put it on the shelves. When people come in and ask 'hat' new?'I am absolutely delighted to show them!" KN Maple Run Emporium Celebrates Six Years in Potsdam, New York At Home Group Inc. has opened its new Trussville, Alabama, location Wednesday, June 21 after moving from an older store in Irondale, about eight miles southwest of Trussville. It is one of two At Home stores in the Birmingham area. The relocated store is more than 90,000 square-feet and offers more than 50,000 home décor items for the whole house, from furniture, rugs, wall art and housewares to tabletop, patio and seasonal items. "We offer the widest selection of home décor items to fit any budget or style, from, modern to farmhouse, boho to elegant," said Thomas Pondick, At Home Store Director. "We welcome everyone to explore the store and find decorating inspiration to turn any house into a home." Shoppers will find fresh ideas throughout the store, with room vignettes that are continually updated to showcase new trends and seasonal items. More than 400 new products are brought in each week to provide fresh inspiration. Grand opening events included a ribbon- cutting Friday, June 30, with the Trussville Chamber of Commerce, followed by mystery gift card giveaways to the first 50 people in line during the grand opening celebration. The Trussville At Home is one of more than 25 new store openings this year for the growing home décor chain, which has four additional Alabama locations in Hoover, Mobile, Montgomery and Huntsville. KN At Home Expands in Alabama with New Trussville Store Culinary Apple Tempts Shoppers to Stay that fresh fudge! Roasted glazed nuts! [You come in and] all of a sudden you see so many things that you wouldn't expect in a kitchen store," David adds. D ubbed Culinary Apple, the new store has been curated with items for each wave of customers that will come in throughout the year. D uring the summer, Chelan's population swells f rom 7,000 to 25,000 with the influx of tourists and people who own second homes on the edge of the lake. "We're kicking off our high season now. Our peak time f rame is June, July and August," says Mary, Co-Owner. "We have what's called 'Conference Season.' We do conference gifts and attendee gifts. That's March, April and May, and again in September, October and November, which is our harvest time for apples. Even though our visitors and tourists have gone back to the other side of the mountains, we still have our conference attendees." Lots of Culinary Apple's kitchenware business comes from the seasonal residents who need to outfit their second home with new tools or something they forgot on the trip. "Obviously kitchen gadgets are a huge part of our business," says David. For a time, the store was also outfitted with a wide variety of electric appliance options as well. But as time passed, the profits from small electrics began to shrink. "We don't carry a lot of that product like we used to. We've already eliminated Vitamix, they've sold their soul to Amazon. We were doing Soda Stream, but all the big box stores got involved in it, so we moved away from Soda Stream," says David. " We reduced our electric lines, and got a lot of shelf space for things that turn better with higher margins." The Weldys have created a strong engagement program for customers both online and in the store itself. "We created our own rewards program," says Mary. "We have over 6,000 people in our rewards program. We send them an email, and our monthly open rate for that email is about 22 percent." David adds, "We have so many people coming in for that birthday reward. We send them 10 dollars and they walk out with 100 dollars of merchandise." Culinary Apple also has a schedule of sales that coincide with tastings and tool demonstrations. "Because it 's Reward Friday, when you let people know they can come into the store and get 20 percent off anything that isn't excluded, we have a lot of people in the store. And a lot of them go to the Gadget Playdate." The return f rom the Gadget Playdate can be substantial. Mary adds, "I would say on average, we have a solid 30 people that purchase, and they purchase on a pretty good volume. We' ll actually have customers come in on Thursday to take a look, and then come in to buy on Friday." When the rewards bring them to the store, customers will meet a Culinar y Apple team that the Weldys have seriously invested in educating. " We do a phenomenal business in knives, and it 's because our team knows a lot about knives," says Mary. David adds, "A few weeks ago we had WüSTHOF do training in store for the staff followed by a sales training trip to Seattle for knife skill training by Shun. Then we went to Progressive [International] and did about a six-hour training with them." To make sure their staff is as knowledgeable as possible, Mary and David take their team to as many company training programs as they can. "We gave up about $2,500 in sales by closing our store, we spend about $800 to take our team over, but that was so inexpensive compared to the team building, training and brainstorming. Every time we get back to the store we see how enthusiastic everyone is to share what they have learned. It just pays off dividends." The experienced staff integrates into a store experience designed to appeal to all the senses. " W hen you come in you' ll smell nuts roasting, or someone in the back making fudge. We're still getting lots of baby boomers, so we play that music that appeals to them. It makes them feel good," says David. "Then they're greeted with one of our team. 'Hello, would you like to try a cinnamon-glazed pecan?' And then they get a taste. It's about appealing to all the senses." Culinary Apple has leveraged its f ruit- focus theme to leverage deals with manufacturers. " We just completed an agreement with Dexas. They have a beautiful apple cutting board that we sell in the store. We have a co-op that looks for apple products to give to their growers for their big annual fall harvest party," says David. "We [also] did that with JK Adams with their apple cutting board. These are the kinds of things we've done to grow our business. You've got to think outside of the box, not just waiting for that next customer to walk into your store, but reaching out to corporate clients and asking for there business. Like our sign says on our f ront door, 'Culinary Apple a store to experience.'" KN (cont. from Page 1)

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