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Kitchenware News & Housewares Review Show Daily Tuesday, March 13, 2018 4 6 Pryde's Offers Kitchenware Shoppers Old-Time Customer Service By Robin Mather Tucked into a tree-filled neighborhood called Old Westport in Kansas City, Kansas, Pryde's Kitchen & Necessities is a wonderland for the curious cook. Its fans say things like, "The store is clean and the displays are beautiful and never messy, and you can tell the employees love working there," and "So much stuff, it almost feels like a hoard- er's paradise." Owner Louise Meyers says tour buses visit the store, filled with tourists who have come from far away to the store they know as a mecca for the kitchen-obsessed. "Forty percent of our customers come from out of town," she says. "They say, 'It isn't Christmas until you've been to Pryde's.'" Meyers is the daughter of John and Connie Perucca, who decided, in a con- versation at their kitchen table, to open their own store in 1968. The Peruccas had a thousand dollars – and four kids, which made the venture a little risky, she says. Still, they opened a shop and ran it for four years before moving the busi- ness to its current location at 115 Westport Road. Regulars recognize the store's signature green-striped awnings and the huge whisk that serves as a han- dle on Pryde's narrow green door. Its cheery red-and-white checked logo of a rooster decorates the sign and its shop- ping bags. Now the store is three stories – "if you include the attic," Meyers says – and 10 thousand square feet of culinary won- derland. The building housing Pryde's is "an iconic Kansas City treasure," Meyers says, and has been written about in Architectural Digest magazine –which called Pryde's "a hardware store for cooks." The store has also been featured in Southern Living, among other maga- zines both national and local. "It was built in 1922, and was the home for the Helen Thomes School of Dance," she says. "It was a burgeoning community at that time, and Westport has always been a melting pot. Wagon trains heading west stopped here in Westport." Showing off a photo of the dance instructor whom she calls "Miss Thomes," Meyers says "80-year-old women who studied with Miss Thomes still come in to say that the building's sat- isfyingly creaky original wood floors remind them of their childhood dance classes." The stairway to the second floor also houses photos of some of those dancers in their heyday, and Meyers sounds almost as if she's talking about one of her own children (she has six) when she says, "That one went off to the New York Ballet, and she used to come back to Kansas City just to visit Miss Thomes." Meyers' ability to retain and retell such facts serves her well in the business. "This is the only job I've ever had, and I can't imagine a better one," she says. Every day is different, with a fresh challenge." Meyers began working in the store when she was eight years old, sweeping floors. She worked with her father for 27 years before she eventually bought the business from him, although she considered other careers, including communications and the idea of becom- ing a labor and delivery nurse, before she made the decision. When she bought the store in 2001, she tripled the inventory, she says. Thousands of Items The store's floors are jam-packed with gadgets, linens, pots and pans, specialty cookware, coffee and tea pots and acces- sories and more. Pryde's offers the largest selection of Homer Laughlin Fiestaware in the Midwest, says Meyers, and she's also obviously proud of the large selection of thick maple cutting boards made by a Missouri company called C & C Woodworks. One whole room is devoted to shelf after shelf of cake plates and baking sup- plies, including everything from rolling pins to cake pop pans. Pryde's also is known for its large offering of the highly prized Mosser Glass items, including jadeite and colored milk glass serveware. The store, while crammed with merchandise – it even hangs from the ceilings – is carefully curated and artfully arranged, and staff can lead you quickly and easily to glassware, or mugs, or dessert plate sets, or whatever it is that your heart desires. Pryde's doesn't offer classes, but does occasionally do demonstrations and book signings, she says. The Value of Brick and Mortar Pryde's does a large wedding registry business, Meyers says, and an employee will accompany the couple around the store as they make their selections. "Wedding and gift registries bring younger people into the store, and that gives us a chance to form a relationship with them," she says. But sometimes that kind of back- fires. She remembers a customer who came in with her fiancé and asked a lot of questions about some of those Mosser Glass cake plates. Meyers patiently answered her questions until the woman finally said, abruptly, "I can probably get it cheaper on Amazon." "You need to write something about that," she says, the heat of the memory reddening her cheeks. "People really need to support their local stores." If cus- tomers don't support local businesses, they'll eventually end up with only chain stores to choose from." Small local businesses also can't do as much for online customers as the big Internet retailers. "It's impossible for a single brick and mortar store to have a multimillionaire website," she says. Buying decisions are about more than price, she says. They're also about service, and about ties within their com- munity. Some of her vendors have been working with Pryde's for more than 40 years, she says. "Life, for me, is about relationships with people and what those mean." The new cook who shops at Pryde's will get the same reas- suring assistance, and guidance to the best- quality item she's looking for, as the long-time customer who is a confident cook and needs an unusual item. Both will return again and again to Pryde's for its high-quality merchandise, but also, one suspects, for the congenial sales staff, and maybe the complimentary tea or coffee offered to shoppers while they prowl the store. As we're seated in her "office" – on the steps leading up to the Annex, where sales items are – a slender bearded chef comes up to us. "Hi, Louise," he says. "I'm looking for a particular kind of mold, and wondered if you had it." Before he's finished describing it, Meyers rises immediately and shows him what she has in stock, which happens to be silicone versions of the molds. "Yeah, I tried those but they're not working for me," the chef says. "Let me special order them for you," she says. "They'll be here within a cou- ple of days." The chef says he'll think about it, and wanders off. "He won't find those anywhere else," she says. "A lot of chefs and bar- tenders buy from us, because we have – or can get –stuff they need but can't find." Doing it the Old-Fashioned Way Amazingly, Pryde's is not computerized in any way. Staff people still hand-write receipts, and Meyers says she carries the inventory of hundreds of thousands of items in her head. She works on the floor of the store every day, and tracks inven- tory that way, she says. "I didn't want to get into a situation where I was spending all my time at a desk, staring at a computer," she says. "And oddly enough, this works fine for me." With sales of about $1.8 million annually, Pryde's seems to be doing just fine with Meyers' idiosyncratic system. Scientists Studying Health Promoting Potential of Mangos According to a comprehensive review of the available scientific literature pub- lished in the May issue of Food & Function magazine, mangos and their individual components have anti-inflam- matory and anti-oxidative properties, which may help to reduce risk for chronic disease. In addition to being associated with better nutrient intake and diet quali- ty, research suggests eating mangos may be important for glycemic control, the microbiome, as well as vascular, brain, skin, and intestinal health. Mangos contribute a number of valu- able nutrients, including vitamin C, vita- min A and fiber for only 100 calories per one cup serving. Mangos are also a source of phytochemicals – including phenolic acids, mangiferin, carotenoids, and gal- lotannins – which are associated with a number of health promoting activities including anti-inflammation, antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-obesity and anti-cancer. Obesity and Diabetes Over the past two decades, the prevalence of obesity and diabetes has increased sharply; diet plays a critical role in reduc- ing risk of both outcomes. Seven human trials, in which mango fruit or puree was fed to individuals, have measured obesity or diabetes endpoints; five studies looked at people with type 2 diabetes, and two studies looked at people who were obese or generally healthy. Collectively, research suggests that mango consump- tion may modulate glucose response in people with diabetes mellitus. Less well understood is the impact of mango con- sumption on those at risk for diabetes, and further research is warranted. Although the effects in humans are not known, in animal studies, mango sup- plementation was observed to reduce important risk factors of cardiovascular disease and diabetes, such as total choles- terol (TC), TC to high density cholesterol (HDL) ratio, triglycerides (TG) and glu- cose concentrations. In addition, in one study, daily intake of mango favorably modulated the gut bacteria of animals in favor of bacteria that have been associated with reduced obesity and improved meta- bolic outcomes. While animal studies report mangos may support glycemic con- trol, further research particularly in well- characterized human populations with pre- diabetes will be important for revealing the health value of mangos in diabetes control. Cardiovascular Disease Obesity and diabetes contribute to car- diovascular disease, which accounts for 17.5 million deaths per year, or 31 per- cent of all deaths globally. Mango phyto- chemicals and other components, such as fiber and organic acids, may play a role in cardiovascular health. Brain Health Collectively, data from animal studies sug- gest that compounds in mangos may sup- port brain health, given the potential neu- roprotective activities of mango's compo- nents, including mangiferin and gallotan- nin, and their antioxidant and anti-inflam- matory effects. While no human data are currently available on the topic, one study on tests done in the laboratory showed that mango extracts inhibited amyloid beta peptide-induced mitochondrial toxicity in rat brain cells; mitochondrial toxicity may lead to mitochondrial dysfunction, which is an early event in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Although the effects in humans are not known, animal studies suggest that mango intake may improve memory based on improvements in cognitive performance in models of cog- nitive impairment.