THE INTERNATIONAL HOUSEWARES ASSOCIATION
trends:
HOUSEWARES - THE US MARKET: IT’S A RESILIENT BUT PRICE CONSCIOUS MARKET by the International Housewares Association
Price-conscious con- sumers battered by the economy for more than two years have nonethe- less remained interested in housewares purchases that make home the place to be.
“
I believe the recession is over, although you don’t really see that in the jobs
and housing markets,” says Richard Boynton, president of Jura Capresso, Inc. and a mem- ber of the International House- wares Association board of directors. “We’re seeing im- proved retail and internet sales right now. The stock market has also improved. I think [the econ- omy] is just going to get better. High-end retailers are already doing very well. Another sign that the econ- omy is on the upswing is that,
building on more than 500 new exhibitors at the 2010 Interna- tional Home + Housewares Show, the IHA is seeing a broad range of well-known suppliers returning to the show after a brief absence. As in past reces- sions, the housewares industry has held its own, with global sales down only 0.4 percent in 2009. The average US house- hold spent $614 on housewares in 2009, a 0.8 percent increase from 2008, according to IHA’s State of the Industry (SOI) Re- port. Put into perspective, US households spent more on housewares than on dairy prod- ucts and slightly less than on fruits and vegetables, according to the SOI. At the same time sales of gasoline and motor oil slid $721, or 27.8 percent ver- sus the 2008 average, suggest- ing that consumers were staying home or close to it.
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