the customers that they need to stop and pay attention to what they’re seeing,” says Holmes, owner of the specialty shop located in Holland, MI. “That goes a long way.” Indeed it does. He says his customers are snapping up the tumblers—suitable for both hot and cold liquids and featuring emblems and other designs—that are made by Tervis, a Sarasota, FL-based manufacturer of insulated drink ware. Holmes and his staff originally displayed these items according to each tumbler’s emblem, but have since switched to bunching them together by size and style—for example, water bottles are all placed together. They realized that customers generally had a specifi c functionality in mind for their desired tumbler. When it comes to housewares, Holmes says products that


let people express their sense of style while offering great function is huge. “Combine something unique along with a great function or value to the customer…with those two things, sales trend upward,” he says.


Big business From drink ware and cooking utensils, and home décor and seasonal items, to home storage organization and fl oor care, and “virtually any kind of appliance you can plug in and move around,” housewares is a “gigantic” product category, says Perry Reynolds, vice president of global trade development for the International Housewares Association in Rosemount, IL. “It’s big business,” Reynolds says, citing the latest


industry sales fi gures of $69.3 billion in sales in the U.S. in 2012. Globally, sales are at $317 billion, according to the Association’s 2013 State of the Industry Report. Sales in the


GiftShopMag.com ABBOTT Winter 2014 n GIFT SHOP 147 ALESSI


Are Hot! T


he colorful tumblers, some 600 to 700 of them, are stacked seven feet high against a 24-foot wide wall in Matt Holmes’ shop Home & Company. “We make a large presentation—we’re essentially conveying to


WILD EYE DESIGNS


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