Pots have been identified with the state of U.S. prosperity at least since the slogan 'two chickens in every pot" was derisively attached to the pre-1929 boom. Last week, at a time when the country had more money to spend than ever before, the trend seemed to be running toward two pots for every chicken, fish, egg and carrot. At the 23rd National Housewares Show in Atlantic City, store buyers surveyed a conglomeration of gadgets and spent a record $250 million stocking inventories. In this booming market pots and pans, exhibited on turntables and even swathed in white fox (above), outsold all other merchandise.
The motley housewares industry, which embraces a large variety of goods - electric fans, chips for fish bowls, shower curtain clips, bottle openers and squeegee mops - has within the past few years jumped into the big business category. Last year $3 billion worth of housewares were sold and the gross should be far greater in 1955 - a dramatic example of over-all U.S. prosperity. Manufacturers are also becoming more ingenious at contriving to make last year's vacuum cleaner and frying pan obsolete. This year's convention produced such new wonders as alarm clocks that turn on and off at the touch of a finger, a rug cleaner that is safe to drink and an atomizer for spraying the merest dash of vermouth into martinis.
The buyers poured into Atlantic City from every state in the U.S., from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Europe. There were 7.500 of them, the largest number ever to attend this housewares show, and they found a record number of 7,500 salesmen, or one for each buyer.
It cost $500,000 merely to ship the sample goods to Atlantic City, and manufacturers paid twice that much again for booth rentals and displays. Salesmen set up shop on three floors of Convention Hall, covering 3 1/2 acres, to show off half a million gadgets in 554 booths.
The largest group of buyers was from department stores and other large retail outlets. Next most important were wholesale distributors like Tiny Shimel , who buy for smaller retail stores or specialize in premium merchandise. A comparatively new group, accredited only in recent years, represented the supermarkets-rack jobbers who bought mostly plastics and cleaning materials.
Sometimes they ran into the "soft sell" - "Sit down, we don't want you to order anything, just get acquainted." But they also encountered the "hard sell," a pitch which involves holding onto the prospect's lapel and pleading, "Look, write your order now-we'll give you a special discount!"
Ben Shimel, a housewares buyer for 23 years who is affectionately known in the trade as Tiny, is a partner in J-S Sales Co. of New York. He buys over a million dollars worth of housewares a year, and as a direct result of the Atlantic City show he will place $750,000 worth of orders. His company will distribute these housewares to large corporations to be used as prizes, presents and premiums. Last year his biggest order was for $40,000 worth of scales, hampers and ironing boards for an industrial firm which gave them to employes who worked for six months without accidents. Typical items he bought at this year's show, assembled before him (above, middle picture), are a portable mixer and knife sharpener, lazy Susan, electric coffee maker, cutlery set, heater, canisters, saucepan.
Jack Naumann, manufacturers' representative with his own firm, the John E. Naumann Co. of Cleveland, sells housewares for several manufacturers throughout Ohio, Michigan and western Pennsylvania. Naumann currently handles Glamorene rug cleaner, Puritan toilet seats (the U.S. buys one million toilet seats a month and Naumann says the replacement market has scarcely been tapped), Aluminum Specialty Co. cake pans, Plas-Tex ice buckets, Falco tables, Lasko fans, Inland coffee servers-all with equal enthusiasm. He covers his territory in an airconditioned Cadillac and does $3 million worth of business a year. At the show he turned down 12 offers to push new products but yielded to E-Z Iron's blandishments, adding ironing board covers to his line.
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