Gourmet Catalog Plans Chicago Member Meeting

Gourmet Catalog & Buying Group (GC), a buying group for the housewares industry, will host a member meeting and breakfast March 7 at the 2015 Chicago International Home + Housewares Show (IH+HS).  

Independents from all experience levels will be in attendance to provide ideas and share their knowledge in problem-solving. “The peer-networking opportunities offered by GC continue to be stellar,” said Larry Oates, owner of KitchenArt in West Lafayette, Ind. “Even after 19 years in the industry, I took home a half dozen new ideas (last year) to generate traffic in my store.”

Co-sponsoring the breakfast will be Groupe SEB, with a special presentation for store members during the meeting. Gourmet Catalog will also host a vendor forum for vendor members on March 6. Janis Johnson, president and founder of Gourmet Catalog & Buying Group, will moderate the event and provide a state of the industry address. Other staff will speak about marketing opportunities. 

“We look forward to seeing GC store and vendor members at the Chicago show and continuing the momentum built at the GC Start the Year event,” said Johnson. “Although the IH+H Show is large, we find its organized layout to be efficient for independents, especially when members use the popular GC Review Workbook for working the show.” 

Gourmet Catalog members form the original buying group in the housewares industry. Celebrating 34 years in 2015, Gourmet Catalog works to ensure the success of independent retailers with a variety of programs and services, including discounts provided by more than 200 vendor members.