Samsa heard a customer agonizing aloud about hating her old kettle, and used the opportunity to extol the benefits of getting something new and donating the old one to charity.
#Ruby and quiri appliances trial#
The old kettles “still boil water, so they hate to get rid of them,” she said, “but a lot of the teakettles they’re just tired of or don’t like the looks of anymore.”ĭuring a trial run of Chantal’s teakettle trade-in program in August, Ms. Maryann Samsa, the housewares buyer at Kitchen Kaboodle, an independent retailer with five locations in Portland, Ore., says customers have lately been reluctant to buy kettles. Guilt over new purchases can occur even with smaller items. GREENER HABITS Customers receive a $25 gift card at Ruby & Quiri for trading in a used item like this box spring being broken down for recycling by Bill Rose, left, and Gary Buboltz.
One factor in the appeal of these programs, say store managers who have tried them, is the relief it provides consumers from a vexing emotion: the guilt of conspicuous consumption. Certainly cash for clunkers worked much better than $5,000 off a car. He said successful promotions “are things that haven’t been tried before. “The traditional sales tools 25 percent off or layaways or financing they’re not working right now,” said Warren Shoulberg, the editor of Home Furnishings News, an industry magazine. Similar programs have sprung up in places like Portland, Ore., and Lexington, Ky., along with variations like Credit for Clunkers at 1-800-Mattress, Cash for Couches at Lillian August in Connecticut, and what some retailers are calling Cash for Teakettles, which Chantal Cookware Corp.
At Pacific Manufacturing in Phoenix, which sells custom upholstered goods to interior designers, a used piece of furniture earns clients 10 percent off the purchase of any new furniture item or mattress and, after the clunker is delivered to a local charity, a tax-deduction receipt.
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