Like it or not, here it comes: the beginning of the holiday shopping season.
In addition to rising stress levels and piped-in Christmas carols, that means the public areas of shopping malls are jammed with carts selling everything from jewelry to yo-yos to Christmas ornaments.
But one of the hottest carts at Northbrook Court this year is peddling something different and much more practical: Tupperware containers.
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Tupperware, of course, is the company that built an empire through direct selling at parties in people’s homes. But far fewer women these days have the time or energy to be Tupperware ladies or attend Tupperware parties.
So Orlando-based Tupperware Corp. is reaching out in new ways, including selling Tupperware on the Internet and on carts in more than 100 malls around the country.
The trick for Tupperware, of course, is to expand product distribution without alienating its loyal network of distributors and party-givers. Tupperware believes it has found that balance by working with its local distributors to stock the carts, which are manned by local Tupperware ladies.
For the saleswomen working the cart, “It’s an opportunity to meet consumers who might not know about Tupperware and to cultivate a relationship,” said Adair Sapinski, who owns the franchised Tupperware distributorship in Northbrook that runs the cart in Northbrook Court.
It’s also a chance to acquaint consumers with Tupperware’s new products, which include cinnamon-red and hunter-green containers designed to go from the freezer to the microwave to the table.
The cart is paying off for Northbrook Court, too. “We’re thrilled to have Tupperware because it’s a way to differentiate our center,” said Julie Cameron, assistant general manager for Northbrook Court, which is owned by General Growth Properties Inc.
Despite the success of the carts, the Tupperware company has no intention of abandoning its direct-selling model, Sapinski said. After the holiday season, the Tupperware cart will quietly disappear along with the decorations.
Hats off: At times, it’s been lonely to be Raymond Hudd. In his 50-year career as a Chicago milliner, Hudd endured the slow decades of the 1960s and ’70s when hat-wearing took a dive because of bouffant hairdos and hippies.
And he hung on long enough to witness the 1990s when minimalist fashion designers virtually banned accessories from the runway scene.
“My business slowed down, but I was always very busy,” says Hudd, a shy man who at 74 resembles a slimmed-down version of Truman Capote.
During all those dry years, Hudd kept producing his highly decorated, whimsical chapeaus for a select group of customers who frequented his eponymous shop on North Clark Street in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
He is best known for what he calls his “tongue-in-cheek” creations such as the Sputnik hat he whipped up in the late 1950s when the Soviet Union launched its first satellite. More recently, there are the spider hats filling his window for Halloween, which will soon be replaced with cranberry-colored ones for Thanksgiving.
Now, just as Hudd is contemplating retirement, he is receiving some overdue attention.
The Boston Globe recently ran an article headlined “Mad for a Hatter” about Hudd and his recent collection of “Farmers Market” hats.
Hudd’s leafy collection features everything from a turban-like sack of fake potatoes to a faux cherry pie that serves as a cocktail hat. The hats have been on display at the Textile Arts Centre on West Diversey Parkway, just up the block from Hudd’s store.
And the Millinery Arts Alliance–a group of Chicago hatmakers dedicated to continuing the tradition of couture millinery–is honoring Hudd at its annual La Fete Des Catherinettes fundraiser for the Y-Me breast-cancer organization.
The fundraiser and tribute will take place Friday, Nov. 19, at Kass Meridian Gallery on West Superior Street in River North from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Hats are de rigeur. For information, call 312-409-6311.
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Contact Susan Chandler at [email protected].