Increase in "food prep" driving up sales.

• Position: Your Life - Kitchenware

Shoppers equate cookware and kitchen gadget purchases with decisions about their personal health and wellness, maintains a report released by the Global Market Development Center, Colorado Springs, Colo. The International Housewares Association, Rosemont, Ill., notes spending on housewares in the U.S. has grown to more than $73,000,000,000 annually, with the biggest sales in cookware, foilware, bakeware, kitchen gadgets, and tabletop items. Those are the key categories that comprise what GMDC calls a new megacategory: 'food prep."

Food prep helps retailers and suppliers think differently about how the shopper views the needs of the kitchen in order to make tasty dishes despite time-starved lifestyles. Nielsen reports that dose to 90% of households shop and buy in the food prep category on a regular basis.

"A combination of factors have revived interest in cooking and once again made the kitchen a major center of activity in the home," says Patrick Spear, president and chief executive officer of GMDC. "Retailers have a prime opportunity to increase profits by turning food shoppers--especially fresh food--into cookware and gadget buyers when placing those items where the food is."

While Millennial are...