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Seattle and the Pacific Northwest are recognized as
trendsetters. Representing only around 5% of the
total U.S. market, our region sells upscale, fashion
home goods at a rate way out of proportion to much
larger metropolitan areas. Megatrends
in the 1980’s correctly predicted that new consumer
trends would originate from places like Seattle,
rather than New York in the 90’s.
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Witness the espresso bar phenomenon started
by Starbucks in Seattle. “Seattle style
coffee bars” are now common from Manhattan
to Manila. Starbucks recently announced the
goal of opening 30,000 coffee stores
worldwide based on the original Seattle
model. We are on the leading edge of new
food and fashion trends of the Pacific
Rim. |
Starbucks and Nordstrom know what trends started
here and translated well to other regions. Faith
Popcorn in
The Popcorn Report
wrote of the trend toward specialty stores and
shopping as theater,
in
Clicking
Popcorn refers to Seattle’s Howard Schultz of
Starbucks and Bill Gates of Microsoft as marketers
who “clicked” on the right trend at the right time
and place. Our Pacific Northwest culture spawned
R.E.I. Co-op,
Nike Town
and unique independent specialty stores like
Sur La Table
(50 stores and growing) and
Kitchen Kaboodle.
Costco
is the second largest warehouse club in the world
and buys for 280 locations here;
Fred Meyer
with over 200 multi-departmental stores buys in
Portland, Oregon.
Norm Thompson,
Harry & David
(largest food mail order company), and Sur La Table
operate successful mail order operations. Is Seattle
really where “it’s happening”? Talk to Bill Gates on
line or fly one of our 777 Boeings on United
(founded in Seattle) while sipping a cup of
Starbucks
or jogging in your
Nike
shoes (jogging was invented in Eugene, Oregon by one
of Nike’s founders!). Or read about it in the
world’s largest book selection at
Amazon.Com).
Seattle’s Amazon.com is visited by over 40 million
on line shoppers. The largest selection of books in
a brick and mortar store is
Powell’s Books
in Portland, Oregon. Whatever you order on line will
probably arrive by UPS, also founded here! The
prime mover of your goods is most likely a Peterbilt
or Kenworth Truck, both manufactured here by
Washington-based Paccar. Seattle is home to the two
largest dollar volume exporters in the U.S.:
Microsoft and Boeing. It is one of the largest
agricultural export ports. Port of Seattle is the
second largest container port in volume on the West
Coast. We are home port to a growing cruise ship
industry.
Our customers
can make your products succeed with lower marketing
costs than in larger, more competitive regions. Our
clientele has evolved from being over 80% department
stores 15 years ago (when over 50% of women were
still working at home and making most housewares
purchases) to over 90% specialty retailers (who
target the over 50% of households where both
partners work outside the home). We are growing
with specialty merchants whose concepts originated
here.
We have been active in the specialty coffee
phenomenon from day one and in the resurgence of
serious home cooking and home gardening hobbies.
We develop tie-in-merchandising ideas to benefit
our customers and our principals.
Starbucks Passion For Coffee
a joint venture between Starbucks, Bang-Knudsen and
Sunset Publishers. As the pendulum continues to
swing toward specialty retailers and away from
general merchandise stores we are situated well to
represent your products. We are regional specialists
and home goods experts with over 30 years
experience; we will position your product best
to fit the trends and times, the right product in
the right place at the right time.
We know the territory!
Demographers predict continual in-migration of mid
to upper income folks to our region through the next
10 years, while California and the industrial East
will see increasing de-population and urban decay.
Seattle, Portland and places like Spokane, Boise,
Medford and Anchorage are the hottest growth markets
in the U.S. today.
A GOOD
MATCH
Let’s discuss how your company and products can grow
and benefit from a partnership with
Please call me soon:
206-767-6970 Ext. 11
Web:
www.bang-knudsen.com,
email:
pbang-knudsen@bang-knudsen.com
Peter Bang-Knudsen |
