2010 ABC Kids Expo - The Power of Partnership

As the primary trade show for independent retailers and manufacturers of juvenile products, ABC Kids Expo is growing as quickly as the children who use the products it showcases. Breaking its own attendance record, Expo’s October 2010 show in Las Vegas was testimony for the power of partnership that drove domestic and international attendance and fostered new business relationships.

Among the 900 ABC Kids Expo exhibitors in 2010, the Straw-Lution™ Straw was featured in the New Product Showcase and Modern Child. The Juno Company, now partnered with Kids In Distressed Situations (KIDS), celebrated with harmonious products and its “One for All” charitable program. Spuds, Inc. displayed its innovative kid-safe dining utensils — concepts that sprouted from potato by-products, and ViveVita attended ABC with five new Bandette^® personalization/labeling products.

Visit www.theabcshow.com for more show news and read on for more information on these products that spelled success for {gg} editors.

Straw-Lution™ is Positively the Last Straw - It Goes in and Stays In!

Rivaling the plastic “spork” that combined the function of spoon and fork, the Straw-Lution Straw doubles as a device for drinking and as an eating utensil for soft foods such as yogurt, applesauce and baby food. J.P.W. Endeavors, LLC describes its patent-pending product as “the straw that goes in, but doesn’t come out,” because the Straw-Lution Straw has a built-in anchor that easily pushes into foil or paper-sealed containers, but hooks to resist coming out.

Useful to consumers of any age, the Straw-Lution Straw is especially suitable as a child’s utensil because it keeps messy foods and drinks off clothes and out of hair. To accommodate children and small-sized containers, these durable straws/utensils are just five inches long and attractively colored in pink, green, yellow or blue. They’re reusable, dishwasher-safe, and BPA-free.

Straw-Lution Straws are made in the U.S.A. and offer daily convenience, with a suggested retail price of $4.99 for an individual pack of 12, or a price-saving $16.99 for a 4-pack of 12 each.

Drink in the opportunities at www.strawlution.com

Stop! Look and Listen to Juno for Music-Based Learning

Imagine award-winning video and audio products that envelop small children in symphonies of entertainment and learning. That is The Juno Company’s vision, now actualized in a line of research-based products blending human speech, bright colors, clever stories and funny puppet characters — all wrapped up in original music scored for and performed by a live orchestra!

Emphasis on music education and appreciation is key to The Juno Company’s creative team that includes an Emmy award-winning composer, orchestral musicians, and the team behind Sesame Street and The Muppets. In harmonious collaboration with top child development experts, the Juno Team has created DVDs, CDs, toys, apparel, and books to support language development and retention and to encourage participation, listening, singing along and movement. Their audience is families with children of ages one through preschool.

Suggested retail prices range from $17.99 for a 45-minute DVD, $19.99 for a colorful puppet-motif T-shirt or plush doll, to $9.99 for a sing-along or instrumental CD.

For more information about the educational, entertaining products, and the “One for All” program that donates a very special music education DVD to children in need, visit www.thejunocompany.com

Spuds, Inc. - Everyone Digs Their Potato Products

In the field, in the oven, or on your plate, potatoes have come a long way from their roots in the dirt of South America millennia ago. That’s ancient history. The real news is in the plant — the manufacturing plant where Spuds, Inc. is processing reclaimed potato starch into bio-based eating and drinking utensils that are free of the many post-modern plastics and chemicals that can cause chronic illness among children.

Spuds, Inc. products are American-made with the patented bio-plastic Spudmer™, vegetable coloring and biodegradable rubber — not toxic chemicals or oil-based materials. They do not compete with food-products or land-for-food, because no potatoes are specially grown for Spuds. The raw material comes from a potato starch by-product of the existing potato processing industry.

For retailers, Spuds products draw parents who seek convenience paired with individually-healthy and environmentally-safe feeding tools for their little children. Imagine drinking utensils that are a cross between a pacifier and a sippy cup or an ergonomically shaped Y Juice with a rubber nipple that never touches the ground no matter how it is dropped or knocked over.

Spuds offers a lot more than a side dish! For a complete menu of these kid-friendly, unique products, feed your curiosity at www.spudsinc.com

Bandettes^® and Gripsterz^® - What’s in a Name?

ViveVita^® product names are as clever as the solutions they provide for everyday problems. Bandettes are dishwasher and microwave-safe silicon labeling bands that personalize children’s belongings to prevent accidental sharing of toys and germs, while nifty Gripsterz help children hold on to parents and stay out of monkey business!

Both the names and solutions are the brainchild of Robyn Pellei of ViveVita, whose Label Itz^® line of personalization products includes Bandette labels for sippy cups, baby bottles, and even toothbrushes. Bandettes are personalized by writing the child’s name on the label with ballpoint pen ink and boiling the label in water for ten minutes. Suggested retail is $6.99 USD for a package of three.

Gripsterz Stay Alongs are silicone monkey-shaped ring-handles that encourage a child to hold on to this toy-like safety device willingly. Once the toddler learns to clutch the monkey securely, the Gripsterz handle can be tethered by a variety of straps and snaps to a parent or stroller to allow the toddler a range of freedom and safety — a wrist strap is included, just in case. Suggested retail is $14.99.

Identify new opportunities for impulse sales at www.ViveVita.com