Williams Sonoma is all over the idea of perfectly formed burgers. They've got round ones, square ones, and pleasing heavy cast tools all around. The pass-through design seems to make sense as patties drop straight through after you press them.
Crate & Barrel has also been working the burger angle, although their presses make a bit less sense. The presses are virtually burger molds, with not much opportunity to extricate the patties intact...may explain why they're on clearance at this time!
There's also a lot of professional grade equipment on the market, and an affordable option is Weston's Burger Express. It's spring loaded, making it easy to remove the burger intact off of the raised platform after you press it. And you get to set your desired thickness. As with most presses, the use of waxed paper is encouraged to make production perfect.
When it comes to a drill, don't waste your time with a lightweight. This is a tool to invest in, with a model like the DeWalt pictured, as a good one will last years and a cheap one most likely won't have the muscle you need. To accompany the drill - skip the infinite socket sets and extend your reach with a chuck extender like this one from Lee Valley:
A handy Husky hex wrench set is the best stocking stuffer - never worry about keeping or better yet finding the many allen wrenches that enter our lives, and treat yourself to a nice round handle to hold onto at the same time. Measure twice, cut once - a speed square is still one of the most useful tools to have around - and it does double duty for arts and crafts.
Any all-in-one tool kit will come with a basic wrench. That's a guaranteed way to loose some skin when you try to pry out an offending piece of hardware. Invest in a Vise Grip (this one's under $10)- you'll never use your old pliers again.
Spare your fingers from a bashing with simple quick-release clamps. Any surface can become a worktop, but it's hard to hold what you're working on in place without a clamp or two. Clamps make your dining table roughly equivalent to a full-fledged workbench.
Finally, for the handy person who has it all - give them a great way to store it. Tools are only helpful if you can find them! I prefer a mobile wheeled cart with plenty of shallow drawers for easy sighting of the tool you seek. Happy building!
Some of you may be familiar with Brabantia trashcans, commonly found at BB&B. Williams Sonoma is now promoting a new ironing board by Brabantia, and I like what I see. They continue to reinvigorate products that many companies write off as low-margin or commodities. The design features on this ironing board make it a product worth owning.
Check out the August 2009 Williams-Sonoma catalog. It features "New American Chefs," pairing each chef's cuisine with the tools you need to make each dish. Less catalog and more magazine, these pages are nice to look at. They stop short of offering the recipes, instead teasing you to their ecommerce site to get them. 
This year stores started getting ready for the Back To School promotional period in January! Retailers are desperate for this period of promotional-goldmines. I for one love the approach to retail at this time of year: get customers in and out as quickly as possible. Just look at how easy the temporary supply bins make it to find what you're looking for! If only this level of effort were put into retailing year-round, we'd have happier consumers and happier retailers.
"After U.S. retailers posted 10 straight months of sales declines, some chains are trying to bring holiday spirit — and revenue — to the summer with "Christmas in July" promotions.While some marketers who aren't worth their salt are saying "everyone could use a little Christmas right now," I agree with this guy:Both Sears Holdings Corp and privately held Toys R Us are holding wintry holiday-themed events this summer ahead of their back-to-school promotions, which usually start around the end of July."
"It's very odd," he{35-year-old Todd Smith of Chicago} said. "It makes me think they're desperate."
The mesh may turn out to be a challenge to clean, but I like the premise. Usually my lucky relatives with grill space, or a yard for that matter, use aluminum foil to create plateaus for grilling smaller items. But that tends to be a pain when you try to scoop them up off of the heated and fragile aluminum surface, especially if you didn't use enough oil. This pan's a pretty neat summer promo idea, let's hope it works!
Humor meets truth for Father's Day. These days the promotions calendar is one endless annual cycle. Well-designed and marketed promotions can improve consumers' lives if they highlight unmet needs when the user is most likely to notice them and seek a solution. I'd rather see well timed and priced promos than kitschy useless throw-aways, but usually its the same old fare with a seasonal image/message stamped on top.
Walmart takes the philosophy a step further. The stores utilize their warehouse format to offer palettes of goods throughout the wide aisles. These palettes can be switched out overnight, and require little to no set-up by employees. Walmart promotions are item-specific, and they rarely bother to cater to themes of lifestyle. Price drives the promotion, and switching promotions and endcaps in and out quickly maximizes efficiency and profits.
Visit any retailer and you'll notice that people pause and hover around smaller clusters of goods. They've been trained to expect bargains in these areas, but they will still buy more in these areas regardless of discounting. It's basic human nature. Shopping has become so overwhelming that consumers are trusting you to tell them what to look at and where to focus. Smart retail buyers promote the right items at the right time, and fortunes are made. Get it wrong and your aisles may be full but the carts will be empty.
