We’re off to the first annual Baby & Kids Fair at 7W in New York. If you’re in town, stop by and say hello. We’ll be in booth F8 showing off our adorable Clean Shopper line and giving away lots of goodies!
My Travelings ABCs are FUN
As parents, we spend an inordinately large amount of time in the grocery store, whether we like it or not. And our babies don’t always enjoy the ride. When my sons were babies and toddlers, I kept them entertained while we shopped by pointing out foods that began with certain letters of the alphabet. It occurred to me that I could recreate the same learning opportunity for other families and their little ones with a series of “take-along” letters. My Traveling ABCs was designed with that goal in mind! Babies love them! You can attach them to the toy loops of your Clean Shopper shopping cart cover when you grocery shop and point out foods with names that start with each letter! Or you can attach them to the loops on your Clean Diner and have fun at meal time! Here are the 5 more reasons to love this fun toy and book set:
1. Each letter is designed and created with rich fabric textures to enhance tactile stimulation.
2. Each unique, adorable facial expression inspires imaginative play.
3. The letters’ vibrant colors help boost sensory awareness.
4. The read-along board book fosters snuggle time with baby.
5. The colorful straps attach to anything, so baby can learn where ever she goes!
My sons are too old to sit in Clean Shopper shopping cart covers these days, but when my teenager and preteen were babies, we never left the house without one. I’m certain it saved them countless visits to the doctor, and it definitely gave me peace of mind. Fast forward 14 years, and I find myself using my Clean Shopper sans babies, so I too can avoid the nasty germs slithering around on those shopping carts. Here are my top 5 reasons for using a Clean Shopper regardless of your age:
1. The cold & flu season is making its annual unwelcome visit, and that means germy hands touching just about every public surface you can imagine. Shopping carts? Yes, a top 10 offender. Cover them up!
2. Babies love to suck on any thing cold, especially when they are teething, and the cold metal of a shopping cart provides the ideal teething toy. Research shows that public restrooms are cleaned more often than shopping carts, so if you wouldn’t let your little one suck on a toilet seat, then my guess is, you wouldn’t want them sucking on the shopping cart either!
3. Some shoppers are minimalists. They only fill the seating area of the cart when they shop, grabbing a package of chicken, some veggies and a carton of milk. All of these lovely juices meld together and linger on their hands. Their hands grab the handles or the sides of the shopping carts. You and your baby can avoid those handles and sides by covering them up!
4. Even if you shop without your baby, you are still likely to bring your purse along for the ride. It’s also likely that you will use the seating area of the shopping cart to hold your purse while you shop. Then you’ll come home and place your purse on the clean-looking kitchen counter. Hmmm. The chicken juice from the seating area is now on the bottom of your purse which is sitting on your unsuspecting kitchen counter. If you had used the Clean Shopper shopping cart cover, your purse wouldn’t have been exposed to the chicken juice and potential disease-causing germs.
5. Assuming you’ve cleaned your shopping cart with an antibacterial wipe prior to using the cart, you still want to place your baby in a comfy Clean Shopper shopping cart cover to keep her happy, comfortable and entertained, so you can shop in peace.
Our new Luxe Minky Clean Shopper is winging its way to Gwen Stefani! We know she’s going to love it!
I just finished packing up a scaled-down version of my exhibit for the ABC Spring Conference in Kentucky. Only a select number of manufacturers were invited to the conference, so I’m excited about the opportunity to showcase our new Chic, Minky and Wee BE Organic lines to these buyers! Now that we offer such a wide variety of Clean Shopper shopping cart covers, we can meet the growing needs of our independent and boutique retailers. Very exciting!
ABC Show Exhibit
Style and luxury in one adorable package! That’s what makes these minky Clean Shoppers, baby blankets and Clean Burper burp cloths so unique! Order now at www.cleanshopper.com for holiday delivery!
Super comfy Minky Pink Swirl Clean Shopper
In addition to keeping babies and toddlers safe from the germs found on shopping carts, Clean Shoppers are now benefiting breast cancer research. Babe Ease, LLC, distributor of the Original Clean Shopper shopping cart cover is donating $1.00 from the sale of every wholesale and retail sale of their adorable pink gingham Clean Shoppers to breast cancer research. The money will go directory to the ESSCO-MGH Breast Cancer Research Fund, a charitable endowment fund Babe Ease owner Missy Cohen-Fyffe’s family established in 1994.
“My father established the ESSCO-MGH Breast Cancer Research Fund in 1994 shortly after my sister was diagnosed and treated for the disease at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston,” said Cohen-Fyffe, who is also president of the fund. “He initiated the fund with $25,000 with the stipulation that every penny we raise go directly to breast cancer research. Today, our fund has grown to $3.2 million and we fund incredibly innovative research that is so promising it is now garnering funds and accolades from the National Institutes of Health and other very large charitable organizations.
In addition to receiving national recognition for its cutting-edge research endeavors, the ESSCO-MGH Breast Cancer Research Fund was recently honored as one of The One Hundred most influential cancer care and research organizations associated with the MGH.
“It was an amazing night. We were honored to be part of such a talented and respected group of individuals and organizations,” said Cohen-Fyffe.
Babe Ease, LLC will present it’s fundraising check to the ESSCO-MGH Breast Cancer Research Fund during the fund’s annual benefit in October. The event will be held on October 23, 2008 at the Pine Brook Country Club in Weston, MA.
More information about the ESSCO-MGH Breast Cancer Research Fund and the cutting-edge research it supports can be found by clicking this link. To make a donation, visit www.cleanshopper.com , click on Useful Information, then click on ESSCO-MGH. Your donation will go directly to breast cancer research.
A SKU is a “stock-keeping unit” that retail stores use to electronically order, stock and record all of their inventory and sales. A UPC is the black and white bar code and corresponding 12 digit number found on just about every item you buy in virtually every store you shop. These are required pieces of information that stores need in order to electronically order, track and maintain their inventory from each vendor.
As a vendor, you will need to obtain these codes and identify each of your products with corresponding UPCs and SKUs. This will give your company credibility with retailers, and make it possible for stores to place orders with you electronically. While you don’t have to be EDI* compatible to obtain UPCs and SKUs, you may want to look into EDI as a way to attract larger retailers to your product offerings. For the purpose of this entry, we’ll just concentrate on the codes and how to obtain them.
To obtain a UPC code and develop a list of SKUs for your products, you will need to obtain a Company Prefix certificate and license from GS1 US, Inc. (formerly the Uniform Code Council) in Dayton, OH. Visit www.gs1us.org and follow the necessary steps.
When I first started selling my Clean Shopper shopping cart covers, the Company Prefix Certificate and License cost $750. Today, you will need to pay $1,500 for the certificate and, depending upon the number of UPC codes you want, an additional $150.
The GS1 website will walk you through the process or obtaining the certificate and license. Once you have the company prefix, you can begin creating UPCs for your products. From there, you can use the last four digits of each UPC to create your SKUs.
For example, our Clean Shopper shopping cart cover in the Flower Power print has the following UPC and SKU numbers respectively: 854366000668 0668
Our Clean Diner high chair cover in the Funny Farm print has the following UPC and SKU numbers: 854366000545 0545
Our Clean Burper burp cloths in the Pink Polka Dot print have the following UPC and SKU numbers: 854366000880 0880
You can recycle numbers after they have been out of commerce for four years, so as you grow, you can also re-use discontinued or obsolete UPCs and SKUs, which will help reduce your expenses.
*Electronic Data Interface is a universal, uniform system for electronically placing orders over the internet. Most larger companies use this method for placing orders. Even many small chains use EDI for order processing.
My signature Clean Shopper shopping cart cover was the first product of its kind. I know this because my patent dates back to 1991, several years before any other similar patent application was submitted. Technically, this means my patent has the benefit of owning “prior art.” Prior art allows me to use the term Original with respect to my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover and it also gives me protection against anyone who attempts to produce a product with the same claims as my shopping cart cover patent. But there are limits to that protection.
“Protection” and “claims” are two very important words in the world of intellectual property (IP)/patent law. While I don’t claim to be an expert on patent law, I’ve learned through my business dealings over the years that those simple words carry extraordinary weight. ’Protection,’ however, is partially only as strong as you are. Do you have the intestinal fortitude, so to speak, to endure a lengthy and expensive legal battle? If so, rest assured you are protected with your patent. Unless, of course, the infringing product’s patent claims are decisively different from your own. In that case, you will have a more difficult time defending your claims in court – especially if they aren’t being infringed. Two products may appear similar, but may also be constructed entirely different and claim different attributes. Those claims may hold up in a court of law.
I am often asked by aspiring entrepreneurs with inventions of their own, how I ‘deal’ with the copycat products on the market. Most questions typically take the form of the following, “Do you sue?” “Do they pay you royalties?” “Do you just forge ahead and hope you beat them in market share?” The answer is simple: It depends upon the product, and that product’s patent claims or lack thereof.
Every situation is different. I have made it a company – and personal – priority to sue any person or business infringing on my patents or trademarks. I have had to sue six different companies over the years for either patent or trademark infringement; one company for counterfeiting, and three other companies for their bad business dealings. All of these lawsuits have ended favorably for my company. But I should have prefaced this by saying that I do not take any of these lawsuits lightly.
The process of filing a lawsuit and completing the time-consuming task of ‘discovery’ can take more than a year, and that’s before even going to trial and enduring lengthy litigation. Litigation is unbelievably expensive and unless you are prepared to spend tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands of dollars to protect your IP, you probably won’t want to go down that path. While many lawsuits are settled out of court, sending a “cease and desist” letter really means absolutely nothing unless you are prepared to follow that letter through to litigation.
When I make the decision to issue a cease and desist letter to an infringing company, I am making the decision to commit months of my time and tens of thousands of my hard-earned dollars to defend my IP.
Many companies opt to pursue other options, such as negotiating a licensing deal with the infringing company. In my personal experience, I have found that infringing companies rarely want to pay innovators, but rather seek to find the fasted ways to cash in on the growing popularity of new ideas. There are three companies in my industry that come to mind immediately, and I often wonder why buyers continue to purchase goods from them, knowing they leach all of their ideas from smaller, usually woman-owned, businesses. I suspect it is because their pricing appears better, not having had to spend the upfront money on research and development or IP.
Another option companies often pursue is to forge ahead and grab as much market share as possible before the competition gets too big and fierce. Some of my competitors (whose products, while similar, don’t technically infringe) have chosen this path. In all honesty, I wish they would simply make the commitment to sue those who infringe on their claims, but they have opted not to. This has made the market tighter than I would like, but it in an interesting way, it has also managed to boost our brand’s image.
Although lawsuits can seem daunting, they can also be extremely useful and quite beneficial when necessary. When deciding to sue or not to sue, please take into consideration the following important factors:
Carefully consider these issues and consult with your IP attorney before making any decisions. You may find that it is simply not in your best interest to sue. On the other hand, you may find it’s time.
I began selling my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover when the thought of germs on shopping carts was non-existent. Being a nail-biter, I’ve always been aware of the things I touch, because they inevitably end up in my mouth. Shopping carts always gave me the willies, especially after seeing a guy sneeze into his hands and then (without a thought to wiping his hands on his pants – or anything else for that matter) continue to push his shopping cart.
So, I designed the Clean Shopper shopping cart cover to protect babies and toddlers (and, okay, me) from the germs found on shopping carts. When I first started using my own Clean Shopper shopping cart cover (when my son was a baby), I could barely get through a grocery store without being attacked by other mothers who wanted to know where they could buy one.
Initially, when I attempted to get my shopping cart cover product on store shelves, I was practically laughed out of the buyer’s office. I ended up selling Clean Shopper shopping cart covers out of my car to demanding mothers who refused to let me go until they had a Clean Shopper of their own. As demand grew for my product (primarily through word-of-mouth), I began to market the Clean Shopper more aggressively and I launched a website. At that time (1999), some parents thought the price tag for a Clean Shopper ($29.95) was high, but said they would rather be safe than sorry.
Then research began emerging about the widespread occurrence of e-coli and other dangerous bacteria that could be found on public surfaces. And, a researcher, Dr. Charles Gerba, PhD, at the University of Arizona swabbed 800 public surfaces and found disease-causing germs in tons of places – most notably (to me) was the fact that the 7th most germ-ridden public place was a shopping cart. Next came Inside Edition’s ultraviolet light shopping cart scanner, also proving e-coli (among other things) was living on the handlebar areas of shopping carts. Sales of my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover took off and I launched our Clean Diner high chair cover to rave reviews.
Fast forward to 2008 and hundreds of similar shopping cart covers are now on the market, some costing as much as $165! Just about every mom inventor start up on the internet sells “their” version of our shopping cart cover. The demand for stylish germ-fighting products is actually growing like crazy. We are even launching our own “high-end” versions to satisfy the growing demand.
When SARS hit two years ago, we fielded calls regarding our Clean Shopper shopping cart covers, and how well they stood up to this new disease. No joke. Then a writer contacted me for information about my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover for a new book. It turns out she was partnering with Dr. Gerba from the University of Arizona to pen a book entitled, The Germ Freak’s Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu. The book is hysterically funny, and informational…and of course, it mentions my Clean Shopper shopping cart cover in the chapter entitled, Attention Shoppers, There’s a Special on E-coli in Aisle 3.
These days everyone is concerned about staying healthy. Maybe it’s because so many people are without healthcare or maybe they just can’t afford time off from work to take care of a sick child or nurse their own bodies back to health. Maybe they get sick too much and just hate the feeling. Regardless of the fear, the demand now widely exists for products that promote germ-free living.
