Amy Davis”™ simple and useful invention ”“ a tissue holder designed for the car ”“ has earned the product shelf space at thousands of Walgreens.
“As a mother you have to be an inventor just to make a household run smoothly,” said Davis, 50, a former schoolteacher and curriculum consultant in Weston. “Many times the thing you”™ve come up with is already out there; I”™m just fortunate that mine wasn”™t.”
Davis”™ product the Kiss-u Tissue Tube is a refillable heavy cardboard cylinder that holds tissues and fits into car cup holders. Her idea came to her while driving and fishing for tissues on the floor of her car that almost led to her running over a curb and right into a neighbor”™s front yard bushes.
“Whatever you bring in your car always seems to end up on the floor,” she said. “Because it was such a common problem, I decided to maybe try making some (holders). There wasn”™t much to be lost.”
The mother of three came up with the idea while enrolled in the master”™s degree in business administration program at the Welch College of Business at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield. She was able to able to develop the idea in the school”™s marketing class where an assignment was to invent and market a product.
“I didn”™t have any answers. But I had access to people who did and I was not afraid to ask their opinions. Inventing is about identifying a problem and solving it in a way that makes sense to everyone.”
After graduating with her MBA, Davis began to refine the Kiss-u idea and visit stores across Fairfield and Westchester counties. She found a manufacturer in China through her own online resource. She said she is looking into finding a factory to produce the tubes in the U.S.
“The cost of production has doubled in China in the past year and shipping is becoming more expensive,” she said.
Her first chance to sell was given by Hope Street Pharmacy in Stamford, then Grieb”™s Pharmacy in Darien, Achorn”™s in Westport and Lang”™s in Weston; but it was when Walgreens agreed to sell Kiss-u through a one-time-buy contract for items that have not been market tested that the Kiss-u really got its chance.
“Walgreens is a very inventive place, atypical of a lot of large chain stores,” Davis said. “If they think you have something they”™re willing to give you a chance without having tested the water. It”™s not much of a risk for them but it allows them to be ahead of the curve. It”™s a very smart strategy.”
On Feb. 1, 7,600 cases containing 16 tubes each were rolled out in Walgreens. In three weeks, 70 percent of the stock was sold, with $55,000 in sales. The product, which retails for $1.99, is in about 3,700 out of 8,100 Walgreens stores nationwide.
“Two Walgreens managers said they sold out in five days. One in New Mexico and one in California; they both contacted me asking for more cases,” Davis said. “When regular tissues are selling for four dollars a box, all of a sudden my product is competitive.”
