Duchess Of York Among Promoters At McCormick Place Housewares Show
CHICAGO (CBS) -- More than 20,000 buyers are in Chicago for the 2015 International Home and Housewares Show at McCormick Place.
One of the promoters who was very much in demand today: "Fergie."
"I actually have always put Chicago as my favorite city. And as I was driving over here today I understood why now. It's because of the lake and the sense of freedom," said Sarah, the Duchess of York. "And Chicago gives me a sense of freedom and I like the rivers going through. And it gives me that."
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The duchess has been at the Housewares Show promoting a juicer. But more than that, she's promoting her own way of life, mostly how she lost a lot of weight.
People lined up to take a picture with the duchess and get an autograph.
"I think we always have that connection," said one woman.
"To the Brits," said another. "And she's a great person. She's a humanitarian and she went through some hard times, like most normal people."
The duchess says when people come up to her, they like to tell her they've lost weight.
"It's like going to the headmaster and saying, Did I do well? Do I get a gold star?"
Pavan Bapu, the cofounder and CEO of Chicago-based Gramovox, was at the Housewares show promoting a bluetooth gramophone.
"We wanted to allow people to have a time machine which took them back to a place almost 100 years ago so they can experience the aesthetics as well as the sound of a bygone era," said Bapu.
The Bluetooth gramophone retails for $400.
Another product, the Beep Egg, looks like an egg and you keep it with eggs in the fridge and then when you boil them, it plays a tune when the eggs are done.
The Beep Egg has been on the market in Europe for 14 years, invented in Germany by the father of Markus Gabriel.
"It was not his idea to build a houseware company or a gift company," Gabriel said. " He just couldn't boil eggs. He said, 'I have the brains to do something about that.'"
It's not based on time, but temperature. The Beep Eggs play one tune for soft-boiled, another for medium and another for hard-boiled.
