Cutco Cutlery Opening Edina Store Early Next Month

A new cutlery store is headed to Edina's Rue de France shopping center, as Cutco Cutlery has announced plans to open its sixth U.S. store there early next month.

The 64-year-old New York-based company traditionally has sold its products exclusively through in-home personal demonstrations by college students, but in the past few years has shifted to retail stores to support those direct sales. 

Company officials said Edina was a natural fit because there are already more than 200,000 Cutco owners in the metro area "who have have lost touch with their student sales reps."

“Over the years, we may have lost touch with many of our local customers,” said Tim McCreadie, director of Cucto Stores. “This store will allow them to see our products, have knives sharpened and to re-establish their relationship with us.”

The 2,700-square-foot location will combine a retail store with a division office for Vector Marketing, the direct sales division of Cutco. The retail store will be set up to mirror the in-home demonstrations conducted over the past several decades by sales representatives, while at the same time focusing on family traditions centered in the kitchen.

“Our customers really must experience the products to get a full appreciation of quality,” said McCreadie. “Demonstrations include slicing vegetables, cutting rope, and even cutting a penny with our shears. These demonstrations are similar to the ones given by sales reps in customers’ homes."

The store will sell Cutco's kitchen cutlery sets, kitchen knives, flatware, accessories, cookware and gift sets. Outside of the kitchen, the store will also stock Cutco garden tools, sporting knives and KA-BAR Knives.

Special events, cooking classes, seminars and demonstrations of Cutco products are also planned for the store, according to McCreadie. He said those will include everything from how to slice vegetables to carving a perfect turkey. 

“This is an exciting time for Cutco,” McCreadie said. “We continue to experience significant growth in this region, which has traditionally been one of our strongest areas in the nation.”

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