As secondhand shopping becomes a first choice for more consumers, Sur La Table has launched a peer-to-peer marketplace that the company’s president, Dan Goldman, said can serve existing and aspirational shoppers as they become more adept home chefs.
Retail recommerce has gained ground over the past decade as consumers, led by Millennials and Gen Zers, have embraced secondhand goods for value and affordability. Launched last month, Second Servings by Sur La Table gives the retailer a new way to engage experienced home chefs and cooks looking to step up in the culinary world. The platform gives consumers access to higher-end kitchen tools they want but might hesitate to buy new.
In an interview with HomePage News, Goldman said Sur La Table developed Second Servings for two different types of home cooks. (Goldman is pictured above outside the flagship Sur La Table store in Seattle.)
“The first,” Goldman said, “is our core consumer who may be looking to trade up to the latest model and newest color or has an extra Dutch oven collecting dust in the back of the kitchen cabinet, a duplicate coffee machine from their wedding registry, or a pasta roller that seemed like a great idea during COVID but has not been used since.”
As such, Second Servings offers Sur La Table customers new ways to build on and share their enthusiasm for home cooking.
The second customer, Goldman said, is the shopper who is curious about the premium cookware category but might not think it is affordable. Second Servings can help make frugal home cooks’ culinary ambitions attainable, he said.
“They may want a serious pan but can’t afford to or are uncomfortable spending $400 on one yet,” Goldman said. “They’re eager to find an accessible entry price point. This is where Second Servings comes in. A gently pre-loved $400 MSRP copper pan may only cost $180, and that is how a 27-year-old gets into premium cookware and realizes that premium products really do lead to premium results in the kitchen. Both consumer types love to cook. They are just at two different stages.”
Sur La Table has launched Second Servings as a dedicated entry into the resale marketplace rather than as an adjunct to its core retail business.
“We built Second Servings its own site on purpose,” Goldman said. “The two experiences are genuinely different machinery.”
By creating separation between the main and recommerce platforms, each side of the overall Sur La Table operation can focus on customer priorities. The main Sur La Table website continues as a destination for consumers who want top-quality equipment and don’t mind paying what the marketplace asks. The Second Servings platform can support those shoppers, particularly younger shoppers, who might want a better kitchen tool than they might start out with otherwise or who want to trade up to something beyond basic as they become more accomplished cooks. The recommerce site can also serve more experienced, price-sensitive cooks who want to trade up or branch out into new styles of food prep.
Second Servings also gives home cooks with cupboards full of equipment they aren’t using a place to easily clear out shelves for something new, with a little more cash to invest in the next purchase.
“Resale is one of one: every listing is a single item with its own condition, its own photos and its own seller,” Goldman said. “We’re inviting customers to sell products from previous seasons, and we’re allowing them to list a far wider range of brands than we carry in our primary site. However, a separate site doesn’t mean a separate brand.”
Sur La Table, Goldman said, provides a forum under an established, recognized marque that consumers have known for decades for attracting ambitious home cooks. To set the stage for the best operational outcome, the company has partnered with resale specialist Archive to launch and support the Second Servings platform, including customer support, payment processing and logistics.
Double Duty
Second Servings has the out-of-the-gate advantage of an engaged, informed Sur La Table following, Goldman noted, which makes outreach easier than for an enterprise that must fight for recognition in a crowded, competitive marketplace.
“We’re using the channels we already own and also inviting our community of home cooks to help us spread the word,” Goldman said. “That includes a homepage banner on surlatable.com, email to our customer file and social posts. The people most likely to have something worth reselling are the people who already bought it from us, so we’re not starting from zero on either side of the marketplace.”
In the larger sense, Second Servings is presented as a new vehicle consistent with Sur La Table’s mission.
“Our goal is simple: to help support home cooks at every stage of their culinary journey,” Goldman said. “Sur La Table has now become the place you buy your first pan; the place you buy your best pan; and the place you sell the one you outgrew.
“Historically, those are three unconnected stages of a cook’s journey,” he continued. “Second Servings makes it easier for customers to start their culinary journey with us, grow as cooks and equip themselves with the right tools for each life stage. The cook who buys a $60 pan at 25 and a $400 one at 35 is the same person. We’ve traditionally only been in the room for the second purchase. Second Servings puts us in the room for the first one, and the moments in-between, when that first pan gets passed to someone else so they can trade up.”
By reducing cost-related trepidation, Second Servings can help consumers dive deeper into home cooking more quickly and with more confidence, Goldman said.
“There’s absolutely an aspirational element, but the aspiration belongs to the cook and their journey of having fun in the kitchen while becoming a better chef,” he said. “It’s about what they create and the joy it brings them. It’s not about us. Give someone an accessible way in, support them along the way, and they grow with you. That’s the value proposition that no one else can offer between our exceptional customer service, chef-led cooking classes, best-in-class assortment, and now Second Servings, which enables that entry point into the category as well as up to the latest model or color.”
To put it another way, Goldman said, Second Servings helps Sur La Table to foster happiness through cooking.
“We love the role we’ve played over the past 54 years fostering a community of people around the country who love to cook,” he noted. “We teach over 50,000 cooking classes a year to more than 500,000 people in our stores. These classes range from date nights to family fun to global cuisine to teaching new techniques. That’s real people coming together to cook, learn, laugh and connect. That’s community. Second Servings creates another platform for home cooks across various life stages to come together and share their cooking tools with each other. The person passing along a well-loved carbon steel pan and the person who wants to start learning how to cook on it now have a direct line to connect.”
Sur La Table positions Second Servings as a more affordable way to introduce aspiring home chefs to premium kitchenware.
Lifecycle Considerations
Sustainability is an important element in the Second Servings proposition. For a lot of people, just the idea of throwing out a tool that’s meant to last after a short spell in use is generally unappealing, as is sticking something in the back of a cabinet knowing it isn’t likely to emerge again.
“Premium cooking products are built to last, in some cases 30 years,” Goldman said. “In fact, not only do they stand the test of time; some even get better over time, like a seasoned cast iron pan. This is one of the key differentiators in the kitchenware products a consumer can find at Sur La Table versus many mass retailers. So premium coffee machines, cookware, knives and dishes shouldn’t spend a decade collecting dust in a cupboard or being dumped into a landfill prematurely.”
Ensuring products remain in use for as long as they were meant to serve has a multifaceted appeal.
“Resale is a practical way to extend that lifecycle rather than letting quality products go unused or end up in a landfill,” Goldman said. “Second Servings makes those products more accessible while giving them somewhere to go. We’re not positioning this as a sustainability play first. Value and access are what bring people in, and the longer life of the product is what makes the purchase feel good.”
Second Servings enables consumers to introduce cooking into their lifestyles earlier, then gives them another option as they pursue their advancing ambitions.
“Skills outgrow gear, and it’s a cycle to support,” Goldman said. “Someone who learns to sear properly wants a different pan than the one they learned on. That’s a good thing, and until now the old pan just had nowhere to go. Education is how we’ve served that for more than 50 years. Second Servings makes the tools accessible at every step.”
In some ways, Goldman noted, dedicated kitchenware recommerce is overdue.
“Resale has proven itself in every durable category except the one where the products last the longest,” he said. “Fashion has it. Furniture has it. Bikes have it. Yet, the category where a pan genuinely serves two generations of cooks had nothing. That gap is the reason to move now, and it’s why we wanted to be first in kitchenware. We’ve sold things built to last for more than 50 years and this is the first time Sur La Table can prove it.”
Sur La Table timed the Second Servings launch to make the proposition even more attractive to consumers.
“Holidays are the biggest cooking moment of the year,” he said, “and the moment people are most willing to spend on someone else’s kitchen. Launching ahead of it means a premium pan is within reach as a gift rather than only as a splurge.”
Then comes January.
“Kitchen gifts are personal, and even a well-chosen one doesn’t always match how someone actually cooks,” Goldman added. “Until now that meant a good piece sat unused. Now there’s a way to pass it on to a cook who wants it and put that value toward the piece that does fit.”
