These products sold heavily through Macy's and other major department stores and housewares retailers throughout the U.S. during the late 1970s and 1980s.

He carried his flat-packed packages through a snowstorm in Manhattan to meet a buyer at Gracious Home, a major housewares retailer.

Lechters, the national housewares retailer, will close 35 underperforming stores in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, company officials said yesterday.

It was occupied by Conran's housewares retailer and Waterstones booksellers.

LEAD: Carole P. Bannett, a housewares retailer and an associate of Lee Bailey, the designer and author, died of cancer Tuesday at her home in Manhattan.

D. F. Sanders, the housewares retailer, is going national.

Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc., a housewares retailer, said its comparable-store sales increased 12.6 percent in the five weeks that ended Nov. 27, compared with the corresponding period last year.

He was a merchandise manager at Gimbels when he left to assume the presidency of Hammacher Schlemmer, the housewares retailer, in 1953.

Another pair of reported potential tenants are the department store Kohl's and the housewares retailer Linens 'n Things.

Service Merchandise, a discount jewelry and housewares retailer, is charging ahead, installing Web kiosks in its 220 stores.