MAKING BREAD ONLINE
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Man does not live by bread alone. On the other hand, there have been few
reported incidents of it hurting anybody. And the smell of home made bread
baking in the oven has virtually defined the smell of home for thousands of
years across most cultures.

Currently a bread making mania that has broken out across the U.S., and yours
truly has become thoroughly captivated by the concept. As a hobby, I've made
breads for a number of years using the old fashioned hand-kneading technique
- tedious, but at least boring. But in the past year or so, a wave of
Japanese bread making appliances have hit pay dirt here in the U.S. These
little breadmakers allow you to measure in a few ingredients, push a button,
and about 3 hours later the whole house fills with the aroma of freshly baked
homemade bread. It mixes the ingredients, kneads the lump, allows it to rise,
kneads it again, allows it to rise again, and finally bakes it. The result is
a fully baked loaf of bread with very consistent results. Entire books of
breadmaker recipes are currently a hot item in the cookbook category.

The devices became the hot item of Christmas 1992. Typically, they come in
two sizes - one pound loaf capacity, and one and a half pound loaf capacity.
In the Denver area, by December 15 you could not find a 1.5 lb loaf maker in
the state. The little 1.0 pounder's were going begging.

Who started all this? One of the legends of direct mail marketing is a man
named Drew Alan Kaplan who publishes one of the most fascinating direct mail
catalogs in the business. The DAK catalog is one piece of junk mail welcomed
in almost every mailbox it lands. Typically it runs about 30 pages of
gadgets, telephone devices, audio and video geegaws, and in the last year or
so, computers and CD-ROM players. Rather than the typical catalog fare of dry
descriptions, it's written in a personable, conversational tone coming from
the point of view of "look what neat gadgets I found and can sell to you for
cheap."

DAK took a $400 Japanese appliance, the breadmaker, that was widely failing
to sell in this country, and remarketed it at $169. They sold 500,000 of
them, and more importantly, launched breadmakers in the United States. There
are nearly a dozen models available now and almost all department stores
carry them. We think DAK did it.

DAK has been one of the most progressive direct marketing firms in the
business, and they use the technology. After the move to market personal
computers and software, they found a number of their customers needed help
using the devices. Since one of their hallmarks is a 30-day risk-free trial
period on any purchase, it became an easier thing to help customers get some
use of their new computers than to accept them back on a return. So they set
up the DAK Online Resource Center.

The DAK Online Resource Center (DORC??) operates at (818)715-7153 using TBBS
software. This is interesting in itself. eSoft's TBBS actually stands for The
Bread Board System - an allusion to the engineering practice of building
prototype circuits on a circuit "board" that allows easy configuration and
wiring changes during design and development of electronic circuits. In the
vernacular of the EE world, this came to be known as "bread boarding." While
TBBS has nothing to do with bread, the pun is obvious. And while we don't
know how DAK chose this software or what purchase arrangements were made,
their Breadmaker has been seen in abundance at the eSoft offices.

The DAK Online Resource Center is also reachable by FidoNet Netmail at
1:102/809 and the system operator is Tom Krogh. The system offers message and
download areas for various product categories including audio, computer
hardware, software, CD-ROM, and household goods. We found the breadmaking
area fascinating of course. There were files on the Turbo II model as well as
a new $169 Turbo IV model that makes the biggest loaf in the business with a
2.0 lb rating. But there were also files on what to do about burnt bread,
bread that isn't done in the middle, bread that rises too high, dark crust,
high altitude baking, recipe substitutions and general tips and
troubleshooting. DAK not only sells the breadmakers, but you can order
replacement parts for the various models offered.

The system also has a monthly BBS special offer. This month, a CD-ROM title
previously reviewed in Boardwatch is PHONE DISC. This is a three-disc set
listing telephone numbers and addresses for everybody in the country. Perhaps
not quite, but the BUSINESS disk lists over 7 million business listings while
EAST and WEST each provide basically white pages telephone book listings of
residences EAST and WEST of the Mississippi River. DAK offers this set at
$149.90 plus $6.90 shipping and handling.

The system is decoratively laid out and reasonably easy to use. We were
disappointed to learn we could not list everything DAK currently has for
sale, and actually order online. For most items it referred you to their
voice order line at 800-DAK-0800 to actually place an order. Given that the
company does run a BBS that could easily process the order, and also offers
FAX ordering at (818)888-2837 and even TDD access for the hearing impaired at
(800)888-6703, this seemed curiously retro. With eSoft's TDBS package they
could easily put their entire inventory online now.

According to DAK spokesman Brian Eggars, "We currently mail several million
catalogs per month and 800 voice sales from the catalog swamp everything
else, including our outlet store here in California. We haven't quite figured
out how to make the BBS handle any substantive portion of that yet on just a
few telephone lines. But we're working on it, and even looking at other
possibilities involving the larger commercial online services."

The system does allow you to add your name to the catalog mailing list
online. And since the company does accept returns from customers that just
decide they don't particularly like what they've ordered, the BBS does list
"used" items at a pretty significant discount. You don't find mention of that
in their catalog. In this way, using the BBS you can order items returned by
others and do so at significant savings. But ultimately, the system is
currently acting as more of an after-sale product support system than it is
as an online sales channel.

Actual direct sales online have never taken off anywhere that we can tell.
Many have tried it, with mixed or poor results. It is interesting to observe
what the king of direct mail does with BBS technology to augment an existing
direct mail catalog operation. DAK Industries Inc., 8200 Remmet Ave., Canoga
Park, CA 91304; (818)888-8220.