Tuesday December 21, 1999, 11:31 am Eastern Time

Company Press Release

Kitchen Etc., Inc. Launches World's Largest e-Kitchen and Teams With ucook.com, World's Largest Recipe Resource

Strategic Partnership Creates Ultimate Cyberspace Solution for People Who Enjoy Preparing and Serving Good Food

EXETER, N.H.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 21, 1999-- Kitchen Etc., America's cooking and dining discount superstores, announced today the launch of kitchenetc.com, the world's largest e-kitchen. In addition, Kitchen Etc. is partnering with ucook.com, The Ultimate Cookbook(TM), making kitchenetc.com the ultimate cyberspace solution for people who enjoy preparing and serving good food.

The launch of kitchenetc.com signifies a major change in strategy for the 14-store cooking and dining superstore chain. Currently offering the largest kitchen stores and assortment in the U.S., Kitchen Etc. is aggressively pursuing new markets, including exploding into e-commerce via kitchenetc.com. With 22,000 SKUs, 5,000 high-resolution photographs of products and a 50,000-page Web site, kitchenetc.com offers more products than its two largest pure-play on-line competitors combined.

"Our goal is to serve every market with a click and mortar strategy," said Robert Camp, Chairman and CEO of Kitchen Etc. "With Kitchen Etc. retail stores offering the nation's largest assortment of products, kitchenetc.com has what pure e-tailers don't - successful brick and mortar stores, a vast selection of merchandise, established fulfillment centers, discount pricing, and deep vendor knowledge. kitchenetc.com simply dwarfs the sites of the click and mortar national specialty retailers, who count their SKU's in the hundreds."

"In addition, twenty-five percent of our total sales come from our thriving bridal registry business, which gives us a major advantage over pure e-tail companies who will struggle to build bridal registries from scratch," continued Camp. "With a single click, kitchenetc.com becomes the world's largest e-kitchen, with $4 billion in market potential. That's what sets us apart and the difference is obvious the minute you click on our site."

According to the National Housewares Manufacturers Association, U.S. housewares is a $58.4 billion industry and total Internet housewares sales, including kitchenware and diningware, are projected at $8.4 billion in five years.

Kitchen Etc. is a dominant specialty retailer of nationally branded tabletop and kitchen housewares, including Calphalon, Cuisinart, Henckels, KitchenAid, Lenox, Oneida and Pfaltzgraff products. The new Kitchen Etc. stores are the largest kitchen stores in the U.S., with 20,000 square feet and 35,000 SKUs.

ucook.com is a comprehensive index of the world's best cookbooks, such as Dinner in Minutes: Memorable Meals for Busy Cooks, The Chocolate Bible, Wolfgang Puck's Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen, and many more. ucook.com provides nutritional information on recipes in its database, daily articles and tips on food and cooking, and a community forum, where people chat with cookbook authors and prominent chefs, find answers to challenging cooking questions, and share favorite recipes.

"At ucook.com, we offer a solution to the relentless question `What's for dinner?"' said ucook.com Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Susan Purcell. "With our database of more than 52,000 recipes from leading cookbooks, added features such as nutritional information and a daily on-line cooking magazine, we're the leading source of food & cooking information. And as the world's largest, it's only natural that we would partner with kitchenetc.com, the world's largest e-kitchen. It makes for a very powerful strategic alliance."

"Teaming with ucook.com, we offer our customers the ultimate cyberspace solution for people who want to prepare and serve good food. kitchenetc.com and ucook.com provide all your favorite recipes - and the kitchenware and diningware to prepare and serve them," added Camp.

About Kitchen Etc.

Kitchen Etc., America's cooking and dining discount superstore, offers the largest kitchen stores and assortment in the United States. Kitchen Etc. is a dominant specialty retailer of nationally branded tabletop and kitchen housewares, including products from Calphalon, Cuisinart, Henckels, KitchenAid, Lenox, Oneida, and Pfaltzgraff, among others. With 130 patterns of china and 36 styles of coffee makers, Kitchen Etc. has the greatest breadth of name-brand product of any East Coast housewares store.

Kitchen Etc. was established in 1983 in Exeter, New Hampshire, and currently has 14 stores on the East Coast, including locations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and most recently, Washington, D.C. Kitchen Etc. is aggressively pursuing new markets, including national expansion of retail stores and exploding into online shopping via the Kitchen Etc. web site, www.kitchenetc.com.

About ucook.com

ucook.com, the world's largest recipe resource, indexes more than 52,000 recipes from leading published cookbooks such as Dinner in Minutes: Memorable Meals for Busy Cooks, The Chocolate Bible, Wolfgang Puck's Modern French Cooking for the American Kitchen, and many more. Launched in November 1998, ucook.com was awarded the Best Debut of the Year Award in the Software and Information Industry Association's 1999 Excellence in Software Awards and, alongside ABCNews.com, ESPN.com, Discovery Channel Online and others, was named a finalist for Best World Wide Web Site. The site has just been named a finalist in three categories in the 2000 Excellence in Software Awards: Best Online Information Service, Best Lifestyle Product, and Best Debut of an E-Commerce Storefront.