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Local inventor keeps Christmas lights from going to the GrinchThe Galt Herald Newspaper, Galt, CA, January 3, 2001 -- By Rachael RobertsPerhaps
it was the countless hours spent each year, with his brother Bill, untangling
Christmas lights that had been stored by his father in paper bags that led Alan
Benson to the desire to create a better way to handle the scads of stringy
lights we all hang each year or maybe it’s just because Alan Benson is always
looking for ways to make everyday life easier that led to his invention of
“Bucket O Lights” and the formation of the BensTek Company. Bucket O Lights is a Christmas light storage system designed by Benson that can contain a light accessory kit and up to seven 100-bulb stings of lights, in one container, in separate spaces, plugs accessible and tangle free. The design, although simple in principle, makes the storage and reuse of stringed lights handy and hassle free. Bucket
O Lights is the first of Benson’s home helpers inventions to go public and
credit for that transition goes to a casual remark made by a neighbor in 1999,
“Alan had been using the buckets to store our lights since 1992 when we moved
to Galt and bought our first home,” said Marta Benson, Alan’s wife and
Co-Founder of BensTek. “In 1999 Alan was really sick so I decided I was going
to go out and start putting up the lights myself.
As I was standing there pulling string after string of lights easily and
quickly out of the buckets I remember thinking to myself how well this little
tidy thing Alan had done was working when a neighbor walked by and said, “Hey,
I didn’t know they sold those things by the bucket.” I just laughed and kept hanging the lights.
A few minutes later when I walked into the house, it hit me, I looked at
Alan, and I said, “Bucket O Lights”. Within a week we started pursuing this
idea.” As
a result of seeking a patent and design support for their idea the Benson’s
became a company, and thus the BensTek Company came to life in August,
“BensTek was founded in the year 2000 with the goal of developing and
marketing consumer products to make life easier,” said Benson.
“Our first product, the Bucket O Lights, decorative light storage
container, was quickly recognized as a superior solution for storing decorative
strings of lights and their accessories.” Benson,
who works for Caltrans as a Transportation Systems Software Engineer and his
wife, a Microbiologist in the Lodi Memorial Hospital Laboratory have set their
sights on marketing more of Alan’s inventions.
Marta is honest when she admits, “Alan is the tidy one, he has all
sorts of these inventions to keep things organized and useable. After the way
people are responding to this one I have started to look at some of the others
more closely.” Benson
agrees, “We have looked at things I have developed around the house before and
said, we could sell that. But we
just talked about it, now we’re doing it.” Doing
it, as Benson said, has turned out to include hours and hours of inter-net time
researching the ways and means of protecting the Benson claim to the invention
as well as an uncountable number of hours given to every detail in the personal
design of everything from bucket and accessory tray specs to the design of the
label itself. Both Benson’s agree
it was time well invested into the future of the BensTek Company and their two
young sons Christopher and Jacob, “It takes a lot of hours,” said Marta.
“Hours and hours on the inter-net trying to figure out what to do for
our patent and then how to do it right. Then
to figure out the materials we would need and then where to get them at the best
price. It’s been the best
education for something I will do again for future products so I’m glad to
have gone through it already.” Alan sees a tremendous savings in capital outlay in doing things himself, “By doing as much of the graphics and design work ourselves we’ve saved more than $100,000 already. One thing we’ve found out, none of this is cheap.” After
six months of enhancing, patenting and trade marking the product, manufacturing
of Bucket O Lights began in August in the Benson garage where 1,000 storage
containers have been assembled and stored. After a successful debut at the Gift
and Gourmet Show in Sacramento, in October, the Benson’s targeted retailers,
“We missed the buying season for most of the major retailers, this
year, it runs from January to July, but we got connected with Longs Drug Stores,
who’s managers make their own purchasing decisions, and got the containers
first in the Galt Longs and now in 13 Longs Drug Stores throughout the
valley,” said Benson. Sales of Bucket O Lights are taking off nicely and the Benson’s anticipate great success with retail chains next season, “This is a great gift idea that can be used by anyone who decorates with stringed lights, of any kind all year round,” said Benson.
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