Hammacher Schlemmer to Open Store on Rodeo Drive

Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, known worldwide for its trendy shops, will get a new tenant soon: Hammacher Schlemmer, a store that is as unique as its name.

Hammacher Schlemmer, best known for its Manhattan flagship store on 57th Street, specializes in selling unique gadgets and household devices such as a $289.50 remote control car starter, a $24.95 electric ice cream scoop that preheats to 248 degrees and a $99.95 bathroom scale that announces your weight “in a clear, digitalized voice” and tells you how much you’ve gained or lost since the last weighing.

The company said Thursday that it signed a lease for its first California store in Beverly Hills, which is scheduled to open in August. “Beverly Hills is one of the most important retailing areas in the world,” said Richard W. Tinberg, president of the store, which was established in 1848 as a hardware store in the Bowery section of New York.

The store will display the newest and most unusual products from Hammacher Schlemmer’s main store in Manhattan, which stocks about 2,000 items. The chain also publishes a catalogue nine times a year and operates a store in Chicago, where the company is headquartered.

The chain has had a series of owners, including Gulf & Western Industries, which sold it in 1980 to businessman and philanthropist J. Roderick MacArthur. Upon his death in 1984, ownership was transferred to his heirs.