Last Time We Wrote

Last time we wrote, we promised a conversation with Patty, the lady with the knack. So when I sat down to dinner with her the other night, I broached the subject. “Honey”, I said, “what do you think will be the next big thing in the retail gift scene? Those Japanese erasers you ordered? The Vera Bradley licensed luggage by Ricardo of Beverly Hills? Or how about those initialed wine glasses by the Mainstreet Collection?”

Patty paused over her salad, and gave me the skeptical look I’ve been receiving for over 30 years. “I’m not thinking about that right now”, she replied. “Why not?”, I whined impotently. She stared at me like I had been suddenly rendered witless (not to worry – I’ve seen that look before, too). “Because the economy’s in recession, and our customers are focused on value, basic needs, and customer service now, not whimsical new trends”.

So for this time, we’ll concentrate our attention on providing the more needful things, priced well and delivered with a smile. When times are tough, who wouldn’t go for some fluffy strawberry muffins? For just $9, Stonewall Kitchen’s packaged mix makes a dozen. Or how about soothing the stress with a triple milled soap set by Thymes? And while you’re at it, surround yourself with the calming light and subtle scent of flowering herbs courtesy of Root Candle, “the best candle in America”. And while you stretch luxuriantly in the tub, remember; better days – and rebate checks! – are on the way. Catch you next time!

Check out Some of these lines and more at GreetsAndTreats.com

Greets and Treats There to Help

NJ Woman Continues Katrina Relief Fund at Greets and Treats

(PRLEAP.COM) LIVINGSTON, NJ – Long after Hurricane Katrina struck land in New Orleans, one woman in New Jersey continues to collect donations to give to the hurricane relief fund. Robin Evans of Greets and Treats, a gift shop in Livingston, NJ, has raised nearly $2,500 in customer donations. She began collecting the day after the hurricane hit New Orleans, August 29, 2005.

“After Hurricane Katrina hit the Golf Coast region in 2005, we thought it might be nice to help the victims of the hurricane, “ says Evans, the store manager of Greets and Treats. “So we put a jar on the counter in which people could donate their spare change to the New Orleans Area Habitat For Humanity.”

“Our customers’ response was so positive, that we left the donation jar up and as a result, through the generosity of the Greets and Treats customers, nearly $2500 has been raised, ” says Evans. “We plan on leaving this jar in place, giving our customers further opportunity to donate to this most worthy cause, ”

Three years later, the devastation wrought by Katrina is no longer in the public spotlight, but Evans knows there are still people who need help. The New Orleans Area Habitat For Humanity is also very appreciative.

Peter Silverman, whose father owns Greets and Treats, is also very proud of Evans’ effort. “Robin is a great example of how big a difference one person can make in this world, “ says Silverman. “We are happy to be able to help coordinate our community’s effort to assist those in New Orleans.”

Greets and Treats is a family-owned gift shop located at 277 Eisenhower Parkway, in Livingston, NJ. Offering unique gifts and collectibles, they recently launched their e-commerce website at: http://www.greetsandtreats.com/

Contact: Peter Silverman
277 Eisenhower Parkway
Livingston NJ 07039
Phone: 973-740-8880
http://www.greetsandtreats.com/
sales@GreetsAndTreats.com

Personalized Wine Glasses

The newest craze seems to be the personalized wine glasses by Mainstreet. Customers online as well as in our store are going "crazy" over this new item. These wine glasses are a great gift that any hostess would love to receive. They are handpainted with a large swirly pink initial accented by polkadots.
You can choose most letters of the alphabet to personalize your wine glasses to make them more unique to give as gifts for moms, dads, grads ... or anyone who would enjoy owning their own unique and special wine gift!
These wine glasses make great wedding gifts to give out to your guests. They are also a unique birthday gift for that wine lover in the family. Great for Christmas, birthdays, and holidays.
I suggest you take a look at this item. Mainstreet also has personalized bottle toppers, luggage tags, and coasters. Very cool stuff!

check em out here if you like! http://www.greetsandtreats.com

The Knack

Perhaps the single most daunting challenge facing the gift industry is the problem of how to recognize the next “big thing”. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution to predicting a coming trend. The entertainment industry spends a small fortune on experts and focus groups, and yet, as a recent article in the Sunday N.Y. Times Magazine noted, the results are stubbornly inconclusive.

While study and knowledge are a prerequisite for effective gift buying – we do, after all, need to know what’s out there – preparation alone will not guarantee success. Indeed, there seems to me to be a significant but intangible factor in buying which, though I don’t normally subscribe to magical thinking, I can only describe as a mysterious sixth sense or knack. All I can tell you for sure is that yours truly doesn’t have it.

Fortunately, my wife Patty does. Somehow, she seems able to spot a fad or trend before it happens; as a result Greets and Treats was selling Webkinz and Crocs long before our competition. But perhaps the weirdest example of her gift came two or three years ago, when she somehow persuaded me to accompany her to the New York Gift Show at the Javits Center.

Now attending the show with Patty is an exhausting and humbling experience. She races from exhibit to exhibit and yet, though barely slowing down, is able to somehow take everything in. As I stumbled along behind her, longing for the next bathroom or coffee break, every booth, to my benighted eye, began to look the same. But suddenly, the treadmill stopped, as Patty paused to consider a display. “Larry”, she said, “what do you think of this as a kid’s item for the store?”

Perhaps it’s a guy thing, but if you can’t throw it, catch it, or eat it, I probably don’t know what to do with it. So these silly looking pens with even sillier names, strange cartoon faces, and rubbery strings of hair, made no sense to me at all. Of course, we were looking at the now famous Kookey Pens. Fortunately, Patty ignored my puzzled response and look of disgust, and placed a large order. Now, we can’t keep them in stock.

So the question now, I guess, is what’s next? Well, you’re obviously asking the wrong guy. Could it be the Candy Wrapper Bags we just brought in? Or the Switch Flops now appearing at Greets and Treats? Or how about a Giant Microbe? Sorry, but I just don’t know. So I guess you’ll have to stick around for our next blog, when we talk to Patty herself!

Check us out http://www.greetsandtreats.com/