Archives: News
Anabel’s Offers Unique Gifts
Lexington, NC – Uptown Lexington has gained a new gift shop, Anabel’s Boutique & Gift Shop, at 223-A S. Main St., which is two doors down from the Edward C. Smith Civic Center.
Joan Blevins, owner of the business, said she named the shop after her late mother, Allie Queen, who died in 2009.
“She loved to shop, and I believe this was a vision from her,” Blevins said.
“I wanted to offer a fun and unique shopping experience by offering things other stores don’t have,” she said, adding she also wanted to be part of the revitalization of downtown Lexington.
Google, Twitter Join ‘Small Business Saturday’ Movement
Following the success of last year’s Small Business Saturday, a number of online giants are teaming up to help local owners make this year’s event even more prosperous.
Facebook, Google and Twitter, among others, are joining with American Express, which founded Small Business Saturday, to offer a free toolkit designed to help small business owners get their cash registers ringing this holiday season.
Held last year for the first time, Small Business Saturday – which falls on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend – is a national initiative encouraging consumers to shop at smal
Heart ‘n’ Home Reopens a Little Less Country
Pocomoke City, MD – Brian Jones says if you’ve been inside one country store, you’ve seen them all. And that’s what he and his wife are trying to avoid with the re-opening of Heart ‘n’ Home in Pocomoke City.
“It’s a gift store, and everything you want from A to Z, hopefully we’ll have,” he said.
Uptick in Small Business Optimism First in Six Months
Chicago, IL – Open boxes of Halloween and holiday decorations are strewn on the counters and floors at the Confection Connection Too!, 316 S. Dearborn St., as owner Gail Goodman prepares for the kickoff to her holiday season.
Appletree Cottage Marks One-year Anniversary
North Hampton, NH – From the outside Appletree Cottage Antiques & Home does not appear particularly spacious in the small red building it is housed in. Yet once you enter the number of antiques, home furnishings and random odds and ends, it appears endless.
The shock that customers feel when entering the surprisingly large venue is something that owner Anne Mikolaities hears about a lot. An antiques dealer of 15 years, Mikolaities decided to open her own location September 2010, and has found a loyal customer base already.
“We’ve had a really good year,” she said.
25 Years Of Partridge Tree Gifts
Danvers, MA – Regular shoppers at Partridge Tree Gift Shop know Jackie Fiandaca as the friendly and competent face behind the counter. After all, Fiandaca has been running the exclusive little gift shop on the corner of Elm and High Street for the past 13 years.
What many would be surprised to learn, is that Fiandaca is not the owner. Joanne McMahon, who is originally from Buffalo, NY, opened Partridge Tree Gift Shop in 1986. This year the gift shop is set to celebrate its 25 year anniversary next month.
Downtown Gets a New Candy Shop, Just In Time for Sweetest Day
Rochester, MI – There’s having a passion for something….. and then there’s the Ziggy mold.
“As a kid, instead of bringing in cupcakes to school as my birthday treat, I would home-make and bring in chocolate suckers,” said Lori Capitani, chocolatier and co-owner of the new Capies Candies in downtown Rochester. “In fact, I still have my Ziggy mold.”
While Ziggy may still hold a soft spot in Lori’s heart, the small, bald and trouserless comic strip icon hasn’t made an appearance on the shelves of the new Capies Candies location on East Street — yet.
Visitor Center Gift Shop Kicks off American Craft Week Today
Rome, GA – The Rome-Floyd Visitor Center and the Last Stop Gift Shop will celebrate American Craft Week beginning today by highlighting local artists, authors and jewelry makers.
Digs Studio Settles Into New Kingfield Digs
Kingfield, MN – Imagine if you could physically walk into Etsy: handmade pillows and jewelry in one corner, jars of vintage buttons in another, supplies for knitting your own scarves and sweaters along the back wall.
That’s a bit of the feeling you get walking into Digs Studio, a new addition to Kingfield.
When Linda Schneewind packed up her shop in Northfield after a decade-long tenure and reopened at the corner of 38th and Grand, she took the opportunity to tweak the gift and craft shop’s collection.
Sisters are Homing in on Homebird Furniture Store Success
Cheadle Hulme, UK – Sibling entrepreneurs Miri Templeton and Darrell Whittaker are very much at home in the furniture business.
Homebird, their interiors and gift boutique in Wilmslow, has been so successful that the sisters have now opened their second store in Station Road, Cheadle Hulme.
The shops sell everything from oak and French furniture to candles, planters, greeting cards and jewellery,
Ashby’s Agates: The Adventure of Crafting Jewelry that ‘Rocks’
Westminster, MD – Brian Ashby has been collecting rocks with his family ever since he could walk. His family traveled the country on extended summer trips often stopping in Redmond, Oregon to visit his Great Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Uhlan and their treasured rock shop, Ashby’s Agates.
According to letters found in recent years, Brian’s great Aunt and Uncle began trading and selling rocks all from all over the world in the 1950’s and opened their shop in the early 1960’s.
American Express Open Provides Free Marketing Tools to New York’s Smaller Businesses
NY – For small business owners short on cash for holiday marketing, help is on the way.
American Express Open is offering a goody bag full of freebie digital marketing tools as it ramps up for Small Business Saturday.
The financial services giant is hoping to outdo itself as it gets ready for the second year of Small Business Saturday, a campaign aimed at turning the Saturday after Thanksgiving into a shopping bonanza for small stores. This year the small biz retail-fest falls on Nov.
The Sweet Life
Buffalo, NY – Life is sweet for sisters Maggie Guerriero and Anna Hartog, the new owners of Park Edge Sweet Shoppe, which reopened its doors Friday in South Buffalo. The sisters recently purchased the candy store that dates back to 1948 with the hopes of keeping it what it has been since its establishment: a friendly, neighborhood family business.
Guerriero and Hartog are the third familial proprietors of Park Edge, and the shop’s former owners have always made sure their successors would keep it family-owned and operated.
Holidays in Full Swing at Harbor Sweets Shop
Salem, MA – Chocolate, October, and Salem might bring to mind Halloween for most. But for Harbor Sweets Handmade Chocolates of Salem, this time of year doesn’t mean trick or treats, but planning for winter holidays.
That’s good news when jobs can be tough to find. During the shop’s peak production between now and December, nearly 100 employees will fill the red brick building on Leavitt Street in Salem as they prepare thousands of decadent chocolates for the holiday season.
Detroit Lakes Native Runs Sign and Gift Shop With His Mother-in-Law
Hawley, MN – For most men, working with your mother-in-law wouldn’t be the ideal situation.
But Shawn Qualley and Kathy Riedberger are more than making it work at Unique Designs, a Hawley gift store the pair has run together since last year.
Qualley, a Detroit Lakes native, had worked for many years hand-painting signs for Six Flags theme parks on the East Coast. When he and Riedberger’s daughter moved back to the Hawley area a year ago, they decided to combine forces.
J’s Hallmark Partners with SnapRetail
Midwest City, OK – J’s Hallmark, a regional chain of 26 stores headquartered in Midwest City, OK, has announced a new partnership with SnapRetail that will enable them to easily communicate with their customers for upcoming holiday season.
“In today’s competitive marketplace, it is critical for our stores to be able to creatively connect with our customers and stay top of mind, particularly during the holiday season,” said Jay Orr, President of J’s Hallmark.
Gourmet Resources Return to Winter 2012 NYIGF
Following the well-received summer 2011 debut of theGourmet Housewares Show® at the New York International Gift Fair® (NYIGF®), the Fair’sTabletop & Housewares division will be redefined to showcase a concentration of gourmet housewares companies at the winter 2012 market.
Major brands, including Aladdin, Joseph Joseph, Mastrad and Oggi, which participated in the inaugural Gourmet Housewares Show at NYIGF in summer 2011, have committed to exhibit in the winter 2012 NYIGF in order to gain continued exposure to gift and home buyers.
Museum Announces Re-Opening of Gift Shop
Rome, GA – The Medallion Gift Shop, 305 Broad St. — inside the Rome Area History Museum — has a new manager and a new look.
The grand re-opening is today and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. today and 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday. The Greater Rome Chamber of Commerce will have a “ribbon cutting” ceremony at 11 a.m. at the museum gift shop.
Elizabeth O. Wooten, author, designer and former owner of Gifts and Goodies has taken over as the new Medallion Gift Shop manager.
Medina Senior Center Gift Shop Gets a Facelift
Medina, NY – The Gift Shop at the Senior Center in Medina has undergone some changes.
Established when the center opened in 1968, the Gift Shop was originally called the Craft Room, and housed a variety of crafted items.
“Times are changing and not so many people are doing crafts,” said Kelly Shaw, director of the Senior Center.
She and Shirley Amos, who was manager of the Twig Gift Shop at Medina Memorial Hospital for 19 years, decided it was time for a makeove
Marika Signs Laila Ali
Commerce, CA – Marika, a leading women’s activewear company, today announced that it has signed a multi-year endorsement deal with Laila Ali, one of the most recognizable female athlete’s and champions of health and fitness in the world. Specific details of the deal were not disclosed, but includes Ali serving as the label’s spokesperson across all marketing platforms. Ads will run in women’s, fashion, lifestyle, and fitness magazines and on websites beginning in Spring 2012. She will play a prominent role in Marika’s global retail and advertising campaigns.