Apr 24, 2008

Meet GracieBy Johanna KingMySouthEnd.com

The 18 Union Park Street gift store Aunt Sadie’s is welcoming a new addition this summer: a new “store within a store” called Gracie Finn. The new store – Aunt Sadie’s co-owner Gary Briggs said think along the lines of a department in a retail giant such as Macy’s – will occupy about 600 square feet of renovated Aunt Sadie’s space, what had previously been the kids and baby section.

The new department will offer “a broad range of goods from goofy to sublime,” said Gracie Finn’s owner and long-time gift industry sales representative Martha Field, including an extensive selection of paper products, cards, potted plants and even fresh cut flowers in the summer months.

The new “department” will officially be open for business June 1, but Briggs said that customers wanting to check out the new products now will be able to see about 30 percent of the merchandise, which as steadily been coming in since the beginning of April.

“It’s a way for us to reinvent ourselves,” Briggs said of the new addition, adding that shoppers wanting to visit Gracie Finn will still come in the Aunt Sadie’s main entrance and receive Aunt Sadie’s bags when they check out. “In terms of shopping it will be seamless for the customers.”

In other Aunt Sadie’s news, the retailer is going green, with “Recycle Bag Thursdays,” a new incentive program to help their store and their customers make shopping a little more eco-friendly. The program works more or less as the title implies it does: shoppers who bring in Aunt Sadie’s bags from previous purchases on Thursdays will receive 10 percent off that day’s shopping trip.

“This is sort of the first thing we’ve done in the retail store that’s a recycling effort,” said Briggs, adding that the shop has long been an avid recycler on the wholesale end of the business. “We are constantly looking at ways we can [go green].”

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