Summer 2008

Baskets & Beyond By Kristen Hains

From Popsicle Sticks to Gift Baskets with Sue’s Gift Box & Sweet Shoppe

In 1994, Susan Blake opened a store in Bay Head, NJ, that sold primarily cards and gifts. Soon, she started grouping items in baskets and realized that she was onto something. “It didn’t take me too long to realize you have to sell a lot of $1.50 greeting cards to make what you make on a $50 basket,” she says. The owner of Sue’s Gift Box & Sweet Shoppe eventually found her niche creating gift baskets for individual and corporate clients.

As a child, Blake dreamed of having her own store in a barn on her father’s property. Back then, her inventory consisted of the items she made from popsicle sticks. A stint in her high school’s marketing and retail entrepreneurship program taught her that in order to succeed, she’d need something a little stronger than popsicle sticks. After graduating from college with a degree in accounting, Blake spent four years working for a large insurance company before making the jump to retail.

Four years into her business, Blake eliminated her stock of gift wrap and many of her greeting cards. With the advent of dollar stores, she realized she could not compete on price.

She began focusing on gift baskets, and says the majority of her work these days is for corporate clients who rarely step foot into her store. Her in-store customers are generally women between the ages of 30 and 60.

In the warm months, flower pots are popular containers for holding gift items. At Christmas, Blake says she’ll take serving pieces and fill them with her homemade, chocolate-covered pretzels, or butter cookies that she gets fresh from a local bakery.

Her biggest request came from a contractor who wanted to spend about $2,000 on his gift basket. “We ended up buying a few of those big sleighs, the ones you would put out on your front lawn,” Blake recalls. “They called right before Christmas, and I spent more running around tracking down items they wanted.” But because she ended up paying full retail for many of the items, it cut severely into her bottom line, a lesson she has since learned from.

At a time when many gift basket businesses are online, Blake says there are many advantages to having a brick and mortar store. “I love the interaction with my customers, and I love working in my store, doing displays, ordering merchandise, the hustle and bustle at Christmastime,” she says. “I also think I would lose out on a sales (if I was strictly Internet). We have a lot of customers who don’t want a $35 or up basket, they want something smaller, and we’re able to accommodate them.”

While she says offering lower price point baskets online might not be cost-effective, it works well in a brick-and-mortar shop. “If someone is in the store, I have no problem with taking small items, wrapping them together, tying a bow on them, and there you go: a pretty inexpensive gift,” she says.

She encourages gift shop owners to consider adding gift baskets. “Adding a gift basket department can be as simple as buying a roll of cellophane and some ribbon,” she says. “Wrap a teddy bear with a photo album for a new baby, put a couple Webkinz in a basket and wrap.”

They key is to lead your customers to the sale. “People can’t envision things together,” she says. “If you show them, many times they will buy your basket or package, resulting in a higher-dollar sale.”

Kristen Hains

Kristen Hains is a professional writer based in Traverse City, Michigan. A former retailer, she is now a regular contributor to Dance Retailer News magazine.