Fall 2020

Weathering the Storm By Debbie Eisele

Every gift store has faced challenges during the pandemic, but retail locations operating within a hospital system have definitely experienced operational issues many other independent store owners have not. Hospitals around the country limited visitor access to hospitals due to the virus and in some cases, no visitors were, and still are not, allowed. This situation resulted in a significant decrease in the number of shoppers buying merchandise from hospital gift shops.

We wanted to learn how some hospital systems handled the situation and were fortunate to interview Hospital Sisters Health System’s St. Vincent’s Gift Shop in Wisconsin and Ascension’s St. Vincent’s Hospital Gift Shop in Alabama.

HSHS ST. VINCENT GIFT SHOP

ASCENSION ST. VINCENT’S HOSPITAL GIFT SHOP

Debbie Eisele

Debbie Eisele is the former managing editor for Gift Shop Plus, Stationery Trends and a variety of special issue publications, including: The Guide, Holiday Shop, Celebrations & Occasions and Waterfront Living.