Jul 10, 2007

Creating a collage of art and commerce; Greeting card and gift distributor spreads goods across the countryBy David FisherBendBulletin.com

To look at the exterior, you’d think that Tanya Murren’s Collage shop in Tumalo is just a little nook of a gift and greeting card store, a bit off the beaten path for tourists and probably starving for business.

The shop is barely noticeable, stuck in a long building across the street from Tumalo’s El Caporal restaurant.

A perpetual “20 percent off” sign sits out front.

Step inside, though, and poke around a bit, and it quickly becomes apparent that this is no ordinary little store.

Behind a pair of Dutch doors in the tidy little card shop stands a room lined with inventory racks, stacked with cards of all descriptions.

Airport-style clocks on the wall in Murren’s office check the times in Bend, Denver, Chicago, New York and Paris.

A pair of U.S. maps are dotted with cards. One shows the location of each of Collage’s 60 to 70 regional sales reps. The other shows the location of the 14 artisans who supply the company with the stock of greeting cards it sells from Maine to San Diego in the United States and, in some cases, internationally.

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