News

Canine cards fetch laughs, sales

Need to express a special sentiment to someone? Consider allowing Denali the dog to communicate on your behalf.

Madalyn Ruggiero, an Ohio-based freelance photographer whose work appears frequently in Metro Detroit publications, has launched a line of greeting cards featuring her golden retriever, Denali, in assorted outlandish costumes.

Twenty stores in five states now sell the cards emblazoned with images of the unflappable-looking dog in such guises as a nun, a Christmas present and an elderly woman. Read more...

Retailers Use Social Media To Spur Back-To-School Sales

More retailers are turning to social media to drum up business among back-to-school shoppers, according to recent research.

Social networking sites, virtual worlds, social shopping sites, visual search engines, interactive video, and widgets have emerged as key marketing platforms for the 2008 back-to-school shopping season, JupiterResearch reported. But while social media offers some marketing benefits, it may not increase online sales, Jupiter said.

"The back-to-school season has grown in importance for retailers and leads into the all important fourth quarter sales period," Patti Freeman Evans, research director and online retail analyst at Jupiter, said in a statement. "With the shaky economy expected to impact the amount of money consumers spend on back-to-school shopping, retailers are using social media to capture the attention of younger consumers." Read more...

Dutch Neck shop will perk you up

Hopewell -- Some area coffee lovers were beginning to think that quaint little Dutch Neck Village might not be the place to quench their thirst anymore.

The Perk and Pantry's doors were set to close, and manager Emily Heckman had begun liquidating the supplies. Sale of the gourmet food shop had fallen through, and with only weeks left before the lease ended in May, she was selling things off. Read more...

New candy shop opens on Waseca Avenue

Root beer barrels. Laffy Taffy. Candy Sticks. Fun dip. Bit-O-Honeys. Mary Janes. Lemon Heads. Sweet Lorraine’s.

Sweet Lorraine’s Candy Shoppe, a new store on Waseca Avenue, features locally-made gourmet chocolate products as well as classic penny candy. Read more...

Back to Cool

The inspirations come from Mongolia to Lake Massawippi to Montana, as in Hannah. The clothes are made around the globe.

But home base is Montreal for a fair number of companies supplying cool kids' wear for back to school.

The industry is surviving, if not robust, said Patrick Thomas, who ran the Children's Apparel Manufacturing Association until it was disbanded recently. "Those who have survived are good,'' he said. Read more...

Eatonton merchant sees green in red and black

Marlene Gordon is eagerly awaiting the start of the University of Georgia's football season Saturday.

But she won't be watching the game. She'll be selling Bulldog novelties to some of those making the pilgrimage up U.S. 129/441 to Athens.

Gordon owns Gordys Gifts in downtown Eatonton, a small shop at 101 Jefferson Ave. just north of the courthouse square. She has a variety of home decor items, wedding and baby gifts and jewelry, but she also stocks a lot of collegiate novelties. Read more...

Cashells: Trying to break out

Everyone likes getting cash, and Donna Fanning believes people will like it even more if the money comes tucked inside a Cashell.

The Cashell is Fanning's patent-pending, homespun alternative to gift cards and greeting cards.

Each Cashell is an eggshell that Fanning, a stay-at-home Woodbury mom, has emptied, sterilized and then hand painted and decorated in one of 40 designs. Read more...

Art born in Montana, made in China

Lincoln, Montana — Rick Rowley has gone a long way in his varied artistic and business career — half way around the world to China.

The 49-year-old Lincoln man splits his time in two-month stints between Montana and Xiamen, China, a bustling port and factory city of 2.6 million in southern China.

Rowley owns a factory making gift shop items, contracts with a foundry casting his bronze sculptures and even helps other companies find Chinese manufacturers. Read more...

Funk Times 2: In a pair of old homes, antique shop owners' quirky dreams come true

Choosing a business location ought to involve lots of market research. But don't tell Lynne Holland and Linda Nath that.

"Linda kept driving past it, and we'd always talked about having a shop," says Ms. Holland. "So we never looked at anything else. It was The One."

Last year, the pair opened Treasures in Thyme, a funky antiques/consignment/gift shop in a 1946 Sears kit house on Regis Avenue in Pleasant Hills. Read more...

Retailer Poggi Bonsi sees its wholesale efforts fall, but sales on the website are picking up

To hear the stories, you would think Keli DeRitis and Michelle Codd were running a travel company, not a Burien gift store with a quirky name.

The business partners and longtime friends are owners of Poggi Bonsi and they know your first question is: What the heck does that mean?

The store, pronounced “poe-jee bone-see” is named for an Italian town in Tuscany, and the origin of the name is one of many stories the owners have about their travels through Italy looking for unusual products. Read more...