Feb 15, 2010

Hallmark store owner built biz on BeaniesBy Debra GruszeckiMyDesert.com

When Valentine’s Day rolls around, Rich Wentworth gets the stray phone calls at Hallmark Galleries.

“No, I’m not the Hallmark store,” he says with a voice one might describe as monochrome if it were embossed on a card.

“We sell golf carts,” he politely chides, before directing callers to Julie’s Hallmark stores.

For Wentworth, the calls are a seasonal calendar.

Besides Valentine’s Day, he directs phone traffic on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.

Julie Kathawa-Daft of Indio chuckled over the news.

“I should call and thank him,” the owner of Julie’s Hallmark stores said.

For Julie, these are the “precious moments” she draws from — snapshots of life set to hot sellers such as the Hallmark-issued “With love, Michael Bublé” CD.

Julie opened the first of three stores in the Coachella Valley when she was 19, and has grown her card-collecting empire with Snowbabies, Beanie Babies, insight, fortitude and her own handwritten touch.

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