Gifts at Waterside Stores Capturing Coastal Magic with Special Merchandise

When it comes to quality gifts, coastal stores have an ocean of items to offer. And among them, in many cases, best-selling high-end gifts are often hand-crafted or have a local bent.

At Ta Dah in the Cedros Design District of Solana Beach, Calif., Owner Kim McGrath said her quality best-sellers include pillows, accessories, geodes, coral, and upscale kitchen and home accessories. The mother-daughter owned store offers unusual, sometimes one-of-a-kind gifts. “Our pillows are made of African mud cloth, and some are custom made. With kitchen items, we offer everything from cutting boards to serving platters and boards. We also do well with table-top books and succulent plants. I think these items all do rather well for us because we have a lot of clients who look for quality hand-crafted items. People come in here to find gifts at a good price point that are top quality items.” To find these items for her 2,400-square-foot store, McGrath relies on local and international vendors that she has carefully curated. “We have been doing this a long time, building up vendors for 15 years. We’ve traveled all over to find them.”

We have some locally made high-end candles with a beach and ocean theme, and we do well with pots and plants, including air plants. We carry ceramic and wood pots for our plants and those are popular, too,” she said. “These sell well for a reason – they are locally sourced and they are often very beachy and coastal themed which is perfect for our location.”

Maile relies on local suppliers and import items in her 3,000-square-foot shop when it comes to more expensive gift items. “Today I would say people mostly go online to find the items they carry, as well as cultivating personal relationships and attending trade shows.”

“We do a lot with handblown glass floats and wooden stems that attach to the float. Some people describe our stems as vases. Both floats and stems sell so well for us because they are entirely unique to the area.”

- Marie Best, Coastal Creations, Lincoln City, Ore.

According to Rachel Maile , co-owner of Coast Highway Trading in Encinitas, Calif., unusual merchandise in a variety of categories fills her shop with quality gift choices. The store’s philosophy is to encourage shoppers to enjoy the experience of interacting with her and her staff. She’s essentially created a bazaar of items that are both artisan-made and an international sampling of items.

“We are a co-op and we have 15 different vendors. Each section of our store has a theme or category. I would say that of our gift items, high-end jewelry does very well for us, both handmade and designer jewelry.

In Lincoln City, Ore., at Coastal Creations, Co-Owner Marie Best has a special focus when it comes to quality gifts, and it is a regional and special one. “We do a lot with handblown glass floats and wooden stems that attach to the float. Some people describe our stems as vases. Both floats and stems sell so well for us because they are entirely unique to the area.” She noted “It’s a Central Oregon Coast thing, the floats, and people just love them. We sell a lot of them. We buy the floats from local glass blowers and we buy them specifically for the stems that we make in-house. We sell local art also, and we find our merchandise from local glass blower connections and other artists. We carry art in all forms, including jewelry, painting, and wood sculptures, they’re are all in the store.”

Also located in Lincoln City, Carol Culbertson , Continued on page 54