Country-Themed Merchandise

Country Giftware at Country Stores

By Genie Davis

At country stores from Alaska to New Hampshire, gift merchandise is a strong seller. With many stores long-standing in their communities, each store features unique items with a regional spin; most top sellers reflect the heritage or specific interest of those communities as well, while not necessarily representing the traditional idea of country-themed merchandise.

Jo Hayden , owner of The Old Country Store and Museum in Moultonborough, N.H., said her top sellers include “lots of wrought iron, including hardware” in her approximately 5,000-square-foot store. She also sells many kitchen items as gifts. She believes the best way to sell these items at her “old-fashioned country store” is by category. “We have different sections in the store that feature different items, the hardware in one area, kitchen merchandise in another. That makes it easier for people to find what they want here. We are not a contemporary store with themed display tables.” And speaking of themes, themed table settings are not a trend at her store. She notes that “We do sell a lot of mugs though, as well as towels.” Edible gifts are very popular at the store as well including “jams, jellies, molasses, and candies.” The store ships some of these daily as well as offering them for retail in the shop. The Old Country Store is among the oldest in the nation, having been in existence for 228 years, and is well known for its selection of food gift items.

“We have different sections in the store that feature different items, the hardware in one area, kitchen merchandise in another. That makes it easier for people to find what they want here. We are not a contemporary store with themed display tables.” naments.” An even bigger seller at the store than Texas themed gifts however are items from Germany, Maldonado stresses. The town of Fredericksburg was founded by German immigrants in 1845, and the heritage of the region makes everything from aprons to trivets imported from Germany big sellers, she said. Mugs with an imprint of the state of Texas are also popular. Like Hayden, Maldonado said that the amount of merchandise the store contains, and the wide variety of items makes it best to display items available in the store by specific areas of the store. “We have a vintage section, a German section, an Elvis section, that type of thing. That’s what works best for us so that people know where to find what they are looking for.”

- Jo Hayden, The Old Country Store and Museum, Moultonborough, N.H.

At the Fredericksburg General Store in Fredericksburg, Texas, Manager Angela Maldonado described her best-selling regional gifts as including “vintage toys such as wooden replica guns, Long Horn cattle wall hangings, decorative tea towels and oven mitts with Texas blue bonnets on them. We also have armadillo plush animals, and shot glasses, as well as decorative or-

Also in Texas, at the Luckenbach General Store in the tiny town of Luckenbach, Store Clerk Briahna White , speaking for General Manager Linda Goldsmith , said her best-selling country themed items include name-dropped merchandise from domino sets to mugs. The store also does well with animal-themed tea towels and small batch local soaps, with scents like Magnolia Texas Cactus. Unlike Maldonado and Hayden, White said the store does extensive displays and social media. “We have someone who comes in to do merchandising for us regularly, and we create themed displays and cross-merchandised

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