Special Gifts Section

Country-Themed Merchandise (From page 34) displays. I also work on displays myself along with a co-worker, we’re always trying to keep things looking fresh and interesting.” As far as online media goes, she said, “We do regular posting online to our website as well as to Facebook and Instagram.” While the store does not offer tableware sets, they do well with pottery mugs. “They come in a wide range of colors, blue and green, orange with a turquoise rim, and they make a lovely set.” The store also does well with gift sets of wine tumblers in bright colors that feature the Luckenbach name. Locally made food items are also strong sellers at the store including Luckenbach coffees. “Books about the local area also feature the region and are popular as gifts; and books about musicians are popular gifts too,” she said. And with music a big part of the location’s heritage, “Guitar picks are also a big gift item,” White added. The store was originally a trading post that began in 1849; its music credentials came in the more recent past, with Jerry Jeff Walker recording in the store’s adjoining dance hall in 1973.

Among the many gift items offered at Orange Patch Too, in Mesa, Ariz., Buyer Michelle Smith said that “anything with a roadrunner does well for us.” The bird is available both as collectible figures and as on an image on everything from placemats to towels. But placemat sets are primarily seasonally themed at the family-owned store, however. Smith explained that “This time of year, we have holiday placemats, and they do very well. In the spring, it will be florals and abstract patterns.” The store itself grew out of the founders’ decision to plant some 200 acres of citrus groves in the sunny location. “Because of the citrus around us, among the most popular gift items are anything to do with citrus products or orange blossoms,” Smith related. “One very popular gift item we have are orange blossom scented candles. We also do well with local jams, jellies, salsas, and orange blossom honey.” According to Smith, the best way to sell more of any of these items is by having strong in-store displays as well as an up-to-date website. “We do a mix of cross-merchandised themed displays, and categoryonly displays by section. Right now, we have a display of a variety of our kitchen items.” Rustic chic home décor items from picture frames and wall plaques to food and jewelry items are also featured on the store’s Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

And for Tallon Shreeve , owner of Coghill’s Store in Nenana, Alaska, his most popular regional gift items include “reindeer hides, tea towels and hot pads depicting local animals such as bears and moose.” The store also sells dreamcatchers, fur trappers’ hats, and regionally themed T-shirts as gifts, as well as gift cards and note cards, while also offering grocery items and snacks. “We have one aisle that is specifically for gift items, we don’t do anything special in terms of displaying them, but they are easy to find. Of everything that I sell in that category, I would say far and away the reindeer hides do the best” as home décor gifts.

All in all, across the nation, country stores offer a wide range of regional gifts that appeal to travelers, locals, and for some stores, online shoppers as well. In short, staying local is what country giftware is all about. ❖

The Most Popular Animals Depicted on Gifts

Animals are popular figures at country stores.

At the Luckenbach Texas General Store in Luckenbach, Store Clerk Briahna White, speaking for General Manager Linda Goldsmith, said, “We have popular tea towels with chickens on them, hand painted bags with horses, handkerchiefs with horses, and armadillo and rooster shirts.” Asked to pick just one animal as the most popular, horses may just win the race.

At the Fredericksburg General

Store in Fredericksburg, Manager Angela Maldonado described her best-selling animal-themed items as armadillo ornaments and shot glasses, long horn cattle wall hangings, and long horn ornaments.

For Tallon Shreeve, owner of Coghill’s Store in Nenana, Alaska, his most popular depicted animals are “moose, bear, and wolf. That goes both for decorative figures and printed animal images on our towels and hot pads.”

Jo Hayden, owner of The

Old Country Store and Museum in Moultonborough, N.H., said figures of moose, bears, and loons are her primary animal-themed items.

In Mesa, Ariz., at Orange Patch Too, Buyer Michelle Smith said her top-selling animal items are “Cardinals, quails, and roadrunners. Roadrunners are big for us. We have carved figures, as well as having the animals on placemats.” ❖