EDIBLE GIFTS Food for Thought Tips and Advice for Increasing Edible Gift Sales at Hospital Gift Shops

By Corrie Pelc

Traditionally, hospital gift stores are known as a place to pick up a stuffed animal, balloon, or flower bouquet for a patient you may be visiting. However, today’s hospital gift shops offer much more to accommodate not only people coming in to the hospital, but employees who depend on the shop as a place they can quickly pick up items for themselves or as presents.

Edible gifts continue to be an expanding area for hospital gift shops. From locally-sourced baked goods and candies, to specialty mixes, to made-to-order gift baskets, hospital gift shops around the country are increasing their sales through some good eats.

Focus on Local

Over at Cornerstone Gifts at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., candies from local Nebraska candy manufacturer Bakers Candies sell very well in its about 1,100-square-foot shop, said Kelly Dinoff , retail lead for CornerStone Gifts.

Bakers Candies is known for their chocolate meltaways, which Dinoff said are chocolate candies in different flavors, such as milk chocolate, dark chocolate orange, milk chocolate caramel, and chocolate mint.

“Most of the boxes of candy are assorted, but we also sell bags of the individual flavors,” Dinoff said. “(And) we sell them separate – they’re like 35 cents for one. And those sell like crazy if people just want a tiny bit of chocolate.”

The gift shop at Concord Hospital in Concord, N.H., also focuses on local for the edible gifts it sells in its 942-square-foot store. “The gift shop sources local products to the New Hampshire and New England region area,’ explained Kourtney Soucy , director of pa- tient and family services at Concord Hospital.

Some of these locally-sourced edible gifts include a variety of baked goods including cookies, brownies, and coffee cakes; nostalgic chocolates from Granite State Candy; spicy marinades, sauces, and hot honeys from Spicy Shark; and Baci Chocolate, which offers unique candy gifts like chocolate pizzas and gigantic peanut butter bars.

“We offer quite a variety of high-quality chocolates from a bunch of different vendors ... and in all honesty,