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Connecticut Connections
The gift guide that's 100-percent Nutmeg-friendly
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Business New Haven
12/10/2001
By: Susan Cornell
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You need to find unique gifts for associates, clients, and your spouse. Of course, it's the holiday season, which is synonymous with cramming for the test the night before the exam. Therefore, following the “KISS” principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid), we limited our suggestion list to five categories that can help you to tackle the shopping task efficiently and expeditiously.
The first criterion was to ferret out sources for memorable, upscale gifts that will keep you from being referred to as the infamous Grinch. The second criterion was to list gift ideas with a Connecticut connection, meaning that the companies from which they come are linked in some way to Connecticut. So, you're not really spending more money on holiday gifts - you're investing in our own state's economy.
So as to play fair and not to influence your decision, the potential gift ideas are listed in alphabetical order:
1. Chocolate - Godiva has traditionally been a godsend for gift-givers and the company is truly one now for the technically proficient executive. Not only is the Web site thorough yet simple, the company has successfully targeted the busy exec by allowing him or her to do such things as import addresses from Palm and Outlook contacts to a “Personal Address Book” to create shipping addresses. There is an area on the Web site dedicated to the “Corporate Collection,” where one can find a multitude of sumptuous choices. There are volume discounts starting with a merchandise total of $500 and custom packaging to “tastefully communicate your commitment, appreciation and sentiment.”
The Gift Reminder Service helps the rest of the year for special occasions such as anniversaries. This is definitely a great quick way to kill two birds by giving the holiday gift and simultaneously creating the marketing promotion.
Godiva Chocolatier is found on the Web at www.godiva.com or by telephone at 800-9-GODIVA. The corporate sales division, catalogue division, interactive sales (i.e., anything over the Internet) and customer service are in Old Saybrook. 2. Corporate Gift Services/Holiday Gift Baskets - There are at least a half-dozen local companies that create custom gift baskets, edible bouquets and/or corporate gifts. All of the following have online catalogues: Edible Arrangements, Cookie Bloomers, Corey's Artistic Fruit & Gourmet, Delightfully Yours and Custom Gift Solutions. Roughly half serve a nationwide distribution area while the others serve New Haven County (and perhaps Fairfield).
Cookie Bloomers, for example, offers about a dozen holiday choices from Nordic Christmas trees to menorahs. Prices range from $25 to $65. Cookie Bloomer's Web address is www.cookiebloomers.com. The telephone number is 1-800-437-SEND. Others, with Web addresses and phone numbers, include:
• Edible Arrangements: www.EdibleArrangements.com, 203-466-5101
• Corey's Artistic Fruit & Gourmet: www.coreysgifts.com, 203-756-7088
• Delightfully Yours Gifts & Baskets: www.dygifts.com, 203-838-5577
• Custom Gift Solutions: www.customgiftsolutions.com, 800-743-4044
3. Pewter - Woodbury Pewter is the nation's premier pewterer. Each piece is handcrafted using many of the same tools and techniques used by 18th- and 19th-century artisans. Its stock products include decorative accessories, awards, museum and antique reproductions. For the distinctive gift Woodbury makes “custom items, logos, holiday ornaments, ad specialty items and novelties individually designed and handcrafted to incorporate your own custom artwork or logo.” These include desk accessories, lapel pins, key rings, golf novelties, bag tags and ornaments. Its Web site at (www.woodburypewter.com) displays many of these custom and standard products. This is a classic gift that gives the sense and feel of New England while giving you the opportunity to advertise your company in an elegant manner. The telephone number is 800-648-2014.
4. Recycled Christmas Tree Ornaments - As they say at AKA Collectibles, “Connecticut Integrity can make just about anything out of just about anything.” So they make sun-catchers and ornaments made out of Christmas trees grown in - where else? - Connecticut. How does this mom-and-pop team manufacture fascinating products that may be even more fascinating when you hear that each item is $9.95?
Here's a quick take of their story: The husband half of the team, “Ken, sliced a few sections from the base of a dry Christmas tree. He sanded them smooth and passed them to [wife] Brenda. An artist sees things that the rest of us don't and the odd shaped growth rings of a Christmas tree are fuel for an artist's imagination. Brenda found a unique pattern where a branch had once grown. To her artist's eye it looked like smoke coming from a chimney. The sweep of the outer rings looked like evergreens swept by wind and snow. Obviously a cabin in the woods belonged in the middle. Now it was Ken's turn to surgically cut the disk with a scroll saw. With the addition of a bow and a hanging hook, the cabin in the woods ornament was born. Each ornament measures between three and five inches depending upon the tree. Each is obviously unique.”
The store is located in Waterbury inside the Connecticut Store. The company can also be found on the Internet through the Made In Connecticut Guild Web site, www.madeinct.com, which “unites Connecticut manufacturers, retailers and other businesses in the promotion of quality products and services made in Connecticut.” AKA Collectible's phone number is 800-474-6728.
5. Wine - For elegant, personalized engraved wine bottles containing a libation harvested in-state, go to Chamard Vineyards in Clinton. The vineyard's gift ideas are distinctive and tasteful inside and out. Also offered are customized gift baskets containing anything from wine soaps to wine books to tumbled marble coasters and specialty food items.
Purchasing a case of wine from the vineyard gets you an invite to Chamard's VIP reception in June. This is an open-barrel wine tasting which is fully catered. There, you can taste, meet with the owner (whose second job is chairman and chief executive of Tiffany & Co.), taste some more, and then drink up considerable wine knowledge from discussions with the master winemaker. Or, if you would like to support every wine maker on the Connecticut Wine Trail and give a sampling from around the state, there are seven other wineries from which to choose: McLaughlin, DiGrazia, Hopkins, Haight (Litchfield), Haight (Mystic), Stonington and Sharp Hill. Chamard is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Chamard, too, can be found on the Web at www.chamard.com. The phone number is 860-664-0299.
Whether you are shopping for valued employees or important clients, holiday gift-giving is an excellent way to maintain or strengthen business relationships or to catch the attention of a client-to-be. For these reasons industry observers say that three-quarters of all U.S. corporations give incentives, promotional products or gifts. This equates up to $15 billion in perks.
But bear in mind that many businesses have strict policies regarding gift-giving and -receiving. Policies can range from dictating the appropriate situations to those regarding the gift's value. Once you have checked your corporate policy (usually with the personnel department), consider your employees' or clients' tastes. Done properly, gift-giving can build employee morale and customer loyalty.
So, to strengthen your standing and support the state's economy, we suggest you “go all out” with easy yet elegant solutions. Of course, if you would rather purchase other famous (though less expensive) products with a Connecticut connection, try the Wiffle Ball (hometown: Shelton) or a few packets of Pez (made in Orange).
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