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Christmas Gift Baskets Now Online! [ October 21st, 2008 ] Posted in » Christmas and Hanukkah, Gift Baskets, Halloween by James

Our elves have been hard at work this month and finally, we can announce that our holiday gift baskets are now online! This year, the selection is better than ever. We’ve added lots of new designs that reflect the fun associated with the holiday season with the value associated with a Grenville Station gift basket! Although Christmas comes early at GrenvilleStation.com, don’t forget that our Halloween gift baskets make great early holiday gifts. And our ghosts and goblins deserve much credit for those designs!

Designing Inexpensive Holiday Gifts

A very popular price point for Christmas gifts is the lower end price range. These gifts are great choices whether your budget is tight or your relationship with the recipient is not extremely close. A supplier who may not be instrumental to running your business but makes it a bit easier to operate. An aunt who you don’t see very often but like to remind you’re still thinking of her. A friend from college you see only every few years but enjoy that experience all the same. Inexpensive holiday gifts are great also if you need to send multiple corporate holiday thank you gifts.

July 29th, 2008 | Posted in » Christmas and Hanukkah by James
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Remaining 5 Reasons…

[continued from previous post]

5. Increased business. After Father’s Day we experience a bit of a lull for the summer. We make use of this time by completing other necessary tasks, such as taking inventory and redesigning existing baskets. Once autumn arrives, we have several holidays that we need to prepare for. We also find that the amount of orders we receive increase, largely due to the travelling season ending. Our customers are less likely to be able to visit their distant loved ones for occasions such as birthdays. That’s where we come in!

4. Thanksgiving. Turkey Day is one of my favourite holidays! I enjoy the family dinners, my Grandmother’s pumpkin pie and, most importantly, the Statutory Holiday! This is the time when most of our orders are for our fall designs. The baskets are usually sent as a “Thank you” for someone who has hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner, or sent between loved ones who unfortunately are not able to be together during the holidays.

3. Halloween. Arguably, one of the most exciting days of the year for kids! But for us, Halloween is a season, not just one day of fun. Designing our Halloween baskets is certainly some of the most fun we have here. We are literally kids in a candy story when the sweets start pouring into our design studio! Among the goodies are gummy tarantulas, candy mice and bloody eyeball gumballs. When it comes to candy, the grosser the better!

2. Christmas. You can’t help but be jolly when preparing for the holidays! Once the stock arrives and the new designs are online, we get to work pre-making the holiday orders. We need to start as early as possible to keep up with the hundreds of orders that pour in almost immediately. The Christmas season easily occupies about 4 or 5 months of the year for all of us here at Grenville Station. It may still be beautiful autumn weather outside, but we will be like busy little elves in Santa’s workshop! Ho ho ho!

1. Chocolate! Need we say more? Due to the aforementioned summer temperatures, we have to stop using chocolate in our designs by (usually) late spring. Normally we use a fair amount of chocolate, so we have to remove quite a few designs from the website. Instead we use chips, crackers, coffee/tea, and other such products that will be unaffected by the heat. Sure they’re tasty treats… but nothing as exciting as chocolate!

And there you have it, our Top Ten Reasons We Love Autumn!

July 22nd, 2008 | Posted in » Words and Then Some... by Tanya
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Top Ten Things to Look Forward to After Summer…

The summer season has officially begun! Sunny days, scorching temperatures and humid air. Ahh summertime in southern Ontario – it doesn’t last long, but it sure is beautiful! While everyone else is enjoying the weather, here at Grenville Station we’re doing what we do best: looking and planning ahead. Autumn is on the horizon and we have a lot of work to do before it gets here.

In anticipation of the season, we have put together a list of what we are looking forward to the most. There were a lot of excellent ideas and suggestions put forth from the staff and it was difficult to narrow it down to just ten!

10. New Fall Products. We are very excited when we receive our new fall stock. The products are usually new and exciting items that our Buyer has discovered. But they are always red, orange, yellow and brown! We then mix and match products and colours to make new designs. With such beautiful colours, the design possibilities are endless!

9. Fall Enhancements. In addition to our colourful new products, we also receive a wide array of fall enhancements, such as leaves, acorns and pine cones. The designers feel like kids again, when searching through the leaves for the perfect colours to use. These seasonal enhancements create a polished look in our new designs.

8. The First Snowfall. I can’t believe I just wrote that! There is something so peaceful and therapeutic about seeing the first flakes floating to the ground. It’s almost magical. As beautiful and peaceful as the first snowfall is, a week later I’m ready for spring! We all know what the first snowfall leads to right? Well we’ll get to that later…

7. Back To School. You know all you parents out there have been waiting for this one! After a long and frustrating summer, doing everything you can to keep the kids occupied and NOT fighting, it’s time for you to grow back all the hair you’ve pulled out! After dropping off the kids on the first day, you can see smiles form and happy dances begin! The Moms and Dads here in the office are certainly much happier and more relaxed.

6. Trade Shows. For the most part, this is where our new seasonal products are discovered. Our Buyer’s attend a handful of the largest shows in our area, on the hunt for tasty new treats with appealing packaging. Packaging is one of the top reasons we will carry a certain product. Since each product can actually be seen in the photograph when a customer is purchasing a gift basket, if the products don’t look appealing then neither do we. At the Trade Shows, there are literally hundreds of booths to visit, so it is a time consuming project. Their hard work pays off when they see how excited the design team gets over the new stock and the wonderful new designs that are quickly created!

The top 5…well, you’ll just have to wait until next time!

July 19th, 2008 | Posted in » Words and Then Some... by Tanya
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Christmas in July?

It’s Christmas in July! Okay it’s not… but it should be! In fact it’s a tradition that I think I’ll start in my household. I’ll get one of those blow-up palm trees and decorate it with leis and other flowers. The gifts will be much different than Christmas. There will be bathing suits, pool toys and water guns. There will be no poinsettias or mistletoe. In their place will be bouquets of vibrant coloured flowers. Dinner will be glazed ham and pineapples. Instead of setting out milk and cookies for Santa before the kids head to bed, we’ll set out fresh fruit and a pitcher (or two!) of margaritas! Hmm…I’m going to have to think of a way to keep the kids occupied while Mommy and Daddy sleep in!

July 14th, 2008 | Posted in » Observances & Events by Tanya
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Halloween…just around the corner?

Here it is, the 6th of July, and it’s a beautiful sunny 29 degree day (that’s 84 degrees for our American friends). I’m trying desperately to focus on business but the sound of my young daughter playing with one of her friends is providing a major distraction. One might be tempted to give up trying to work on such a fine day and simply join the kids for a popsicle, but I can’t. Halloween is a mere three months away and I’ve got plenty of planning to do!

July 6th, 2008 | Posted in » Observances & Events by Laurie
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A Baby Gift to Remember…

So many gifts these days are throwaways.  By throwaway, I mean the items in the basket are consummed or refuse.  The food is eaten, but the packaging and enhancements are tossed once the gift is ripped apart for it’s primary intention (e.g. chocolate for the tummy).  With baby baskets, it’s nice that a large percentage of these gifts contain items that are retained.  Keepsakes that can be cherished years later.  A rattle that sits on the bookshelf for display purposes - babies often get more than 1 so some can be stolen away for their remembrance value.  Another item that can kept away is plush animals.  A soft plush pig (Pretty in Pink baby gift basket) or a colourful plush puppy (Little Boy Blue baby basket) are two examples of designs that not only can provide immediate visual satisfaction but they can also provide lasting memories…if Mom can keep baby away from the pig and puppy!

July 2nd, 2008 | Posted in » Baby Gift Baskets, Gift Giving by James
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Baby Gift Basket Ideas

Our baby gift basket category has alot of variation to choose from.  There is the obvious gender specific ones - or neutral if unknown - but sometimes you have to select the gift based on the parents and your knowledge of them. Is dad a sports fan? Is mom thrilled with soft and cuddly? Knowing the parents makes life alot easier.  If your intention is to send a baby gift basket in toronto, you might consider our Raptor Rapture, or Budding Leaf, both professional sports team-themed baby gifts.  Variety in price is also important.  Gifts under $50 are suitable if the relationship is growing and not well established, but still important enough to acknowledge.  Gifts over $150 come into play when a major relationship-builder is needed.  The boss and his wife would come to mind.  A key ally in Human Resources.  A supplier who helps out with extended credit or a long term customer who contributes significantly to the bottom line.  Regardless of the price or theme, it’s important to identify key personal or business relationships and gift accordingly.

June 28th, 2008 | Posted in » Baby Gift Baskets by James
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Summer fun @ GrenvilleStation.com

Fathers’ Day has come and gone and the slow summer period is upon us.  Slow is a relative term.  Orders are still coming in for non-holiday events (birthday, new baby, anniversary, wedding, etc.) and our team has already started pre-planning the 2008 Christmas season.  You learn from past years what works and what doesn’t.  You decide on marketing strategies and inventory levels.  The fall CGTA trade show (in August) determines some major inventory concerns…it’s the circle of gift basket life!

June 23rd, 2008 | Posted in » Words and Then Some... by James
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Oh Baby They Grow Up So Fast…

I can’t believe my twin nephews are already 16 months old. It seems like yesterday they were playing with their plush puppies and wearing their embroidered bibs from the Dynamic Duo baby gift basket I bought them. The other night while my parents were babysitting, Baby Paul (the oldest by 29 minutes) somehow jumped his crib. He is the smaller of the two, his teeth came in later than his brother Baby Matthew and he started walking later than his brother…but he was the first to jump the crib!!! My parents just heard this BOOM and ran upstairs to see what had happened. There was Baby Paul just sitting on the floor of his room, staring at them as if nothing happened. Now my sister is all worried that one of them may jump the gate that is guarding the stairs. She says that one baby would be a breeze after having twin babies. When one would stop crying, the other would start. They seem to have been always hungry at the same time. Now they’re jumping things. Good luck to her.

Rich

June 14th, 2008 | Posted in » Baby Gift Baskets by James
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For those Dads who have heavy feet…

“You don’t truly understand something unless you can explain it to your ‘grandmother’”.  Einstein alledgedly said this.  I believe it holds true for most topics, including NASCAR racing.  I’ve asked several friends who claim to understand it but could not explain it to me.  At least not very well.  I think they just like to see cars driving fast.  Moving billboards, er, I mean race cars, driving at tops speeds until one guy (or girl) gets to waste a bottle of champagne getting their friends and family wet.  If your Dad loves NASCAR, make him your Crew Chief this Father’s Day!

June 10th, 2008 | Posted in » Father's Day by James
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