Saturday, January 31, 2009

Featured Product - DipStix


DipStix is another one of our favorite local products. I met the owner, Mindy, a few years at a WBOC meeting when she was just getting started. In our business, the products we carry have to not only taste wonderful, but look great in our gifts too - and DipStix fit the bill perfectly.

DipStix are thick pretzel rods dipped in chocolate and rolled in yummy toppings like mini M&Ms, toffee, cashews, almonds or colored sprinkles. It's that salty-sweet combination again....you can't beat it.

We'll have samples in our store all this week. Stop by and try some - we guarantee you'll be hooked!

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Quote of the Day

"In the depth of winter, I finally found there was within me an invincible summer."



Albert Camus

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

About that movie...


Obviously, with the release date of "The Great Buck Howard" coming up in less that 2 months, we're beyond anxious to find out about our basket placement in the film. While googling for information, I've come across several reviews...mostly good, some bad, some on the fence. One of the reviews I read (a good one) was written by a Las Vegas reviewer. I noticed at the bottom of her page that she "answers all e-mails". My curiousity got the best of me, and I e-mailed her, explaining our connection with the film. I was pleasantly surprised when she actually sent a reply. She said she wished I had contacted her sooner, since some time had passed since she saw the "The Great Buck Howard". Unfortunately she didn't remember that detail of the movie, but said it made sense since "Buck always liked his celebrity gifts". She wished us the best of luck, and wanted me to let her know how it all turned out. She also said she would try to find the director's e-mail, and shortly after that she did send it to me.

I hesitated for a few days, thinking that I really didn't have enough nerve to bother the director of the movie about our silly baskets. But in the end, I fired off an e-mail asking him our big question. Curiosity got the best of me, and after all, what do we have to lose? The worst that could happen is that he will ignore me.

I haven't received a response as yet, and really don't expect to, but at least I can say I tried. You know, it just shouldn't be this hard!!!

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Monday, January 26, 2009

Monthly Basket Give Away at SGB


You may have noticed that we recently added a "Join our Subscriber List" box to our main website - it's at the bottom of every page. If you sign up, you'll receive our email newsletter featuring new gifts, closeouts and private sales for subscribers only. We promise not clog up your inbox with these - we send them out just 5-10 times per year, and it's easy to opt-out at any time.
For added incentive, we'll be giving away a gift basket to one lucky person from our subscriber list each month. The basket will be a minimum $50 value, and the winner will be chosen at random. If you're already on our subscriber list you don't have to do a thing - you're all set. If not, just enter your email address and click "GO". We'll be drawing our first winner at the end of this week - Good luck!

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Quote of the week

"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. '

Herm Albright(1876 - 1944)

10,000


We're amazed to note that we are fast-approaching the 10,000 mark on our visitor site-meter. Who-da thunk it when we started blogging about our "maybe movie" 2 1/2 years ago?

It's been fascinating to monitor our site-meter along the way, to see who's been on the blog, and when, from where, and how long they have stayed. Occasionally someone stopping in our shop tells us that they follow our blog, and we're always surprised. As we have recently picked up the pace again here, we're trying hard to keep it varied. Our primary focus is to write about anything interesting, funny, or newsworthy thats happening within our company....a peek behind the scenes.

But as we approach that 10,000 mark, we'd really like to hear from some of our visitors...especially those who stop by frequently. We welcome comments and questions.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Featured Product - NY Cherry Bliss


I mentioned in a recent post that we picked up a lot of new locally made products; our best resource turned out to be Nelson Farms marketing group, which is a program of Morrisville College. If you have a family recipe you're interested in bringing to market, Nelson Farms will help you with packaging and production, and their newly formed marketing group helps distribute the products to businesses like ours. We were able to add about a dozen new local products to our inventory with one visit to their shop in Cazenovia.

One of the more unique items is NY Cherry Bliss. It's a trail mix, and includes NY grown cherries marinated in Brotherhood Spiced Wine (Brotherhood winery is located in Washingtonville, NY and is the oldest winery in the United States), almonds, pecans and white chocolate chips. The flavor is sweet, but not overly so. It's turned out to be a big hit with our customers!

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Donation - On Point for College




This basket was a recent donation we did for On Point for College. The rich brown magazine rack is filled with all kinds of decadent chocolate and will be used for their upcoming 10th Anniversary dinner and silent auction.


I met the founder of On Point for College a few years ago when we were working on forming the original WISE Advisory Board. When Ginny Donohue stood up and explained what On Point does for local kids, I swear I got goosebumps.
This is what they do:

* They begin with One-on-one counseling - choosing a college, financial aid, and college applications
* Take students on College Visits
* Connect them with Mentors
* Help with clothing, bedding, backpacks and college supplies
* Offer Transportation to college
* Provide an Orientation workshop before the first day of college.
* To help bridge the intimidating gap between financial aid and college costs, they offer students “last dollar” grants for expenses such as enrollment deposits, textbooks, fees, housing etc. Since 1999, more than 1,242 “last dollar” grants, totaling more than $168,372, have helped On Point for College students get to college or stay in college.
* Follow up with Advocacy and support for students on college campuses (i.e. financial aid, diversity issues, tutoring services, getting along with roommates, etc.)
* Offer Transportation to and from college on vacations
This is the impact that On Point has had:
* 1,710 students were actively involved with On Point for College, more than 1,070 were enrolled in 140 colleges and universities, and 125 had earned college degrees.
* A total of 2,040 young adults, age 17-25 had received one-on-one admission counseling from the On Point for College staff. An additional 160 volunteers support the program on all levels, from mentoring to transportation to fundraising.
* More than 84 percent of On Point for College students remain in college from their freshman to sophomore years. This is well above the national average retention rate of 75 percent – and a phenomenal achievement for an at-risk student population.
* More than 85 percent of all funds raised go directly to student services.
* For every dollar in aid awarded to its students, On Point for College leverages an additional $33 in aid from federal, state and private sources.
It's really an amazing organization - you can stop by their website at http://www.onpointforcollege.org/ for more information.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

The Delivery Zone

Meet Sue - she's been our delivery person for several years now. She and her partner TJ own The Delivery Zone, an on-call courier service. Without them, we could never do what we do.

When we have a delivery (or 2 or 10) ready to go, we give Sue a call and she's there - usually within minutes. The thing we love most about Sue is how tenacious she is about making sure the gifts get to their intended recipient. Residential deliveries are often tricky - it sometimes takes a few visits and phone call or two to catch someone home to accept the gift, but she never gives up and always has a smile and a positive attitude. She treats the gifts as if she made them herself, and never misses an opportunity to help promote our business. She is definitely one of the keys to our success. Thank you Sue!!!!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration Day!

God bless President Barack Obama.

The White House has it's own blog!

Can you believe it???????

Go to: www.whitehouse.gov/blog

Times they are a changin'.......

Good News! (maybe....)

As I mentioned in a recent post, the movie that MIGHT include our gift baskets is due to be released soon (read "The Craziest Story" from July 2006). We've been trying to track down some still shots of our gifts in the movie for a while now, and I finally found Jeff Gross (formerly of Walden Media) online.
I asked him if our gifts actually made it into the film, and according to him they definitely made it onto the set, and were used in the original filming. BUT - the distributor of the movie requested that some scenes be re-shot, and Jeff never saw the final version. Sounds promising, but who knows?

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Funny....

Found this on Twitter this morning, via Janet Lee Johnson:

Loved the button I saw yesterday on the web: "I refuse to participate in a recession."

:-)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Featured Product - Speach's I'll Be Dipped chocolate covered potato chips


A few months ago we decided to increase our selection of locally made products. We've always done really well with Syracuse and CNY themed gifts and decided to see what else might be out there that we could use in our baskets. We'll be featuring some of our new favorites in upcoming blog posts.
One of the goodies we picked up is Speach's chocolate covered potato chips. I have to admit, these didn't even sound good to me at first, but one of my friends insisted that they were absolutely yummy and addicting - and was she ever right! Something about the salty-sweet combination....once you start eating them you can't stop.
We carry the 1/2 lb tub of milk chocolate covered chips (which we feature in some of our standard gifts), but you can also visit their store on Syracuse's north side to check out other varieties and sizes.

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Sunday, January 18, 2009

R.I.P.

We are saddened to report the recent death of our beloved company van, Old Red, at the ripe age of 14. She was a good old girl, a once-pretty shade of candy apple red, who worked hard and always went the extra mile for us.



Old Red made us both van-believers. We acquired her a few years ago for $1200 from a friend of mine, and she was worth her weight in Lindt Trufffles. She delivered gifts, and hauled supplies and furniture with ease. She even travelled down the Thruway to Batavia, through cold and snow at Christmas time for emergency boxes of shred. Sure, we had to patch her up a few times, but she always rallied and kept on going.


Last week we had to make the tough decision to put Old Red down. Julie's mechanic, Tony Masello told us that her prognosis was very poor...she was just too tired to go on. So regretfully we let her go. We sure will miss having her around.


Rest in peace, Old Red!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Still Alive!


Over the past 6 months our regular customers have asked Julie about my whereabouts and about what I've been up to. I actually am still alive and kicking, and wanted to jump in for a couple of paragraphs and do a little catching up.


The previously mentioned pesky knee was replaced last June, and since then I've enjoyed being semi-retired from the basket business (and being able to walk!) I'm still a full-time nurse at University Hospital, but at age 60, I am dead-set on taking some time for me.


Julie and I still "talk business" frequently, and confer on major business decisions, but she has been running the day-to-day show alone since June and I might add, doing a FABULOUS job! And this is as it should be...the business was originally Julie's creation. I jumped in early on to help back in 2001, and together we built up the business to where it is today. Since I've been out of the picture, she has taken the bull by the horns, so to speak, and fine-tuned our operation in many positive ways. We have 2 well-trained permanent staff whom we trust to handle things when Julie is busy or unavailable. As a result, she has more time to work on the things that improve and strenghthen our business, such as marketing, customer service, website operation....basically, all of the nuts and bolts of things.


All in all we're in a very good place business-wise, with many positive things happening, and the possible movie appearance is just frosting on the cake! It's an exciting time for both of us.


Do I miss the business? Of course I do! I really miss the everyday time I had with my daughter. And when I jumped in to help out over the holidays, there were lots of hugs from old friends and customers.


The Syracuse Gift Basket Company will always be my retirement job of choice, but in the meantime, I am kicking back and living a little. And marveling at the great things Julie is doing with our business!

New pics coming soon!

We had photo shoot this morning with our favorite photographer, Laura Brazak. Valentine's Day gifts and lots of other new designs will be up on the website soon.....stay tuned.

Custom Gift Basket - Bridal Show Give Away

One of our long time corporate clients, The Genesee Grande Hotel, recently brought in some beautiful items (wine, wine glasses, chocolates, a hotel gift certificate, an inspirational plaque, and a handsome chocolate brown chest) for us to create a gift to raffle off at a recent bridal show.

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Thursday, January 15, 2009

Don't be one of the sheeple





At SGB we always comment on how different our busy holiday season is from year to year. Some years everyone orders early, some years we're hit with an avalanche of orders at the last minute. Sometimes we sell tons of gift baskets with a local theme, and others hardly at all. I was really encouraged that this holiday season Central New York products were far and away what we sold the most of. It seemed like everyone was acutely aware of the difficult economic situation and decided to circle the wagons and support local businesses. It IS important, and as a small business owner nobody understands this better than me.


I am always baffled (and I've posted on this topic before) that with all the outstanding local businesses we have in this area that people are still lined up like sheep at national chain restaurants and stores to spend their hard earned money on a mediocre product and ambivalant service. Stella's vs. Denny's, Boom Babies vs. H & M, Joey's vs. Olive Garden, Sweet on Chocolate vs. Fanny Farmer, Sound Garden vs. Best Buy.....the list goes on. I guess it's because you really have to think about what you're doing if you want to break those habits. The mall, the chain restaurants - they are the easy, default answer. You don't have to think too hard. And I admit, sometimes I really don't want to think too hard.


Since becoming a small business owner myself, I have made a real effort to think about my choices and the impact they make. Recently I took it one step further - I switched from my big, impersonal regional bank (to whom I was paying a fortune in bank fees, BTW) to a very small, grassroots, Syracuse based (okay, Syracuse ONLY) credit union - Cooperative Federal. Now, it doesn't look look like any bank you've ever seen before. It's teeny-tiny. It has no drive through and no parking. But - they are super friendly, very accomodating and guess what? All the money really stays in Syracuse. They help people buy their first houses and local businesses get off the ground. With my old bank, I felt like whenever I asked something of them the answer was "no" or "it's going to cost you $30". At the credit union, the attitude is, "What can we do to help you?" Refreshing.

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Custom Gift Basket - Muffin Magic

This custom gift was a personal one. My niece Samantha LOVES to cook - how many 10 year old kids ask for a food processor for Christmas? And she loves the color pink. So, I found this cute muffin cookbook, and paired it up with some good Calphalon muffin pans, and pink (a portion of the proceeds go to breast cancer research), mixing bowls and utensils. It was a big hit!

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Custom Gift Basket - The Snow Leopard

Just before Christmas, one of our corporate clients asked that we create a gift with a snow leopard theme, for The Snow Leopard Soiree fundraiser at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. I must admit I was a little stumped on this one - I wasn't too sure of what a snow leopard actually looked like. Luckily, Laura's daughter Grace was able to track one down for us along with a couple of books. Voila!

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Monday, January 12, 2009

New year, new look


Do you make New Year's resolutions? Are you vowing to lose 20 lbs, quit smoking, break bad habits? Every year at this time I resolve to make Syracuse Gift Basket BETTER - I retool it. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. By the middle of January we've all recovered from our crazy Christmas season, and all the figures and feedback are in so we can assess what's happening with the company. Call me crazy, but I find it therapeutic to throw everything up in the air once a year and see where it lands.

(Speaking of the Christmas season, we have been asked a lot in the last couple of weeks how we did. With all the doom and gloom in the media right now about the shaky economy, friends, customers and business acquaintances are curious about how we made out. I mean let's face it - gift baskets are more of a luxury item than a necessity. But, we actually managed to maintain almost exactly what we did in 2007. Any other year I'd be a little upset about that....but all things considered, I'm pretty pleased. I was fully expecting to see a significant drop. But I digress...)

One of the nice things about the space we currently occupy is how flexible it is. In the 4 1/2 years we've been here, we've changed our configuration many times. When we moved here, we used the bulk of our space for the public "storefront" area, and less for production. Then we started seeing a trend of more and more of business coming in over the Internet. At one point we were toying with the idea of moving to an Internet only business model and moving the business to a warehouse, so we made our showroom area much smaller and increased our work space.

But, things are always changing....and over the last year we've noticed a big increase our foot traffic. I would still hesitate to call us a true "retail" store (most of our business still comes in over the Internet and by phone), but more and more people are stopping in to check us out and to grab a gift on the way to the hospital or a business meeting. So, we've changed things around yet again...kind of a hybrid of our original plan and our most recent layout. We've increased the display space, but kept some of the extra production area we added. For our customers, it means we are able to have a much bigger selection of our standard gifts made and ready to go. If you're in the neighborhood, please stop in and say hello (FYI - we've been known to have gourmet chocolates or cookies out as samples....not that we're trying to bribe you :-).

Friday, January 02, 2009

A release date - FINALLY!

After 2 1/2 years, "our" movie finally has a release date - March 20, 2009! Yay!

Will it actually get released this time? Did our baskets make the cut? More importantly, will the delivery person be wearing one of the aprons with our name on it? Only time will tell.

Truth be told, most of the excitement has completely worn off....it's more curiousity at this point. We did find a trailer for the movie on YouTube, check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7LQi6GMhJk

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