Greetings Gazette Podcast Episode 2
Intro – Music, Printing Press & Voice Over (20 seconds)
Greetings from Los Angeles, California (30 seconds)
This is Rich MacGregor from Los Angeles. The weather is beautiful – sunny and about 72 degrees.
I’ve been in the Greeting Card and allied industries for nearly 50 years.
I studied business at Harvard Business School
Yes, it could be true to say that I’ve spent my whole life looking at Greeting Cards, Gift Bags and their display.
Greetings from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (30 seconds) – mostly cloud – rain – 9 degrees
22 Years experience in the greeting card industry plus degree in advertising
Referrals – filled out the form on greetingsgazette.com or emailed info@greetingsgazette.com
Paul Chase – 2 referrals (1 minute)
Kevin Howard – opening independent grocers in Newark, New Jersey – sells food, beer – liquor – wine & cigarettes – a grocery items & is also looking to sell greeting cards
Wilma Rogers – Toronto Canada – Opening gift & greeting card store for tourists. Sells gifts & novelty items, postcards, gift bags & greeting cards island
Rich MacGregor – 2 referrals (1 minute)
Hakeem Godly – Miami Beach Florida – buying Florist store & thinking about adding line of greeting cards
James Sands – Cleveland Ohio – wants to add discount greeting cards to his discount store offerings
Preview – news – stock market tips – retail reports
Greeting Card News
Paul Chase – greeting card news (2 minutes)
Growcery – Card Isle – white label for grocery stores
Progressive Grocer magazine
Rich MacGregor – greeting card news (2 minutes)
Hallmark layoffs – Kansas City Journal
Postal Service – upping price of stamps to 66 cents – FOX News
Paul Chase – stock market news (1 minutes)
Dollar Tree
Dollar Tree, Inc., is an American multi-price-point chain of discount variety stores. Headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, it is a Fortune 500 company and operates 15,115 stores throughout the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Canada. Its stores are supported by a nationwide logistics network of 24 distribution centers
DLTR – down 99 cents
$147.90
EPS – $7.15
PE Ratio – 20.69
Sponsor Ad InterGreet.com (1 minute)
A) Seasonal Updates & Reminders – Paul Chase
Father’s Day greeting cards (2 minutes)
USA/Canada is June Sunday June 18th
Third Sunday of June
100 million Units sold
There are 2 billion fathers in the world (75 million in the U.S.)
Gifts Beer, Socks, coffee, tool set, fishing pole, restaurants gift card, &, greeting cards
Put cards up on seasonal display
Lots of gift shops sell Father’s Day Cards
Retail Report
Paul Chase – Introduction (30 seconds)
Rich will be talking about his trip to Dollar Tree in Los Angeles California. They had very large discount Hallmark department.
Rich MacGregor – Dollar Tree stores Hallmark (5 minutes)
The Dollar Tree we visited in Los Angeles had a huge Hallmark Greeting Card Department – about half being 2 for $1, or 50 cents each, and the other half being priced at $1.
It was an attractive display – high profile – about 16 tiers high and it was well merchandised. Dollar Tree has over 15,000 stores throughout the USA – so they must move a lot of merchandise.
The thing that struck me immediately was the way they had blended the Spanish titles with the English. For example, they may have had 16 daughter cards but mixed in with them was about 3 or 4 Hija Cards. I felt this was very creative – I’d not seen this before. I put myself in the place of the average shopper – perhaps a Hispanic – and could see the benefits of having Spanish and English Anniversary Cards, or Sympathy, or Wedding – I liked the idea, and I will try it myself in the future to see how it works out.
Hallmark had all the seasons – Graduation, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day on display as well as the minor seasons of Admin Professional Day, Communion and others.
Now the cards themselves were obviously not all that exciting – after all they were made with severe price considerations – but I was impressed by them being printed in the USA – and they obviously filled a need. The 2 for $1 cards were pretty basic, but the $1 cards were big, bold and well-printed. There were 3 Brands in the range – all Hallmark of course. But Heartline for the 2 for $1, Expressions for the $1 cards and scattered among both ranges were their Christian line – Joyfully Yours, by Dayspring – a Hallmark subsidiary.
Now the Gift Bags were obviously not Hallmark – but a brand called Voila. I think this may be a brand owned by Dollar Tree or they could not sell all the different sizes of Gift Bags and Boxes for the flat price of $1.25. In addition, the Voila brand had all the Seasonal cards available – Mothers, Fathers and Graduation all on display with “hand-made” cards. These were in a different section of the store and displayed in cardboard displayers. These sell for $1 each. Again, I suspect its Dollar Tree’s own brand, or they could not sell these very attractive, hand-made cards for the very modest price of $1. I don’t know how Hallmark feels but I’d be very unhappy if a store I supplied put out a brand of “hand-made” seasonal cards in opposition to my cards. I expect Hallmark to have to do major crediting for the upcoming seasons.
After Thoughts
GCA – – Paul Chase – What are we going to do about retail theft?
Police need to be able to arrest shoplifters and DA needs to prosecute them. At the moment it’s catch& release or just let them steal. This country is falling apart. This way there will be more stores opening & many of them will carry greeting cards
Outro – summary – wrap up – e-mail address & website. (1 minute)
If you own a retail store & are interested in adding greeting cards to your store or…if you’re opening a new retail store visit greetsgazette.com & fill out form or email info@greetingsgazette.com
Thank you for listening and make sure you follow our podcast
