A New Year, a New Look
We redesigned our pages for the same reasons that you update your stores.
Quinn Halford -- Gifts & Decorative Accessories, 2/1/2002
Welcome to the new Gifts & Dec. Well, it's not entirely new. We continue to bring you the most comprehensive coverage of product trends, industry news, trade show information, advice from the experts, and feature articles of any gift industry publication. What is new is the packaging. We redesigned our pages for the same reasons that you update your stores: to give customers a fresh perspective on all that is being offered.
To begin with, we changed the typefaces to make reading our pages easier on the eyes. Second, we increased the size of the graphics and artwork for a more arresting impact. Our On Trend pages are more contemporary, our Columnist pages are more businesslike, and our Show Preview pages are more user-friendly. To make room for these changes, we reduced Showroom News coverage to coincide with the major semiannual markets in each city, and augmented our Industry News coverage with a weekly electronic publication, Gifts & Dec Direct. If you haven't yet subscribed to Direct, you can do so — free of charge — at www.GiftsandDec.com.
Changes such as these are just part of the Gifts & Dec mission to continually provide our subscribers and advertisers with the best information vehicles in the industry.
Retailer excellenceLast year Gifts & Dec celebrated the 50th anniversary of its Merchandising Achievement Awards. Beginning with the 51st year, we changed the name of the competition to better reflect what the awards are all about. They are now the Retailer Excellence Awards. It's the same competition with the same rules and the same prestige. Finalists will receive a beautiful crystal trophy and have their winning entry featured in the magazine. But you have to enter to win, and entries are due by April 19, 2002. Details can be found on page 118.
Excellent retailersOne of our most popular features falls on the last page of every issue: "We Asked … You Answered." This month, we introduce four new retailers, and ask them, "How did you get started in retailing?" According to their stories, the route to retailing success is not through Harvard's business school, but via the school of hard knocks. This is one issue you may want to start reading from the back.
