Awards Time and the Golden Circle

Of course, you know by the cover that this issue marks the beginning of our annual coverage of the Merchandising Achievement Awards. But did you know that it is also the 50th anniversary of the awards? Gifts & Dec presented the first awards at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1952, and we have been presenting them — almost 600 in total — every year since.

We instituted a few changes for this year's awards. First, the Store Design category is now divided into two parts: one for stores with annual sales of $1 million or more, and another for stores with annual sales of less than $1 million. We also introduced a Visual Merchandising category and moved the former Community Service category into Promotion. The results were impressive in that we received a much wider range of entries, as you'll see beginning with this issue.

Coverage of the finalists in Store Design starts on page 41. In the August issue we'll have coverage of the finalists in Promotion, and our Visual Merchandising finalists will be featured in the September issue.

Our 12 finalists, and the rest of the world, will find out who the Gold and Silver Award winners are at the gala dinner and awards presentation at The Plaza hotel on August 19. In honor of the 50th anniversary, we have created the Golden Circle of former winners of Gifts & Decorative Accessories' Merchandising Achievement Award, and are extending a special invitation to those award holders to be our guests at the dinner. Invitations have been mailed. We know who all 600 winners are, but we don't have addresses for everyone. So, if you are one of those award holders who hasn't received an invitation, and you would like to join us on August 19, please call me at (212) 519-7357 or e-mail me at qhalford@cahners.com. I'll make sure you receive your invitation.

For all others, tickets for the dinner ($125 per person) are now on sale, and you can reserve yours by calling Rachel Glasser at (212) 519-7361.

Enesco (breast cancer research), Applause (the U.S.S. Arizona memorial), and New Creative Enterprises (AIDS research). These are just a few of the companies in the gift industry that have chosen to support specific charities by donating a portion of the sale of certain products. It's called cause-related merchandising, and it works two ways. The charity gets funds and increased public awareness, and the manufacturer establishes a "social conscience" for itself in the minds of consumers, which helps to build brand awareness. Retailers get to benefit from cause-related merchandising too, as editor Meredith Schwartz writes in "Doing Well By Doing Good," on page 58.

For many years, we have featured gourmet foods on the pages of Gifts & Dec, and we would often drool over the descriptions of hand-dipped chocolates, oatmeal-and-raisin cookies, and saucy salsas. In the interests of providing our readers with as much product knowledge as possible, we decided to take matters in hand (actually, in mouth), and do a little taste testing.

For our first effort, we randomly chose five salsas and put six editors to ogling, sniffing, and tasting saucy concoctions of tomatoes, fruits, corn, peppers, cilantro, spices, and other ingredients. You'll find the results on page 138. All six editors have agreed to tackle cookies and chocolates in upcoming issues, but they are still undecided about mustards.

You will notice a new name on our masthead: Sarah Mandel, Senior Editor. The name is indeed new, but the person is the same. Sarah Krall became Sarah Mandel when she married Michael Mandel on May 27. Congratulations, Sarah.