The Great Gift Hunt
People ask me all the time where I source things, but recently I received two of the highest compliments from two very different customers on the same day. One was a woman infinitely cooler than myself, effortlessly chic. The other was a grandfather in his 60s, funny and outgoing - he lit up the room with his smile. They both said essentially the same thing: you’ve done a good job. That simple statement is so important to me because we strive to find something for everyone, and it felt like maybe we had hit the mark that day! And then other days, it feels like we’ve gone too broad, cast a net too wide. The gift-giving goal is ever-evolving.
Behind the scenes, we spend hours every single day scrolling through vendor platforms, sales rep portals, market previews, you name it. Some reps I’ve known since my early retail days. Some are new relationships we’ve built along the way. Add in the quarterly Atlanta Gift Market, where we can actually touch and see things in person, and it's basically a never-ending scavenger hunt.
But the truth? Most of the in-between time is spent sitting at a laptop, scrolling through thousands of products, looking for:
the thing we didn’t know we needed
the thing someone asked for yesterday
the thing that could arrive quickly during holidays
the thing that will make someone laugh or tear up
or the thing that fills that oddly specific gap on that oddly specific shelf
If you’ve been in the store lately, you know we’re… full.
Overflowing.
Borderline “we may have broken the laws of physics” full.
And yet every day I still feel like there’s one more thing out there we could bring in.
But here’s the real point of all this:
Erik and I love sourcing. Truly.
We love finding new brands, supporting local makers, and discovering fun little surprises. But we absolutely would not be doing this at the level we are without our reps. Period.
They’re the ones who keep us stocked with the things everyone wants - the Sweet Grace diffusers, the Cuddle + Kind dolls, the ORI bags, the Linnea candles, the Ink + Alloy earrings, the vast amount of Mary Square dresses - the brands I genuinely might not have known about otherwise. Trends have changed in the 12 years I stepped away from the industry. A lot. And while we still hold on to some throwback brands I’ll never part with (looking at you, Lollia, Lenny and Eva, and Waxing Poetic) and we love stumbling upon fresh finds online, our reps are the reason we have the right products at the right time… assuming we’re lucky enough to get the territory being new to the area.
Around here, it is a constant loop of discovering, refining, guessing, scrolling, scouting, and hoping we’ve found the very thing someone didn’t even know they needed.
And honestly? That’s the part I love most.
— The Jonquies Team