Falling for Maple Flavor and Old-Fashioned Values (in time for back-to-school)

With a nephew and six nieces, Vintage Maple Loft owner Michelle Moore often thinks how she will compete with the allures of today's commercial age.   "I'd like to send them all back to school with loads of gifts and spending money to soften the blow of being back in the books, but it's not possible with business expenses, fewer sales and burned out bank accounts."  Like most small businesses, she says, "meeting expenses, while maintaining a high level of customer service is a necessity, a top priority."

So this year Ms. Moore says she'll give her young nieces and nephew some good old-fashioned "horse sense," instead.

"I want them to be responsible, respectful, independent and secure with who they are," says the 41 year old entrepreneur and writer.  "I want them to know they're thought of and loved even if times are tough right now.  Next year, I'll try my hand at [baking] homemade maple bread pudding or maple fudge!"

While preparing personal gift baskets with maple flavored toffee, peanuts, maple cream cookies and chocolates from her "shop" to help make going back to school a little less traumatic for the kids- she included a little message of encouragement for the new school year.  "With each passing year, things are going to get a little bit harder as they grow up,” she says.  I felt it was important to let them know they are not alone. 

Moore believes practical and positive messages are even more meaningful during stressful economic times.  "Sometimes self-esteem and sound advice are the most significant gifts adults can give to the young people in their lives.  It helps if they know they don't need lots of money to be noticed or to make themselves into a quality person; anybody can be prestigious if they have a good sense of self and high moral character.  Then they can be proud of who they are and not want to be like someone else at the expense of their own values."

But Ms. Moore says she prefers literary excerpts for her retail gift sets.  "I'm starting to find quotes or passages from books I enjoy to include in her gift crates.  I really get lost in historical novels!"

The maple idea was conceived out of the recent slowdown in corporate gift sales and a hunch that edible giveaways could prove more practical than other business gifts.  Moore has operated a home-based corporate gift and part-time promotional printing business for ten years.  Last year, practically all of her clients were in Real Estate and orders for advertising items weren't in high demand.  "The year began with a real boost for promotional product sales; but by year's end sales had slumped significantly.  One of my clients was forced to take a job as a retail store manager after failing to close one loan in almost a year.  She's an extremely knowledgeable mortgage broker and loan officer trainer, so I knew things were really getting rough."

"The thought of returning to the corporate world full time didn't really appeal to me at all," adds Moore, who also founded Chronic-Smiles.org.  “I needed to come up with something sensible and profitable, and that I could also be passionate about.  I wanted to elevate my corporate gift theme with gift sets that individuals could purchase -without pretentious prices, but still with executive-style quality and distinction."

Not being in the gourmet or maple business before hasn't stopped Moore, a former banker a bit.  “I only thought of maple syrup as something to spread on pancakes!  I didn't know how many things maple syrup was good in; it's better than using sugar."

Since more and more businesses are curbing excessive corporate-style appetites and adopting simpler, "back to basics" missions, Moore says of her newest venture, "The old-style charm and flavor of maple and forgotten treasures just seemed to fit."

Moore says she plans to take advantage of a further shift in consumer attitudes.  "People are plain tired of being taken for granted; they're tired of just being taken.  They want to preserve the more valuable parts of themselves.  They also want to savor experiences of old times past and be able to create new experiences that make them feel good regardless of what's happening around them - or what season it is.  This is what vintage theme shopping offers - a temporary respite from the rushed, overcrowded way of living to a simpler, unhurried, less technical age- a time when people mattered more than things."

Ms. Moore says these are the messages she'll strive to relay to the young people she's responsible for helping influence in an increasingly self-absorbed society.  "It's not likely the values our parents grew up with will make a comeback; but at least I can see to it that they make an impression."  Smiling, she says, "Maybe people in general won't go back to using cloth (or linen) napkins to avoid the expense and waste of disposable ones; but for those who do, I've got exquisite rings to hold them!"

 

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