Amazon.com Widgets

What’s the Best Food Gift Choice?

myarn | Aug 24, 2009 | 0 comments

Gift baskets are out of fashion!Â Or is it that they’re just plain boring?Â Actually, I hope the correct response is neither.Â I’m actually a gift food merchant.Â Kind of has a special ring to is, doesn’t it?Â Granted, it may be less significant that solving the global warming problem or removing a pesky mouse from under your kitchen cabinet, but it’s an honest way to pay for the roof over my family’s head.

I can read your mind: “All of his gift problems are solved; year in and year out everybody on his list gets stuck with another gift basket.”Â I want to disabuse you of your smug attitude!Â In fact, I face the same dilemmas that you face during any gift giving, decision making crisis.

I do not give food filled bundles of joy to my entire gift list.Â However, even if I did, the choice would still not be easy.Â At my store, we offer scores of fruit baskets, gourmet meals, wine gift baskets and far more than that, even.Â (I can hear you right now, begging me to tell you where this wonderful store is.Â Please be patient.)

Before you bribe me (or threaten me) to share my store location with you, I want to tell you about my own decision making approach.

My first step is to decide on the appropriate category of gift from the many choices.Â If Uncle Milton really has managed to eliminate his drinking problem after a decade of trying, I should not even consider the wine baskets.Â Instead, I’ll opt for a fruit basket with something seasonal.Â After years of ignoring the nutritional value of what he consumed, he could use a few extra servings of fruit in solid form.

Aunt Millie, on the other hand, is a great wine sipper.Â Frankly, I don’t know if she really enjoys the wine, but she sure enjoys talking about it.Â She thrills to have a new member of her audience so that she can explain what makes a good vintage year, the varieties of grapes that are used in her favorite blends and, especially, how much she paid for each bottle (as well as how much she paid for the carpeting you just ruined by spilling your glass).Â I’ll give her one of my better wine gift baskets, but I refuse to give her the best stuff.Â Sure, I get it wholesale, but I still have to pay for it!

My nephew, Alfred, recently married his long time girlfriend.Â Frankly, it’s about time.Â It took him eight years to decide that she was worth parting with enough money to pay for a diamond and another five when he found out that it is customary to pay the minister who performs the ceremony.Â Alfred always loves to receive cash as a gift.Â Well, he’s not getting that from me.Â I’m sending them a delicious lobster dinner for two.Â My thinking is that this is the only way to get his bride out of the kitchen.Â Alfred would never pay for a restaurant meal, so, in a sense, I’m sending the restaurant to them.

Second, I decide how much I’m willing to spend on these losers.

My perfect grandson isn’t getting a food gift.Â I’m getting him the latest cell phone system, complete with an unlimited calling plan.Â I would get him a sports car if only you would buy a lot more gift baskets!