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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
Country Furniture & Gifts in Gardner Village has earned national recognition. Country Business magazine, a 32,000-circulation trade publication for the retail gift industry, named the furniture and gift store Retailer of the Year.
Country Business gives the award to one outstanding retailer each year. Nominees are judged on store appearance, merchandising techniques, customer service, management skills and business savvy. Country Furniture & Gifts was chosen from more than 25 different gift stores across the country.
The magazine's editor Susan Wagner called Country Furniture & Gifts a truly amazing store. She said every niche of the three-story building is filled with beautiful merchandise arranged in wonderfully creative settings.
Country Furniture & Gifts began in 1980 when Nancy Long Christenson renovated the old mill to turn it into a retail operation. Since then, the building has expanded to its current size of about 12,000 feet, and additional smaller shops have been added around the main store to create Gardner Village.
Country Business magazine credited Nancy's children--Joe Long and Angie Seeley, who have since taken over operating the furniture store‹for making it "a showcase of the West."
As a result, Country Furniture & Gifts received a gold and black marble trophy and gifts and prizes from more than 80 manufacturers, vendors and gift industry companies that sponsored the award. Country Business staff members flew to Utah to present the trophy to Long and Seeley and to photograph the store. An article on the business appears in the November/December 2002 issue of Country Business.
Country Furniture & Gifts and Gardner Village hold special events throughout the year for their customers, including a Witches' Night Out and Moonlight Madness sales. They've also hosted country folk artists, namely Warren Kimble, David Harden and Carol Endres.
For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
