Today we’d like to introduce you to Patti Greek
Hi Patti, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I joined the “Retail world” just after I graduated from Ole Miss. Born and raised in Nashville, I came back and
I answered an ad from a wonderful family owned upscale department store called McClures. It was owned and managed by family members from 3 generations.
I began part-time in Sept 1981 By Nov I was on salary and in January I was off to New York as the gift Buyer for 2 shops ( Hwy 100&70 and Hillsboro) and eventually the 3rd shop in Brentwood. I became the store manager of the Highway 100 &70 in 1983.
In 1985 I got married and moved to Dallas.
Jim was in the “retail world” working for Lord and Taylor at the Highland Park store.
Then we both were offered jobs with the new retailer coming to town, Crabtree & Evelyn. This was a company shop, and the largest in the U.S. We worked there till Feb 1987 and they moved us to the home office in Woodstock.CT.
Jim started off in the purchasing dept by buying everything but the comestibles for the US market. I began by being a “in-house” rep.for Company stores and Licensed stores in CT and RI. Then in 1988 I became the Director of US Retail Company owned stores.
By 1999, Jim became the Store Opening Manager for all U.S. Company & licensed stores.
We loved Woodstock CT, and we loved our jobs! We traveled and worked with people all over the US. I was responsible for 117 company owned stores. Then in 1994 I became US Dir of License Store and In-House Representatives.
Cy Harvey owned Crabtree & Evelyn and he decided to retire and sell C&E.
Jim and I decided to leave CT and moved to Athens,TN.
We opened our own retail shop, Greeks Bearing Gifts in Sept 1996.
We have proudly won our local Best of the Best, an award voted by customers through the local newspapers.
We have been awarded in our industry Top 25 Gifted Retailers by Gifts & Dec Accessories 2009, 2019 and 2023.
We are very proud of those awards!
Our customers keep coming back and that is another “award” for us personally. We want every customer to have a fun time shopping in Greeks!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Well…the biggest bump in the road was on July 1.2017 when our neighbor 2 doors down the block was renovating their building. We woke up to the phone call from 911 service,.please drive carefully, but your building is part of a fire in Downtown.
We have one of the best Fire departments in TN. Our fire chief at the time,.Jim Dyer and asst Fire Chief Brandon Ainsworth were on top of it! The McMinn County Rescue squad along with 13 other fire depts came to assist the AFD. The building at the end of the block was a total loss. The other buildings plus ours was a total loss of inventory and it took us 6 months before we could re-open. We had to paint and do other cosmetic inside work. Then the others took 12-18 months before they got back up and running in their buildings. We did learn that we are one of two oldest buildings in McMinn County. When you hear the County Mayor, John Gentry telling the fireman to keep water flowing on Greeks, one of the 2 oldest buildings in McMinn County, you are grateful.
Like everyone, surviving COVID in 2020 was another hurdle. We still do home deliveries, curb side service, whatever it takes to get a customer happy and healthy. To this day we still clean your credit card when we hand it back to you. Hey– we have have fewer colds!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Jim and I try to always have fun and different displays. We change the shop– moving every fixture — in the shop to give it a different feel plus show you new merchandise 4-5 times a year.
We change the large windows once every 3 weeks. Displays on the tables every other week.
At Christmas set up, the last week of October we close the shop and it takes us 5-6 days to put up 2.trees, garland all along the walls, We “deck the Halls”!
We have pretty and fun gift wrap for every occasion.
What sets us apart, probably our gift wrapping, customer service and we have selection of gifts from $3 to $1000.
Everyone is on a budget from time to time, we hope we can always make your visit to Greeks fun.
When we go to the Gift Shows we keep our customers in mind on every purchase!
If it wasn’t for them,we would not be here.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
Oh my, Everytime we go to Market you take a risk. You have to. Listen to your gut.
Just bought a $1000, JellyCat Sun. Will we sell that? Hope so….but who knows when!
When we buy, each line is an investment.
So every market is a risk in one way or another. Sometimes you win,.sometimes you don’t. When we opened our shop in 1996, I bought a line which is beautiful. It did not sell, so finally I put it on sale during our big summer sale. Well Oprah put it on her list “favorite things” in 2024.
Win some– lose some.
Pricing:
- We have many gifts beginning at $3
- Main price points $15-$50
- Then we have a giant JellyCat $1000.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shopgreeks.com/
- Instagram: shopgreeks
- Facebook: shopgreeks
