Choosing Among Gourmet Giftbasket Options
Giftbaskets are soooo last year! Or is it last century? Actually, I hope the correct response is neither. You see, I make my living by selling gift baskets (among other food gifts). 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.” How dare you think about me in that way! 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. (Well, maybe most it.) However, even if I did, the choice would still not be easy. At my store, we offer scores of fruit baskets, gourmet meals, wine gift baskets and far more than that, even. (I can hear you right now, begging me to tell you where this wonderful store is. 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. If Uncle Milton really has managed to eliminate his drinking problem after a decade of trying, then the wine gift baskets are out of the running. Instead, I’ll opt for a fruit basket with something seasonal. 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. Frankly, I don’t know if she really enjoys the wine, but she sure enjoys talking about it. She loves to let everyone know the best vintage years, the kinds of grapes that are used in various blends and, most of all, how much she spent on the wine you just spilled all over her new carpeting ($95 a square yard). She’ll get a simple wine gift basket, but I’m not going to spring for the champagne!
My nephew, Alfred, recently married his long time girlfriend. Frankly, it’s about time. 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. Alfred always loves to receive cash as a gift. There’s no way that I’m satisfying that desire. His wife wouldn’t get a dime of it. Instead, they’re getting a meal of live lobsters and the trimmings from me. Actually two, of course. My thinking is that this is the only way to get his bride out of the kitchen. 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. I’m getting him the latest cell phone system, complete with an unlimited calling plan. I would get him a sports car if only you would buy a lot more gift baskets!
