“We’ve basically adapted to our customers,” said David Leahy, who owns Quips ’n Quotes with his wife Patty and parents Bruce and Susan Leahy. “Ten or 15 years ago, we didn’t have any fashion merchandise — no scarves, no sweaters. It was one of those deals where we’d bring a few items in, and the customers would say you need to bring in more.”
That willingness to heed customers’ suggestions has kept the gift and card shop in business since 1972. Attuned to changes in retail and operational costs, the Leahys realized their stores in major malls –La Plaza, Valle Vista and Amigoland – were not ideal locations for attracting the customers they sought. “It’s hard for a local or small business to succeed in a mall,” Leahy said. “This (gift shop) concept works better in a strip location.”
Quips ’n Quotes has had its headquarters at the store in McAllen’s Town & Country Shopping Center since 1996. Along with its other shop located at Harlingen’s Coronado Village, the business employs a workforce that runs from 30-50, depending on the season.
Multi-generational management poses no problems for the gift shop’s owners. “Dad and I have the store kind of split in half, because it works,” said Leahy, who got involved in the family business in 1994. “He buys fashion with the store manager. I deal more with the gift side.” Father and son work with their own assistant buyers, going to market between six and eight times a year.
The product mix includes Godiva chocolates, Vera Bradley accessories, Crocs shoes, and selected jewelry, stationery and hats for the Red Hat Society. In fact, the 16,000-square-foot shop carries such a broad range of items that it boasts “50,000 things to make somebody happy.” While Leahy said 90% of their customers are female, Quips & Quotes has a sports department stocked with collegiate and professional team paraphernalia, along with camouflage items. It is possibly the largest gift store in the region.
The long displays of cards for every occasion — birthday, wedding, sympathy, seasonal – that dominate the shops’ centers are self-sustaining, Leahy explained. Hallmark recently installed new fixtures, although many other card brands are carried.
Both Quips ’n Quotes stores have U.S. Postal Service sub-stations which provide a tremendous advantage for people rushing in for last-minute cards and gifts. “It draws in a lot of people,” Leahy admitted. “We do have to deal with long lines (waiting to buy stamps or mail just-purchased packages) for most seasons.”
To read more of this story by Eileen Mattei, read the January 2015 edition of VBR under the “Current & Past Issues” tab on this website, or pick up a copy on news stands.