Pauline Bresnahan
Photo: Aaron Lockwood
America’s oldest seaport is celebrating it’s 400th anniversary in 2023, and one of it’s well-known and respected gift shops, Pauline’s Gifts, has risen to the occasion. Not only is it the largest retailer of American and decorative flags on the north shore, the gift shop also carries quite the selection of custom merchandise specially made for Gloucester’s big 400th anniversary.
Owner Pauline Bresnahan explains, “I try to have anything that I can have personalized, so a lot of the products this year are with a company that can personalize with Gloucester. Because we are in an anniversary year, it has been huge for me this year.”
Custom-designed hats, T-shirts and sweatshirts with special anniversary designs are selling rapidly. Bresnahan herself, a decorative artist for more than 40 years, has had a hand in some of the designs.
Last year, she started selling Gloucester caps with embroidery bearing the seaside city’s 1623 founding date inside a fish, and this year, she added embroidery on the back of the hat says, “400 Years Feeding America.”
She also started putting the tag line on T-shirts, “so that is where my focus was this year was with my own designs,” she says. “That is my trend this year, and it is a big one.”
She kids that her daughter is a graphic designer “so I get in-house work done pretty reasonably.”
A busy start and heart
Bresnahan says the start of summer has been a busy one with not only customers but community activities. She proudly displays the Starfish Award she received from Seaside Retailer magazine in 2022 on a shelf so “right as people walk in the door, they see it.” The award recognized the store’s charitable efforts, for holding collection drives for U.S. service women through Operation Troop Support.
Custom products featuring Gloucester, Massachusetts, are a growing trend at Pauline’s Gifts.
Since then, she was asked to be in a commercial for a local bank and asked to do a live broadcast for the city of Gloucester’s Fourth of July Parade. People all over the world with connections to Gloucester will be able to view it, and it will be broadcast in local nursing homes for people who aren’t able to make it to the parade.
For the past 10 years, Bresnahan has also spearheaded a flag donation program. “We collect donations for the 175 flags that are displayed on the Boulevard in Gloucester, which is where the Fisherman’s Memorial Monument is located.”
The flags fly from Memorial Day to Sept. 11. About seven years ago, someone asked Bresnahan if she could put names on the flags, so she contacted a local veterans’ agency and was told that the names could be added between the grommets.
“We started doing it and people just love it,” says Bresnahan. “It’s really not a memorial, it is a celebration of the people that love that display.”
Some people do it in memory of people and others do it as a Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift.
Trying new things
Beyond Bresnahan’s local and national pride as evidenced through the products and services the store provides, the gift shop also sells a variety of other merchandise, with ornaments and jewelry being extremely popular.
Nautical gifts and decor are always a staple at Pauline’s Gifts over the last 24 years.
“I’m always willing to try new things,” she says. That was the case in January when she attended The Boardwalk buying event during the Coastal Connections Conference.
“I don’t do a lot of big shows anymore. It’s just overwhelming, and for me The Boardwalk was the perfect size,” she says. “It was just wonderful.”
Some of the lines she brought in from The Boardwalk included apparel from Bali Queen, an entire jewelry display from Dune Jewelry & Co., and True Ocean health and beauty products.
“They were three lines I hadn’t had before and I brought them in,” she says. They were products I probably wouldn’t have ever seen had I not gone to The Boardwalk.”
Not long after the putting out her new-found product lines, she says, “I sold a lot of all their products in just one day, and I am just a small 1,000-square-foot-store, so I thought that was pretty interesting.”
“I’ve been blessed to be in a great community that really supports their local stores.” — Pauline Bresnahan
Pauline also gets to nearby shows, New England Made and Cape Cod and the Islands Gift Show. When she is able to get away, she also attends Las Vegas Market. Her 1,000-square-foot shop also holds displays of greeting cards created by local artists, jewelry, nautical gifts and driftwood art.
Bresnahan says that none of the store’s success would be possible without the local community. “I’ve been blessed to be in a great community that really supports their local stores,” she says.
Positive momentum
Next year the store celebrates its 25th anniversary. Bresnahan made a significant investment in the building and parking improvements at the store.
Nautical gifts and jewelry are popular merchandise categories at Pauline’s Gifts.
“I’ve noticed a huge increase in people stopping at the same time,” Bresnahan says. “I was able to do it and finally bit the bullet and made the investment, and I can’t believe how much it has changed.”
Bresnahan is gearing up for her store’s next Woman to Woman donation drive to benefit Operation Troop Support in September, and she was touched to have recently received a thank you note from one of the women serving overseas. “Those are always the best gifts,” she says.
She’ll also be returning to the Coastal Connections Conference in Orlando Oct. 22-24 participating as a panelist on an interactive question and answer session titled, “Creating Coastal Connections” session.
This informative session is an interactive group discussion where the audience can learn about and discuss ideas, best practices, challenges and opportunities in coastal retail with the panelists.
