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Retailer Profile RETAILER PROFILE www.kitchenwarenews.com n MARCH 2014 n KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 1 3 canals of Venice in 1891. And Pear Tree House is ideally located to attract the demographic for luxur y goods. Tucked smartly in St. Philip's Plaza, an upscale shopping center and Tucson landmark, it's practically next door to the Catalina foothills, one of the most affluent neighborhoods not only in Tucson, but in the United States. St. Philip's Plaza boasts a courtyard, fountains, eucalyptus trees, tile art, and even a statue of the saint himself in medieval style. It's the kind of place where you can enjoy fine dining and browse through jewelry stores and specialty boutiques. Wangensteen-Eklund's store benefits from having two entrances, one from the parking lot and one from the courtyard, so when said browsers inevitably wander through, they see the luxury items they're not likely to see anywhere else in town. Then, Wangensteen-Eklund says, "when they're looking for a gift and they want something really special," they know where to go. Wangensteen-Eklund grew up in Charlottesville, Va., a city known for its rich history and Southern charm, and Wangensteen-Eklund credits her upbringing for her aesthetic. Thomas Jefferson's famous mountaintop home, Monticello, is located just outside the city, and its neoclassical architecture attracts nearly half a million tourists a year. "I was fortunate to grow up the South," she says, and as her website (www.peartreehouseaz.com) explains, opening a store that would bring her "Southern and East Coast roots to the desert" was a long-standing dream. After 20 years in the advertising business, she decided to make it a reality in October, 2012. The Internet had made the advertising business difficult by then. People who might have turned to her for advertising services in the past could simply turn to Facebook and advertise for free. So Chris turned to retail, and she's been growing an upscale clientele ever since. But don't let all the luxury and Southern charm fool you: running a high-end store isn't easy street. In fact, it's grueling work. "Retail's hard," Wangensteen-Eklund says. "It's not for the faint at heart." In addition to the everyday grind, the sheer amount of time she spends unpacking merchandise, putting displays together, and cleaning the store, Wangensteen-Eklund has had to deal with everything from bad checks to counterfeiters since she opened her doors in 2012. The counterfeiter had actually targeted several other local businesses, and apparently would have been difficult to catch. Posing as a medical professional, she showed up in scrubs and said that she'd just finished a long shift at the hospital: she needed a gift for a baby shower. But the hundred dollar bill she used to pay was in fact a five, washed out, bleached, and reprinted so it would fool counterfeit pens. "We were a new business," Wangensteen-Eklund says. "And you have to be ver y careful." In spite of the difficulties, she's having a good time. "I love it," she says, and because she loves it, she makes customer ser vice a priority. In addition to making sure that her employees greet ever yone with a smile, she makes sure that she knows everything there is to know about her product lines and can act as a sort of tour guide for her customers as they walk around the store. Again, she credits her southern upbringing. " The South is famous for its hospitality," she says, so naturally she wants the store to evoke that kind of environment. True to form, Wangensteen-Eklund is the only retailer in Arizona who carries letterpress engraved and plated cards by The Paper y, an upscale stationery store in Oyster Bay, N.Y. Given that Pear Tree House specializes in upscale gifts, it seems only appropriate that one should be able to buy an upscale card to send as a thank you note. "I believe in the art of the card," Wangensteen-Eklund says, and it 's clear that we're not just talking about the stationer y. We're talking about taking the time to sit down and write a real, physical card, and taking the trouble to put it in a real envelope, to seal it, stamp it, and send it along, instead of dashing off an email on a smartphone. "It 's about manners," Wangensteen- Eklund says, traditional manners, which in her view, "have really gone by the wayside," in the modern world. Pear Tree House (Cont. from Page 1)

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