Business Spotlight - Simply Unique Gift Shop

A business that occupies the historic Robinson Block building on the southwest corner of Glenwood’s Town Square offers patrons a unique shopping experience.

Gail Eischeid opened Simply Unique Gift Shop in October 2022.

“We moved in here less than 10 days before Shop Hop that year,” Eischeid recalled. “We were trying to do a soft opening that weekend, which helped us a lot. Then, we brought more stuff in afterwards.”

Eischeid opened the business after operating a consignment gift shop for local artists in Bellevue, Neb., for five years. She started that business in Old Towne and later relocated in a larger space near Bellevue University, but managing a business that was open six days a week was a demanding endeavor.

“Running a 4,000 square-foot building space and having over 40 consignors, it wore me out,” she said. “I also hand-painted furniture and taught classes (at the time).”
Eischeid ended the endeavor in 2022.

Prior to opening the business in Bellevue, Eischeid had sold body care products and her custom-painted saws at craft shows, festivals, fairs and farmers markets for more than 20 years. It was during a trip to the Glenwood Farmers Market in the summer of 2022 when a friend suggested she consider opening a consignment-type business in the community. Eischeid gave it some thought and began scoping out a potential location. The Robinson Block was available and seemed like an ideal location.

“It’s a little tighter space than what I was looking for, but it’s been doable,” she said.

Eischeid said the store is “still consignment in a way,” but she considers it to be a gift shop first. She also has a dozen vendors that rent space for their items and pay a commission for anything that’s sold.

The shop features a wide array of products, including antiques, collectibles, furniture, jewelry, artwork, home décor, body care products, clothing, crochet and rope bowls and purses. She also carries an assortment of specialty food items, ranging from BBQ rubs, hot sauces and pickled vegetables to soup mixes, spices and honey products.

If a customer is looking for a particular item, they can put their name on the store’s “wish list.”

“We have a wish list,” Eischeid said. “They can put their name and number on a wish list of things they’re looking for, say salt and pepper shakers with chickens, or whatever.”

The vendors at the store are all from western Iowa and the Bellevue-Omaha area, as are most, but not all, of the customers.

“Some of my customers are from the Bellevue – Omaha area, but we even have Sioux City, Elkhorn, Neb. and we get a lot of people from the Des Moines area,” Eischeid said. “Not all customers are on Facebook, but we’ve done really well from customers in Iowa.”

Simply Unique Gift Shop is open three or four days a week, depending on the season. The hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday during the winter season. Hours are expanded during the warmer months of the year.

“During the summer, when the farmer’s market starts, we’ll add Wednesday back on,” Eischeid said. “Wednesdays will be 2 to 6 to tie in with the farmer’s market. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, we’ll expand to either 5 or 6.”