A basket full of business
<p>JEROME A. POLLOS/Press Jennifer Rea, owner of Daisy J's, has her nine-month-old daughter Audrey resting in a sling as she adjusts a May issue of Better Homes & Gardens which features an article highlight the metal caddy baskets her store sells in the Plaza Shops in downtown Coeur d'Alene.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - They're milk crates and they're selling like hot cakes, thanks to a full-page spread in a national magazine.
The real-life display is in the front doorway of Daisy J's in The Resort Plaza Shops, where store owner Jennifer Rea has them neatly stacked - alongside the magazine plug.
"I've been receiving emails and phone calls everyday for a week and a half since the magazine came out," Rea said. "It's been great exposure for my shop."
The milk crates are the old-fashioned metal kind, and with a little artistic touch, they make creative baskets. Use them for picnics, use them for kitchen storage, they're trendy and new and on page 18 of the May 2012 edition of Better Homes and Gardens magazine.
The full color picture shows them as picnic baskets, and lists Daisy J's contact info for anyone interested in getting their own.
Plenty of people are.
"One to Chicago, one to New York and one to Texas," Rea said of her latest order destinations. Since the magazine hit newsstands less than two weeks ago, Rea has sold 35.
It used to be selling 12 in a month was fantastic.
Rea, who has owned the home decor and gift shop in downtown Coeur d'Alene for six years, has sold the novelty item for a couple of years.
"They're just cute and fun, and perfect for summer," is how she describes the old-style milk carton turned trendy carrying case. She markets hers as baskets, and many boaters buy them to stock up on groceries before hitting Lake Coeur d'Alene, whose shores are a stone's throw from the shop.
But the distributor of the baskets, Kraft Klub, only sells them to commercial operations, not individuals. When Better Homes and Gardens magazine wanted to feature the baskets, it called Kraft Klub looking for a business where people could go and get the baskets themselves. Kraft, based in the south, nominated Rea's shop because the small business was always a good, friendly customer, she said.
"I'm just honored they chose us," she said. "We're just a little 1,000-square-foot shop in Idaho. What do we know?"
The baskets are normally priced at $34 each, but the magazine listed them at $32, so Rea is upholding that cheaper price in the spirit of being a good neighbor.
"I didn't bust them," she said of the magazine.