Perfume Gift Sets - article by Whimsical Wire Articles

It seems that every year the retail industry begins to advertise for the holiday earlier and earlier. The merchandise begins to fill the stores as soon as Labor Day is over. Last year I went shopping the day school started to pick up some special school supplies for one of my children. The school supply aisle that had been full the week prior was no longer there. The clerks were filling the shelves with holiday merchandise. One of the clerks told me that their toy land display would be opened for the weekend, and the enchanted tree land with all the artificial trees and decorations would be ready to open the first week of October. Long gone are the days of the official start of the holiday season being the day after Thanksgiving Day.

Although the retail industry wants us to purchase earlier in the season they have done a poor job over the years of coming up with new gift ideas. It seems that every year there are the same old standard gifts. For women there are perfume gift sets, for men after shave sets and for couple’s cheese and sausage boxes. There are usually some novelty gifts that come out each year. You will see them everywhere in the stores one year and then at spring garage sales the next year. Through the years I have received many perfume gift sets at gift exchanges at work or from church or community parties where people are to bring a general gift for an exchange. In my opinion the perfume gift sets make a poor selection for a general gift function because perfume is a very personal choice. More and more work environments are prohibiting people from wearing perfume and aftershave due to so many people being allergic or sensitive to smells. I think that perfume gift sets should only be given to people that you know wear that particular scent.

Last year at the end of the holiday season I noticed a clerk packing away gift sets. There were a variety of things that were being packed away including the colognes for men and women, scarf and mitten sets, jewelry sets, and nail accessory sets. When I asked her about this she said that they store items that do not have an obvious date on them and also non-perishables. Any of the gift sets that have food in them are marked down until they sell. When I was driving home I was thinking about this and I realize that this is probably why the colognes in the gift sets do not seem to smell the same as the single bottled scents. Many of the sets are probably old. I think that old perfume takes on a different, more potent smell over time.

Most Recent Articles