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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We're going to wrap up today's show by launching our annual holiday gift giving series, Shop Listener. We know many of you tuning in right now might be owners of stores and looking to sell your goods during the biggest shopping months of the year. But competition is high with some of those tech giants out there whose names we will not say, and other major retailers pumping out Black Friday deals ahead of Thanksgiving and then after Thanksgiving. We encourage our listeners to shop within our community. We at least try to enable it to be more possible. And so we have several segments during the holiday shopping season for people who are listeners to the show, to this station, to call up on the air and shout out your store or your website and what you're selling.

For today, Episode 1 is for shopkeepers with brick and mortar stores. Now's your chance to promote your business if you sell holiday gifts. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Again, to be very clear and precise, this call-in right now is for anybody listening right now who has a brick and mortar store and sells things that would make good holiday gifts. 212-433-WNYC, call in and promote your place and what you got. 212-433-9692. The series is called Shop Listener. Some of you will remember it from past years. We're doing it again in 2024 to continue to help Brian Lehrer Show listeners, WNYC listeners at least have the opportunity to get a bump-up in preference from the rest of our listeners who would like to Shop Listener. So if you have a brick and mortar store, a physical store, and you sell holiday gifts, now's your chance to promote your stuff for free just for these next few minutes. 212-433-WNYC.

Then next week, by the way, we'll hold another call-in for those of you who sell your goods online, but right now it is for people with brick and mortar stores. Also, we can tell everybody, no matter how you sell your holiday gifts, that we have an online form. Go to wnyc.org for that, and we'll have a searchable database eventually for all our listeners to look for who among our listeners are selling holiday gifts. All right, brick and mortar store owners, or workers for that matter, call up and shout out your place in Shop Listener Episode 1 for 2024. 212-433-WNYC, or you can text 212-433-9692. We'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Okay, Shop Listener Episode 1, if you have a brick and mortar store that sells holiday gifts like Sam in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sam.

Sam: Hey, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: What you got?

Sam: My business is KLN Studio. It's a small furniture and lighting company in Brooklyn. Most of the time, we're working in our studio space, and it's not open to the public, but for the holidays, we're doing a sale December 7th and 8th from noon to 6:00. We will have a ton of really fun handmade furniture, lighting, home goods, there will be candles, ceramics, and also some handmade clothing.

Brian Lehrer: Nice. How do people get in touch?

Sam: You can email info@klnstudio.nyc, or you can show up the weekend of December 7th and 8th to KLN Studio. We're located at 79 Grattan Street in Brooklyn. It's off the Morgan L Stop in Bushwick. You can also-- If you Google KLN Studio, we're on Google Maps and all of that.

Brian Lehrer: Sam, thank you very much for starting us off. Barbara in Asbury Park, you're on WNYC. Hi, Barbara.

Barbara: Hi. How are you? I have a store in Asbury Park, New Jersey, that specializes in skillfully crafted goods, handmade things, unique things, so objects you can't find anywhere else. I have clothing, home goods, art, both new and vintage, for all those categories.

Brian Lehrer: Say the name of the store again and spell it.

Barbara: It's called Patriae. It's P-A-T-R-I-A-E, and we're right in downtown Asbury Park. And I [crosstalk]--

Brian Lehrer: Barbara, thank you. Oops, I cut you off there, sorry. You were going to say-- after you said downtown Asbury Park, what?

Barbara: Thanks, Brian. I have an online store too on patriaestudio.com.

Brian Lehrer: Thanks, Barbara. Christopher in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Christopher.

Christopher: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me. I am the director of the AKC Museum of the Dog on 40th and Park. We have a spectacular gift shop that's open for all the hours of the museum Wednesday through Sunday, with a wonderful number of gifts for dogs and the people who love them, along with a couple of cool exhibitions and a lot of fun holiday programs. So you can check out museumofthedog.org, and we'll be happy to welcome you and your dog.

Brian Lehrer: That is awesome. I never knew there was a Museum of the Dog, so how about that? Here is Valene-- Did I say your name right? In Bed-Stuy, you're on WNYC.

Valene: Yes, that was correct. Thanks, Brian. I own an art studio for kids called Private Picassos. We have two locations, one in Park Slope, and our new one in Clinton Hill has a really fun gift shop. We sell art supplies for kids like dot markers, stickers, fun sketchbooks, erasers. We also have gift certificates, you can pay for a membership for a kid to get unlimited projects, you could do a gift card for art making. It's a great place to come by to do art, and also to do some holiday shopping.

Brian Lehrer: And where precisely?

Valene: We're on Grand Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Grand between Greene and Clifton.

Brian Lehrer: Private Picassos. Got that right, right?

Valene: Yes, that's correct.

Brian Lehrer: Good luck with it. Thank you for shouting it out. Sierra in the East Village, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sierra.

Sierra: Hi, Brian. How are you?

Brian Lehrer: Good. Happy holidays. What you got?

Sierra: Hi. My shop is Lovewild Design. We have a brick and mortar in the East Village at 136 Avenue C, and we have another shop in Woodstock, New York as well. We make all sustainable home goods, we make bath products all in house, a lot of body. And then we have beans, queer patches, candles. Many of our goods are queer and Latinx made, and we source a lot of ingredients from families in Mexico and such. You can also find everything on our website, lovewilddesign.com, L-O-V-E-W-I-L-D-design.com, and I put together a little code for your listeners as well. They can do WNYC at checkout for free shipping, and then as well if they go to our Instagram, we have a sale just for this week going on as well to help people to support local businesses and making it a little easier to shop small this year.

Brian Lehrer: Nice. Sierra, good luck with it all. Thank you for shouting it out. Deborah in Cobble Hill, you're on WNYC. Hi, Deborah.

Deborah: Hi. How are you, Brian?

Brian Lehrer: Good, thank you. Happy holidays.

Deborah: Well, thank you. They are happy so far.

Brian Lehrer: At your shop, which is--

Deborah: Our shop is Frog Wine Shop, and we're at 389 Henry in Cobble Hill. We're related to Frog Wine Bar in Bed-Stuy, and we have fantastic natural wines, all natural wines and--

[dog barking in the background]

Pardon the dog.

Brian Lehrer: Wait, is it Frog Wine Shop or Dog Wine Shop?

Deborah: [laughs] Yes, I know. It is Frog, but the dog wants to get on the air, I guess. Anyway, we have fantastic natural wines. It's a great little shop, very kind of neighborhood, and wine makes a fantastic gift if you're going to somebody's house for dinner, or just for your own holiday entertaining.

Brian Lehrer: Why do you call it Frog?

Deborah: Because my daughter-- Well, my son in law is French, and it belongs to my daughter and son in law, and I work there. But he's French, and as you know, soldiers came back from World War II, and they referred to French people as frogs because they all ate frog legs.

Brian Lehrer: Yes, but isn't that a slur?

Deborah: What?

Brian Lehrer: Isn't that a slur? You said because they ate frogs legs over there, but--

Deborah: It is, but you know what? Younger French people think it's sort of funny, and so that's where the name came from.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, okay. Deborah, thank you very much. Good luck with it. Fabiana, on the Lower East Side, you're on WNYC. Hello there.

Fabiana: Hi, Brian. My store is called Coming Soon, but we've been there for 11 years. We're on the corner of Canal Street and Orchard Street, 53 Canal Street.

Brian Lehrer: What's a best selling gift there?

Fabiana: I think the lady dish. It's a dish that you can use for your jewelry, or your ash as an ashtray, or for nuts. It's the shape of a lady, and it's made from depression glass. You know, that was like from the 1940s or 1950s, but it's still made today in Cambridge, Ohio.

Brian Lehrer: Fabiana, thank you very much. Amy in the Hudson Valley, you're on WNYC. Hi, Amy. Where in the Hudson Valley?

Amy: Hi, Brian. I'm in Ossining, New York. I own Hudson Valley Books for Humanity right in downtown Ossining, 67 Central Avenue. We sell new and pre-loved books, and pre-loved vinyl and artisan products, and we bring people together through a love of community. Oh, and Friday is our third anniversary, so we opened the day after Thanksgiving three years ago.

Brian Lehrer: Congratulations. Anything hot there in the vinyl category that people are buying musically.

Amy: In the vinyl category? Well, we can't keep '60s and '70s rock in stock. That's the most popular category, and we just sell lots of quirky and fun items that you really can't find anywhere else in the area.

Brian Lehrer: Amy, thank you very much. Hudson Valley Books for Humanity in Ossining. And one more, Gaia in Brooklyn. We have 30 seconds for you. Hello, Gaia.

Gaia: Hello, Brian. Thank you so much for taking my call. I run Brooklyn Made, which is a program of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. We have two brick and mortar locations; one in downtown Brooklyn at the old Albee Square Mall, which is now called City Point, and one in Industry City down in Sunset Park. We sell all things made by Brooklynites, from candles, to chocolates, to T-shirts, to tea towels, tea as well, coffee, we sell it all.

Brian Lehrer: Gaia, thank you very much. And thanks to all of you who called in. We're going to do more Shop Listener segments. Obviously, there were many more people on the line than we could get to, but we're also building an online database for any of you who are selling holiday gifts and are Brian Lehrer Show or WNYC listeners of any kind. We can start building that database right now with you, go to wnyc.org/shoplistener. We have a printable QR code and all of that, so shoplistener is off and running. We'll do more segments as the season progresses.

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