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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, we will launch our annual holiday gift-giving series, Shop Listener. It's our way of giving back to some of you our listeners who happen to be in the business of selling holiday gifts. We'll do a different Shop Listener call-in for different groups of you every day this week beginning right now with this. Those of you with brick-and-mortar stores in Manhattan or Brooklyn, call in and promote your businesses.

Do you sell things that would make a great holiday gift? 212-433-WNYC. You are invited to call 212-433-9692. If you own or run or you work at a brick-and-mortar store in either Manhattan or Brooklyn that sells things that can be holiday gifts, we want to help you get customers who are interested in keeping it in the WNYC family. That's why we call the series Shop Listener. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Again, Brooklyn and Manhattan brick-and-mortar store owners only for right now.

Tomorrow, it'll be for you in the other boroughs. Wednesday in New Jersey. Thursday, Long Island and the Northern suburbs. That'll include Connecticut as well as the Northern suburbs in New York State. Friday, for those of you who sell gifts but only online. Again, today, Brooklyn and Manhattan, brick-and-mortar store owners or people associated with those stores only.

What are you selling that would make a great holiday gift that somebody might want to buy from you and support a fellow WNYC listener in the process? You are invited to shout it out at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Again, for the rest of you who might want to list with our Shop Listener guide later in the week, tomorrow, it's going to be for those of you with brick-and-mortar stores in other boroughs. Wednesday in New Jersey. Thursday, Long Island and the Northern suburbs. Friday, for those of you who sell gifts only online.

We also have an online form that you could fill out whether or not you call in to promote your store, and that is wnyc.org/shoplistener. Anybody can go and list right now from anywhere who has holiday gifts to sell. There you go. Right now, do you own a physical store in Brooklyn or Manhattan and want to call in and talk about it on the actual radio? Maybe you sell candles or curated clothing. Maybe you offer home goods or books or vinyl records. Whatever it is that you're selling, there's somebody listening who has a loved one that might become your customer.

Promote your business. Participate in our Shop Listener series. You are invited. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Today for brick-and-mortar store folks in Manhattan or Brooklyn. We'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC with Edition 1 of this year's Shop Listener call-in series. If you own a brick-and-mortar store in Manhattan or Brooklyn, this call-in is for you. I'm not going to go through the list of the areas that we'll do the rest of the week, but don't forget on Friday, it will be for those of you who sell things online only. Today, Brooklyn and Manhattan. We'll start with Tom in Midtown. You're on WNYC. Hi, Tom.

Tom: Hi. How are you doing? Good morning.

Brian Lehrer: Good. What have you got?

Tom: We've got a concept store and an art gallery called MAISON 10. It's on West 29th Street between 5th Avenue and Broadway. We sell a ton of beautiful gifts that are perfect for moms, dads, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, everybody. We've got something for everybody. We change our whole collection every 10 weeks, so there is always something new and exciting to look at. We have a lot of beautiful art as well, starting from as low as $60 for unique individual pieces of art, way up into the tens of thousands of dollars if you really want to splash out to somebody very special.

Brian Lehrer: Awesome. MAISON 10 on West 29th Street. Thanks for starting us off. Zenobia in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hello, Zenobia.

Zenobia: Hi, how are you? My name is Zenobia, and I would like to invite your listeners to visit our new shop at Brooklyn Public Library Center for Brooklyn History, which is located at 128 Pierrepont Street. Now, I'm so excited they can get 15% off now through December for all the merchandise, and they will definitely find some unique gifts inspired by Brooklyn History. What we have, we have jewelry. We have kids and craft toys. We have holiday ornaments. We have ceramics, candles. We just have a whole variety of things that your listeners can buy. I hope to see them at the shop at 128 Pierrepont Street.

Brian Lehrer: Zenobia, thank you very much. Pascal in Harlem, you're on WNYC. Hi, Pascal.

Pascal: Hi, Brian. Thank you so much for allowing the small business owners of New York City [inaudible 00:06:06]. Harlem Wine Gallery is a small artisanal shop located in the heart of Harlem. We're a Black-owned business. We carry a diverse selection of winemakers. We carry the largest selection of Black-owned winemakers and wine brands in New York City. We specialize in small producers. We have in-store tastings on Fridays between 5:30 and 7:30. For your listeners, if you would please follow us @harlemwine on Instagram. We are also doing our toy drive again this year, which will go to the Harlem Children's Pediatric Center.

Brian Lehrer: Nice. The Harlem Wine Gallery. Rafael in Williamsburg, you're on WNYC. Hi, Rafael.

Rafael: How's it going, Brian? Long-time listener, first-time caller. We have a store called Pegasus Express Unlimited on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn right by the Whole Foods and the Apple Store. What we do is we carry a bunch of unique gifts from handmade gift greeting cards to travel accessories, and we also do shipping. We've got UPS, FedEx, DHL for international and last-minute shoppers. We also like to take care of all of the logistics around gifts, so gift wrap greeting cards and all sorts of decorations.

Brian Lehrer: Pegasus Express Unlimited. Say the address again.

Rafael: 223 Bedford Avenue between North 4th and North 5th. We're offering a 10% discount when you mention WNYC.

Brian Lehrer: All Right. Good luck, Rafael. Thank you for checking in. Leon in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Leon.

Leon: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having us. I'm excited to talk about the House of Good Deeds. It's an amazing nonprofit here in New York, which rescues and gives away free donations of clothing, shoes, and food. We've opened New York City's first sustainable showroom in partnership with Deliver Your Style. It's on East 65th Street. We're offering free personal styling. Any and all purchases made support the House of Good Deeds. It's an amazing organization. You can find more about it, about deliveryourstyle.com.

Brian Lehrer: Awesome. Leon, thank you very much. This is great so far, isn't it? We're getting so many different kinds of businesses selling holiday gifts. Listeners, support them. That's why we do this Shop Listener series every year today with the callers associated with brick-and-mortar stores in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Again, a reminder that anyone can post at any time if you're a WNYC listener and you're selling holiday gifts on our webpage for this wnyc.org/shoplistener. Let's see what else we can get in before the time runs out on the phone. Sierra on the Lower East Side, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sierra.

Sierra: Hi, Brian. My company is Lovewild Design. We're a small family business of three generations. We make our whole own line of sustainable home goods, bath, and body care like lotion bars and shower steamers. Then, we carry a ton of other goods from our friends' small businesses like locally-made candles, incense, vegan cookies-- I wish. Vegan cookbooks and zines.

We have two shops. One is in the East Village on 136 Avenue C between 8th and 9th, and then we have one in Woodstock, New York. You can see what we're all about on Instagram on lovewilddesign. I have a little discount for your listeners which is just 'NPR' if they want to check out online instead of coming in the shop.

Brian Lehrer: Cool. Lovewild Design is the website, right?

Sierra: Yes. L-O-V-E-W-I-L-D design.com, yes.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Sierra. Good luck with it this holiday season. Christie in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Christie.

Christie: Hi, Brian. Thanks for having me on. My partner Charles and I own Exit9 Gift Emporium. There's one location in the East Village on Avenue A. The other location is on Boerum Hill in Brooklyn on Smith Street, and we specialize in gifts for pretty much anyone under the sun. Come in. We have candles. We're known for our greeting cards, baby items, handbags.

We're also known for being a little bit left of center, having something for everyone and also presenting local, including Lovewild Design, who we are one of the first retailers to carry Lovewild. Well, that's a total coincidence, and yes, we will offer discounts as well for people if they mention NPR, 10% storewide. We are celebrating 29 years in business this month in the East Village location [crosstalk].

Brian Lehrer: Yay. Exit9 Gift Emporium. What does Exit9 refer to?

Christie: You know, Brian, it's random. My partner came up with it on a whim when he opened the store in '95 and the byline is you got to get off somewhere.

[laughter]

Brian Lehrer: I was trying to think, "Is it the BQE? Is it the Thruway?" Okay, it's just random.

Christie: Yes, they think that it's because of Exit 9, I guess, near-- Somewhere in New Jersey, there's an Exit 9 that's very popular, and that's what the people think we're referring to, but it's not. It's just random. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much. Good luck. One more for now. Alex in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Alex.

Alex: Hey, thanks so much for doing this segment. I wanted to give a shout-out to East River Pilates in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, eastriverpilates.com. We're just opening our fourth location today at 103 Metropolitan and Wythe. My wife and I have been in business for about eight years and we made it through the pandemic. We're so happy to be able to offer reformer Pilates and mat Pilates to our local community, and we have packages online on our website for the holidays.

Brian Lehrer: And it's East River Pilates, right?

Alex: Yes, that's correct.

Brian Lehrer: Alex, thank you very much. Offering an experience. Sometimes people buy things, sometimes people buy experiences. We always get some interesting ones from each category when we do Shop Listener, and that is Edition 1. Thanks to all of you who called from Manhattan and Brooklyn. Even if you didn't get through, you can post what your store is or what you're selling as holiday gifts at the website, wnyc.org. The page is called Shop Listener, so it's wnyc.org/shoplistener.

Any WNYC listener selling holiday gifts can post there, and tomorrow on the phones, we will go on to those of you from the other three boroughs of Manhattan. Looking forward to that. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Stay tuned for Alison.

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