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Date: 11/2/2023
AGAWAM — This year, Cooper’s Gifts celebrated its 50th anniversary. The Main Street shop’s home, a rustic barn, is filled to the loft with a wide range of gifts for every occasion, trending apparel and jewelry, home decor and what owner Kate Gourde calls the best selection of curtains one will find anywhere. Gourde keeps her ears open to what customers are asking for and what new styles are coming.
“We keep our best sellers in stock, but always have something fresh and exciting coming along,” she said. “It is never the same store twice.” Gourde makes a concentrated effort to find vendors that have what she refers to as “the added extras,” reasons a shopper would feel good about buying from them.
“This can be made in the USA, woman-owned, vendors that give back to charities, etc.,” Gourde said. “I love to share the stories behind the products with our customers.”
She continued, “Cooper’s is a happy place with a great vibe. We want to be retail therapy for people, whether they buy something that day, or not. We just want them to remember us when they have a need for a special gift. And giving back is our favorite thing to do; we try to support our community in a big way.”
Cooper’s Gifts was founded by Gourde’s parents, Joan and Art Leary Jr. Gourde’s father loved old barns, and was an avid history buff and a collector of antiques. He founded the former Country Squire Furniture Shop, which was in the red Victorian home that’s in front of the gift shop barn. Leary started the furniture store in the 1950s, and decided to add a gift shop as a companion store in 1973.
He purchased two tobacco barns and took them apart, bringing the wood to his Main Street site, where it makes up 80% of the Cooper’s “barn” building. This was long before using recycled materials and the rustic barn aesthetic were fashionable.
“He was quite the visionary,” Gourde said.
In the beginning, Cooper’s was stocked with lots of place settings of dishes and housewares. Her parents were a large vendor for the Pfaltzgraff dinnerware line that was popular in the 1970s, and did a good business with wedding registries. The merchandise mix naturally evolved with time. Leary added curtains and window treatments to the mix in the early 1980s.
“It was an easy addition to furniture, to complete a room,” Gourde said. “I keep my ear to the train track of what’s going on in the gift and home décor industries, as far as what’s trending and what lines are up and coming.”
Gourde was 4 years old when her father built the building. She grew up there, coloring at the wrapping counter after school and working in the shop all through high school. In 1988, Gourde was at Elms College for nursing when her father asked if she would come back to Cooper’s as a manager, just for the summer. Gourde wasn’t interested, but she decided to do it for the summer, and that was 35 years ago.
“When I worked at Cooper’s as a teenager, I was just doing sales and oftentimes, I was bored,” Gourde said. “When I came in as the manager, I started doing all the buying, merchandising and marketing. I absolutely fell in love with it and was happy working seven days and two nights a week.”
She went on to say, “We were in a deep recession in the 1980s, but Cooper’s showed consistent growth each and every month. I brought in new lines, had a blast creating displays that told stories, and loved developing meaningful relationships with my customers. I was hooked, for sure.”
Gourde stepped in as owner when her father died in 2004. The shop continued to evolve, and she began adding jewelry and women’s apparel. Some of Cooper’s favorite lines are Jellycat plush, Hobo leather bags, Scout Curated Wear jewelry, Brighton jewelry, Inis fragrances from Ireland, Nora Fleming servingware, and the Willow Tree collection. The shop has gifts for babies, weddings, birthdays, hope and encouragement, and more, including Irish items.
In 2014, Gourde came upon an idea called the Round Up Program. Cooper’s offers customers the option to “round up” their bill to the nearest dollar, with the extra change donated to charity. Each month, a different charity is chosen, and Cooper’s adds another 50% on top of whatever the customers donate. Since its inception, the program has donated over $50,000 to local organizations.
Gourde’s goals are to keep the shop fresh and add categories that fit well with what they do. She has joined a group of 12 shop owners across the country, who have connected and formed a private group on Facebook doing regular Zoom meetings, several times a month. She told Reminder Publishing it’s a great place to network, discover new lines for vendors, share ideas for merchandising, discuss solutions for problems and just enjoy the camaraderie of friends that are walking the same walk.
In her 35 years at Cooper’s, Gourde has watched babies be born, grow up and start families of their own. Now, they’re on the next generation and everybody has fond memories of coming in shopping with their moms.
“Cooper’s has always been here; we really are an icon in the Greater Springfield area,” Gourde said. “I consider myself lucky to have had the honor to help them choose gifts that speak to what is in their hearts and turn their homes into havens with personalized decor selections. It has been quite an amazing journey.”
Cooper’s Gifts is open weekdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays noon to 4 p.m. at 161 Main St., Agawam. Christmas Prelude is Cooper’s official kickoff to the holiday season, with special deals Nov. 10, 11 and 12. Other special events include Small Business Saturday on Nov. 25 — the Saturday after Thanksgiving and Black Friday — and the “12 Days of Christmas,” beginning Dec. 1. For more information, call the shop at 413-786-7760.