Unusual Gifts for Small Budgets

Knowing the customer is a basic need for small business. The ones that thrive can provide a service, or a product, for their customers that larger retailers can't.

Milford is home to many small businesses , and that know what the customer wants. One of them, , has a new look this holiday season.

A renovation completed several months ago has created a more open, light-filled space. Gina Oliva Tarolli, the Oliva's general manager for retail, said the family tried to maximize the space. Almost all gifts in the shop are priced at $25 or less, the price point that the store has found works for its customers, Tarolli said.

Items this season include jewelry, ceramic ornaments, and pottery from Vietri, Italy. The items are ordered a year in advance, said Tarolli, who tries to guess what her customer might like. The vendors works with small retailers, not mass-market stores.

One of the more popular items at the shop are photo prints of beach scenes, framed, and packaged by the staff with decorative shells. "That's what we specialize in," she said, "Putting things together."