Personalized Gift Store Opens in Downtown Kirkwood

Since 1968, Arch Engraving has put a personal touch on items for businesses and organizations, like schools, sports teams and churches. But over the years, owner Bill Collier realized something. The personalization business, can be, well, more personal.

Personalization Station, a branch business of Arch Engraving opened Oct. 26 at the corner of Kirkwood Road and Jefferson Avenue in the retail space formerly occupied by an AT&T store.

"We've always been focused on businesses as as our main customer base," Collier said. "Over years, we've had a good number of consumer clients, but we never really marketed to them."

The store, which is connected to Arch Engraving, can personalize anything for the everyday shopper. For instance, the store carries personalized Christmas ornaments, foam koozies, iPad covers, flip-flops, coasters, cake pans and just about any item you could possibly envision sporting a memory. There are also monogrammed classics like pens, jewelry and wedding cake knives.

To give shoppers a sense of what gifts could look like in their home, Personalization Station has a living room and kitchen display.

"It seemed like a natural offshoot from what we were doing," Collier said.

Knowing that the Internet, in addition to the storefront, has potential to bring in business, picking a friendly domain name was key for Collier.

"I was surprised personalization station web address was available. I thought it was a pretty cool name. I grabbed the web name and brick and mortar space and moved on from there," Collier said. Readers can visit Personalization Station online at www.personalizationstation.com.

"We probably have the broadest scope of product types under one roof that you can find anywhere," Collier said, adding that the company's "sweet spot" is its small, St. Louis producion runs. Unlike some suppliers, customers don't need to order a large quanities to get an item personalized.

Personalization Station is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.

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