Franklin’s Tin Cottage is Everything You LOVE about a Local Gift Shop

Who wouldn’t want to shop in a cozy cottage filled with home decor and gifts, all under a charming tin roof? Located just 2 blocks from iconic Main Street in Franklin, Tennessee, the Tin Cottage is altogether lovely in this picturesque downtown.

Owner Marianne DeMeyers says, “We are so fortunate to get a great flow of tourism guests from the celebrated Main Street, but most of our guests are from the local community. We attract local residents because we have easy access to our shop, focused personal service, and we position ourselves as a local community boutique.’ She is bringing back the art of Southern hospitality, and her success as a retailer proves she knows what customers want.

Shop Local to Make Your Town Great 

Marianne continues, “I’m not sure how many residents know what shopping local means to their community. Did you know, for every $1.00 spent in a local business, $0.63 goes back in to their community, helping to lower their tax base, and helping to provide better parks and other city services?

“If you shop at a chain store in your community, $0.42 is returned to the community. If you shop online, less than one penny goes back to your community. Plus your local shop employees, local residents and the business owners care about their community. Please shop local because it builds a community!”

The Tin Cottage’s top-selling Christmas items are woodland animal Christmas tree ornaments. These look adorable in gift baskets combined with products from other local Nashville Wraps customers, such as the Goo Goo Shop, TruBee Honey and Olive & Sinclair Chocolate. Other Tin Cottage favorites are their scarves.

The Perfect Packaging from Nashville Wraps

Personalized gift wrapping is important to Marianne and her guests, as she calls her customers. To accommodate gifts of every size and shape, “We buy every size of Nashville Wraps Oatmeal Paper Shopping Bags we can!” For the holidays, these 50% recycled bags are combined with Evergreen and the Holly Berry Tidings Christmas tissues plus raffia ribbon.

“My favorite thing about Nashville Wraps is their customer service. We are so busy in retail that we all know things slip through the cracks…like packaging! If I call Nashville Wraps by 2 pm, it ships the same day. And their associates are always a pleasure to talk to. Did I mention the great prices? The cherry on top!”

To make her shop look extra festive this season, she hangs a real cedar garland on the front door, both inside and out.  “Nothing gets customers in a buying mood like the smell of a Christmas tree,” says Marianne.

She also likes to make gifts-to-go using clear cello bags and ribbon. These pretty gift sets make shopping easier because they are already beautifully wrapped. It’s an easy and affordable merchandising idea for her staff to put together.

Add a Bow & It will Sell!

“Another one of my favorite things to do is purchase the red burlap ribbon from Nashville Wraps and tie cute bows on everything. We tend to start selling out of our Christmas decor by early December, so we want to keep that festive spirit until December 24th! And you can’t believe how many people actually want to buy our decorative bows. So it’s a win! But you have to buy lots of ribbon. We sell every product that we attach a bow to so we are making bows all season!”

Shop Local Download for You!

Nashville Wraps supports so many local, small independent retailers. We created this meme recently (below), and it has been shared by hundreds of our customers on social media. Feel free to click and save this image to promote your own shop this season on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. We honor the Tin Cottage and every one of our customers who make our communities better across this great country!