Java J’s expands to include Hallmark Gold Crown greetings

When Rod’s Hallmark Shop announced it was closing its doors in March 2009, it left an opening for someone else to come in. It would be nine years before someone took the opportunity and ran with it.

The ribbon cutting to celebrate the addition of the Hallmark Gold Crown section in Java J’s was April 5.

Juliann Sinn, co-owner of Java J’s Coffee and Gifts, said when she opened the store Rod’s was still in business, so it never occurred to her that someday she would carry the Hallmark brand in her store.

The idea to add a Hallmark Gold Crown section to Java J’s was not Sinn’s. She said she was approached by Hallmark after gentlemen from the headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, came in after looking around Creston for possible locations. She said they were surprised by the large gift selection offered at Java J’s, and they contacted her about the possibility of carrying the Hallmark brand shortly after that visit, and by the end of the first week of March, set up of the Gold Crown store within a store was complete.

“I didn’t even think of it because I didn’t know this was possible. I didn’t know you could put a Hallmark store within a store. I’ve never seen any,” she said.

Sinn said in order to make room for the Hallmark Gold Crown section in the store, she held a large sale to move some items that weren’t selling well and she took a section of shelf space from True Value to display Java J’s stock of Yankee Candles.

“The Hallmark team came in the first week of March, and they were here, and in a day and a half, they were done,” she said.

The Hallmark brand is well known for its cards, but also carries a wide variety of gift ideas, like coffee mugs, puzzles and recordable story books for children. During the Christmas holiday season, Hallmark also releases a line of ornaments and Sinn said she will have an entire section dedicated to those ornaments when the time comes.

“What [the customers] are really excited about is our ornaments we’re going to be getting,” she said.

Hallmark began as Hall Brothers in 1910 in Kansas City, Missouri, when two brothers, Joyce and Rollie Hall, stepped off a train with nothing but two boxes of postcards. Understanding the desire to keep correspondence private, they began offering Valentine and Christmas cards with envelopes. In 1915, following a fire that destroyed their entire inventory, the Hall brothers started printing their own greeting cards and gift wrap, and this began the multi-million dollar greeting card industry. Hall Brothers began marketing its brand of greeting cards as Hallmark in 1928.

“We’ve had nothing but good response from folks that come in here,” Sinn said. “They’re just amazed. Some of them knew we were going to do it. Some didn’t. The ones that are from out of town that come in once or twice are year, they’re just so shocked when they come in.”