Anna Marie’s Teas – Liberty, MO

Located right on the historic downtown square of Liberty, it will take you only 10 minutes to walk from Jewell to Anna Marie’s Teas. My first impression of this tea shop is the amazing smell of many different tea blends, from herbal to strong caffeinated tea. With a full wall of tea blends, you can easily spend over 20 minutes in the shop trying to pick your favorite tea. The shop also sells decorative tea sets or cute tea bottles to make a perfect gift basket!

As a tea lover, I have visited the tea shop many times during the past two years at Jewell. I usually get their limited holiday tea for the Fall season. I also recommend their lavender Earl Grey tea. It is my necessity before I walk to class every morning. 

Under The Covers – Kansas City, MO

Under The Covers is a new bookstore specializing in romance literature that recently opened in downtown Kansas City. Even if you don’t need a gift for anyone, I suggest you make a stop and get a gift for yourself. After the visit, you will learn about many subtypes of romance books: sport, teen, mysterious, classic, royals-related and even spicy romance novels. 

In addition to a full wall of books, they have a designated check-in spot for you to take cute pictures or read through some books before you decide to buy them. Also, don’t forget to check out their unique handmade bookmarks. 

Made in KC on the Plaza – Kansas City, MO

This coffee shop/gift shop is a must-stop when you visit the Plaza in Kansas City. The first thing I suggest you do is to grab a hot lavender cappuccino before you explore the gift shop. Right next to the coffee shop, you will find classic KC barbecue sauces along with many other hot sauces and seasonings that are made locally. Deeper in the store is a local ceramic shop, KC T-shirt store and a small bar. If you are above 21, feel free to buy a cocktail and meet some new people while shopping for KC vodka and whiskey. The other half of the shop is the designated space for KC Honey, local home-good stores and a small school shop with cute notebooks and pens. 

Even though this location is a bit far from Jewell, it is the best place to get your friends some fancy gifts this holiday season!

Holiday shoppers during Black Friday. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Getty Images)

The holidays are just around the corner, and with the season of joy and cheer comes holiday shopping for many Americans. The allure and magic surrounding the holidays is manifested and manipulated by retailers all across the nation. They captivate us with the sights, smells and ambiance of their stores, which is the result of psychology.

Smell is a powerful sense. It has been employed by companies all across the nation to make their stores welcoming. According to a study published in the Journal of Marketing in 2015, consumers tend to purchase more premium products and brands when they are in a warm-scented environment, with smells such as vanilla or cinnamon, compared with a cool-scented environment, with smells such as peppermint or eucalyptus. Studies have also noted that customers are more likely to leave a store with complex scents than ones with simple and warm fragrances.

Music and various types of background noise may also played a role in influencing shopping habits. A study presented last year at the International Conference on Economics and Management Engineering found that consumers are more likely to impulsively buy products in the presence of faster background music compared with background music that has a slower rhythm.

The grouping of items such as clothes or decorations make customers more willing to buy the set over individual pieces. Retailers will intentionally place items adjacent to one another in order to create the not-so-subtle suggestion that for this gift to work or be complete, you need to buy all of the items.

Many shoppers may recall a poor shopping experience where they may have encountered a snooty or rude sales associate. While many may associate the negative shopping experience with a decrease in sales this is false according to a study conducted by the Journal of Consumer Research.

The study involved four experiments that examined how consumers respond to being rejected by a salesperson at a luxury store, such as Gucci or Burberry, versus a mass-market store, such as American Eagle or H&M. Ultimately, the study concluded that a rude salesperson at a high-end store may motivate shoppers to spend more. In other words, some salespeople will try to tap into your feelings of inadequacy, which is offensive but incredibly effective.

Retailers may put differently priced items next to one another in order to motivate shopper to make a purchase. They use a technique, known as framing, where retailers will put two similar items that have different price points and display them in a way that subtly tries to up-sell you. The framing exercise ultimately gives consumers a frame of reference for a baseline of cost and then to subtly prompts people to buy the higher-priced item. A paper published in the American Economic Review in 2010 found that a shopper’s willingness to pay for a product is 40-61 percent higher when the item is actually displayed before them than when they view only an image and text display

Photo courtesy of Andrew Kelly.