November 10, 2023 • 17 mins
Since 1984, Basket of Pittsburgh has been sending gifts all over the country that embody the spirit of Pittsburgh. https://basketofpittsburgh.com/
We support local companies, and offer full-size products from our favorite Pittsburgh brands. From one basket to hundreds - We offer local delivery and ship nationally.Every gift purchase comes with sincere intention and a desire to impress the recipient. Whether it's a birthday gift for grandma in Florida, a sports gift for your favorite black and gold fan, or a professional gesture for a corporate client - we are your destination for the very best Pittsburgh gifts.
We support local companies, and offer full-size products from our favorite Pittsburgh brands. From one basket to hundreds - We offer local delivery and ship nationally.Every gift purchase comes with sincere intention and a desire to impress the recipient. Whether it's a birthday gift for grandma in Florida, a sports gift for your favorite black and gold fan, or a professional gesture for a corporate client - we are your destination for the very best Pittsburgh gifts.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
And welcome inn. This is theCEO's Used to Know podcast. I'm your
host, Johnny Hert. Well,let's say hello, Deshauntel Goldstrom. Thank
you for joining me my pleasure.Basket of Pittsburgh tell us everything we need
to know about your company. Basketof Pittsburgh is the best local gift company
around town. We have an onlinestore that is full of lots of different
options for gifts. Whether you're sendingone to a family member or a corporate
(00:27):
account, there is lots and lotsto choose from. I mean, my
biggest issue with Basket at Pittsburgh dotcom is that there are so many choices
I don't know which one to choosefirst. And they're all so great.
We are designers, are amazing,and we use all local companies. So
from all your favorite brands here inPittsburgh, you get them all in some
(00:49):
cases in some baskets, whether it'sfor sympathy or a Steeler basket exactly.
You know, even is somebody forHalloween or for the holidays. You cover
all occasions and all Pittsburgh local companiesinside this one basket. Yes, it
is absolutely so. Where did thewhere did this idea? What? Who
originated this idea. I can't takecredit for the concept. It was founded
(01:10):
by Jan Jones in nineteen eighty fourin Upper Saint Clair. But here we
are almost forty years later. Wehave a large warehouse out in Robinson.
We can handle up to five hundredgifts easily. Our largest order has been
up to four thousand gifts for alocal conference here in town. So we
can do it all, and wedo do it all all right. So
if somebody is not familiar with Basketof Pittsburgh, what is your typical basket?
(01:34):
What is going to be inside?So we offer a variety, which
makes us a little bit different fromeverybody else as well, because you get
multiple types of you get a littlesweet, you get a little savory.
And they're all local companies. Alot of them you may not even know
about, but they are. There'ssome in Turtle Creek, they're some Minroville,
and they're not the ones that youmight think of, but we find
(01:55):
them be a little more specific ofsomebody. I know you have so many
brands and you don't want you know, you don't want to show favoritism,
but I want to give people anidea of a typical Pittsburgh basket, maybe
maybe one of your best sellers.What's an idea? What are what are
some of the items inside that box? So some of our best sellers,
they all contain a lot of themcontain Cerruses. Everybody knows Sarruss. Everybody
(02:19):
knows Saraus Candy. We have lotsof chocolate options. But also there's a
chocolate Graham pretzel company out in Monrovillecalled Artists in Gourmet. There's a salsa
company out of Baldwin that's called TwoUgly Mugs. Raina is in the Strip
district. You know, it goeson and on and on Mancini's and there's
so many to choose. I knowit's difficult to choose just so, but
(02:43):
if you go to Basket of Pittsburghdot com, you're going just to see
probably over one hundred different options,way more than that. And we do
custom gifts as well. So ifyou see something on there that may not
be in your price range or maybeit's you need to customize a little bit
for corporate event where your best option. All right, So jan started in
(03:06):
nineteen eighty four, so you're celebratingforty years in business here, very shortly.
I was going to say, youcouldn't have been around in nineteen eighty
four, So when did you takeover? Second generation of US took over
in twenty sixteen, and we've beenadded ever since. We've grown, we've
added, We've added additional companies inthat we put in the gift baskets.
(03:27):
We work with a lot of thecorporate companies here in Pittsburgh. We do
it all. You know. It'sfunny because I met you last month and
I was like, oh, basketof Pittsburgh. That's a great idea that
I went on your website and I'mlike, oh my god, I've been
on this website. I've sent becauseit's such a great way of representing the
city. Obviously, you know,being from Pittsburgh, I'm so proud of
(03:47):
what this city has to offer.And there's Pittsburgh's everywhere. You know.
All you have to do is lookat a Stealer game, even in La
or Las Vegas or Dallas, You'regoing to see Pittsburgh all over and those
people who are in Dallas and inCalifornia. It's the perfect gift for the
holidays to send the little piece alittle taste of Pittsburgh to these people.
(04:11):
We send them all over the countryevery day, especially in December of course,
you know that's a very busy timeof year. But we send them
all over the country and we getrave reviews. I just got two calls
from people who received the baskets theother day, and they were over the
moon about how excited and how beautifulthey were and all the local products they
(04:31):
and one of them was no longerhere. So you can take the person
out of Pittsburgh, but you can'ttake the Pittsburgh out of the person.
You know, she was just shewas so elated that she picked up the
phone and made the call to tellus how wonderful it was. So when
jan started, was it just oneor two items or was it as many
items as you have now? Now, well, we've expanded that part of
(04:53):
it, for sure. But there'sa lot more creativity in the market these
days, so we have a lotmore to choose from than she did back
then. But the concept was alwaysthe same. We've just taken it to
another level. Okay, guess that'swhy I wanted to know. There are
so many creative, creative ideas anddifferent baskets. I'm like Oh my god,
I don't know which one to choose. Are so cool? Well,
(05:13):
one of the signature items that wehave is our incline box, So it's
a little incline. We put thecontents in the incline, shrink it up,
bow it up, ship it wherever. That was one of the ones
that we delivered four thousand into thecity for guests coming in for a conference.
But it's a very very popular item, and it's in a variety of
gift baskets of obviously not the onesthat are more birthday oriented or sympathy oriented,
(05:38):
right, you won't put an inclinein that, But these are the
ones that really represent Pittsburgh and whowe are is a culture here now.
And to be fair, you alsohave like holiday baskets and you know,
birthday baskets and things like that.But I'm sure the Pittsburgh items are your
hot sellars. They do. Theyall sell very well actually, and even
(05:58):
the sympathy and birthday one, westill use the local companies. It's just
not screaming Pittsburgh, right, butwe're still lending that local to support to
everybody that we do business with.And if you had to recommend one box,
or one basket. Can you dothat? I don't even know.
You have so many children, somany kids, I can't choose my favorite.
(06:21):
Come on, Chantelle, is thereis there a particular basket that you
think really people should should see.So the PGH in that is a very
big seller because it very much embodiesthe spirit of Pittsburgh and it's black and
gold and it's fun, but yetit's rich with items in terms of snacky
(06:44):
things, and that it is.It is a very big seller. The
other one is the PGH Box,which is brand new. It's only a
couple of years old, but it'ssay, that's what I set out.
It has all those caricatures and allthose little items on the box itself.
It's really cute. So when itgoes through the mail, it just screams,
this is coming from Pittsburgh. Absolutely. It captures our culture in graphic
(07:08):
form on a box which is thedelivery mechanism for the local products on the
inside. And it's been a huge, huge win for us. People love
the concept and it's fun. It'sjust a very fun gift. All right.
So let's find out about Chantell.How did you get into this?
So I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and I've bounced around between corporate jobs
(07:30):
and doing my own thing, anda lot of that had to do with
being a mom with three babies,and that part of it was where I
would shift back and forth and Iwas working for somebody else. My kids
were getting to a point where theywere a little bit more independent, and
I was looking for a business.And I had looked for about a year
or so and talked to a lotof different people, and nothing just got
(07:51):
me. And I have always beena huge advocate of Pittsburgh. I left
here for a little bit and missedPittsburgh dearly from Pittsburgh. I am from
Pittsburgh. Yeah, I grew uphere, went to pitt and left for
about six years to the other sideof the state and just missed the culture
here so much. And so I'ma passionate Pittsburgh person. So when this
(08:13):
business came to me, I waslike, Oh, I could do this
in my sleep. I love this. I loved it then, I love
it now, my team loves it. We all love it. What we
do is just so much fun.You can't It doesn't get any better than
this. What is it? Whatis it about? Pittsburgh's We are so
proud of our culture and some ofthe items that you offer are pure Pittsburgh.
(08:37):
It's like, I don't know ifthis would either translate to you know,
another country or another part of theregion. And which makes it even
cooler. To be honest with you, it is very unique to Pittsburgh.
There's not a lot of us thatare as big as we are in Pittsburgh
that do it in other markets oras successful in other markets. So we
are unique in that fact as well. And I said, we send them
(09:00):
all over the country all year long. Do you compete against some national chains
and things like that. Honestly,we do. It's surprising, but we
do compete with the likes of Harryand David and other companies at that magnitude
from on a corporate level mostly.But I can guarantee you we do a
better job in terms of our serviceand as much of the value of the
(09:24):
gift. Well, you also havemore items, yeah than though you know,
it seems like ninety percent of itis confetti mm hmm. With Basket
of Pittsburgh. One thing that reallyattracted me is that it's a basket.
It is basket full of Pittsburgh stuff. I mean, really do a good
job. Well, thank you,and we are we do have a basket
that we just designed specifically for thevery merry YenS are Christmas, Yes,
(09:50):
yes, Verrians are Christmas. Veryends are Christmas. I always want to
throw Mary in there. And itis so fun. It's very Pittsburgh but
very Christmas. And a portion ofthe proceeds are going to go to Band
Together for the upcoming event. Andfor those who aren't aware, that's an
organization that was started by John Ventoand Moondog and what they do is they
(10:11):
get people who are on the spectruminvolved in music. Maybe it's DJ,
maybe play an instrument, maybe singing, maybe just enjoying music. And it's
a really cool organization getting people onthe spectrum involved in music. And having
a son who's also on the spectrum, I can appreciate that. So thank
you. Yeah, and we're excitedto be a part of it. All
right, So let's find out moreabout Chantel. You went to pitt what
(10:35):
was your major communications? Okay,so you wanted to be on radio on
TV. I did work for ShelleyDuffy. Thank you is an internship for
a summer and I was cutting in, splicing the tape and out doing Pittsburgh's
opinion. Yeah, I work withher on B ninety four age. Yeah,
(10:56):
yeah, I was B ninety fourand Quinn and Banana were there at
the time, So that's kind ofshowing my age at this point. But
yeah, they I did that atthat time, and then I ended up
in sales, and I excelled insales, so I just never turned back.
So you were you were living inthe like the Philadelphia area when you
decided to do this project. No, we came back to Pittsburgh. I
(11:20):
left and went to Philly in ninetyeight and came back in two thousand and
four. Now I notice on thewebsite you do have a Philadelphia section.
We do. We have a lotof friends there in Philly who were requesting
some gifts like we have in Pittsburgh, and so we started working on something
for them as well. It's notfully launched. We're just kind of dabbling
(11:41):
around in it, and it wasreally pushed because some of our friends wanted
it. Are you dabbling in othercities and other states? Eventually, eventually
we'll see how Philadelphia goes. We'rekind of focusing on Pa. Pittsburgh is
our is our home. PA isour you know, overlying home. And
so Philadelphia by sure is just youalmost innately know what does what needs to
(12:03):
be in a Pittsburgh basket right rightright, It's like we're born like yeah,
fortunately, yeah you need Hines,you need you know, you need
this kind of chocolate, you needthis kind of thing, and even have
like a nutritious inclusions as well.Oh yeah, we have Nugo and Ready
Clean bars that are in there aswell. So do you go to these
(12:24):
companies, these local companies find us, some of them find us, some
of them we find and some ofthem have been in the baskets probably since
you know, nineteen eighty four.Now long relationships with some of them.
Okay, to talk about you,first of all, let's talk about your
team. How big of an organizationis. So we have about five employees
(12:46):
outside of the holiday season, andthen in November and December we ramp up
to about thirty five forty and it'sseven days a week, multiple shifts a
day, and it is jamming.It is Santa's warehouse. It is insane,
it's it's nuts, but it's fun. It's fun. We make it
fun. We have a great culture. We're very customer service oriented. I
(13:07):
have the best team. I can'tsay enough about them. And do you
get the same people ordering year inyear out? We do have a lot
of repeat business. Yes, youget to know they're almost part of the
Basket of Pittsburgh family. Yes,yes, absolutely, absolutely. Even some
of the little ladies who have aflyer from one Jan was running the business
and they pull it out and theycall and I'm like, well, we
(13:28):
don't really have that basket anymore,but we'll find you something, you know.
So what do you enjoy most aboutBasket of Pittsburgh. I love the
creativity a part of it, andI love represent being able to represent Pittsburgh
in such a way that it makesboth parties happy, the sender happy and
the receiver happy. It's just it'ssuch a neat thing. And we're supporting
(13:52):
local companies, so on multiple levels, it's just a home run. You
get to support local companies, youget to represent the city that you love,
and then on top of it,you know the people that are sending
and receiving are elated. So isthis your passion? I didn't know that
it would be my passion, butit is now. Yes, why because
(14:15):
I love Pittsburgh. I'm entrepreneurial.So the challenge in the creativity part of
it there stimulate is very stimulating forme and allows me to thrive in that
space, but also getting to makepeople happy. You know, gifting has
become my love language, I guess, you know, just by nature of
being in the business. But it'snot me giving it to other people.
(14:37):
It's helping other people connect and makingthose experiences happen. What's your biggest challenge?
Our biggest challenge would be the holidayseason, just operating efficiently. We've
learned a lot over the years andwe were done on time ahead of schedule
last year, so last year wasprobably our best effort. It's I'm going
(15:01):
on eight years now, and youknow, we've learned a lot over the
years, and my team is ahuge part of it. We're all open.
Nobody knows more than anybody else,and we we grow and learn together
and we we love what we alllove what we do, and our customers
love us. So so what happenedduring the pandemic was that was that good
(15:26):
or bad for your organzation? Sofor us, it was good because nobody
could see each other, so theonly way they could communicate was through gifts.
So for us, the pandemic turnedout to be a win from a
sales perspective. We had our challengesstaff wise, obviously, because with a
limited staff and you know, theworld that it was and the things that
(15:50):
were going on, that was challenging, but we worked through it. I
would give us an a plus.So you mentioned the Very Years of Christmas.
What other charitable organizations do you doyou participate in? We donate regularly
to all sorts of charity organizations herein Pittsburgh. We get every day,
(16:12):
we get emails from somebody you know, looking for donations. It's just by
nature of what we do. We'rea natural extension of like, oh,
gift basket, gift basket, soeverybody thinks to call us for those particular
things. We have programs set upfor people that if they want to participate,
we offer discounts and things like that. But we come up with some
(16:33):
really creative gifts for some very createyou know, for some big organizations and
try to help them raise money.So we take the inventory we get as
samples that are good, but weget stuff in the mail the time,
and so we'll take that and recreateit and make it into something really special
and then just donate it to anorganization. And that's our way of giving
(16:55):
back to the community. What isthe one thing you want people to know
about Basket Pittsburgh. Basket of Pittsburghis a local company that is service oriented.
We answer the phone. We havebeautiful gifts and we send them all
over the country and make everybody happy. It doesn't. We support local companies
(17:15):
and it's just a great place.It's a really great place on so many
levels. It's a great place,and I wish I could take credit from
the founding, but I can't,so we'll just take credit for being such
a great place that it is stilltoday. The website is Basket of Pittsburgh
dot com. Chantel Goldstrom of Basketof Pittsburgh and a CEO you Should Know.
Chantel, thank you so much.Thank you. This has been the
(17:37):
CEOs you Should Know podcast showcasing businessesthat are driving our regional economy. Part
of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communities weserve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank you
so much for listening.
And welcome inn. This is theCEO's Used to Know podcast. I'm your
host, Johnny Hert. Well,let's say hello, Deshauntel Goldstrom. Thank
you for joining me my pleasure.Basket of Pittsburgh tell us everything we need
to know about your company. Basketof Pittsburgh is the best local gift company
around town. We have an onlinestore that is full of lots of different
options for gifts. Whether you're sendingone to a family member or a corporate
(00:27):
account, there is lots and lotsto choose from. I mean, my
biggest issue with Basket at Pittsburgh dotcom is that there are so many choices
I don't know which one to choosefirst. And they're all so great.
We are designers, are amazing,and we use all local companies. So
from all your favorite brands here inPittsburgh, you get them all in some
(00:49):
cases in some baskets, whether it'sfor sympathy or a Steeler basket exactly.
You know, even is somebody forHalloween or for the holidays. You cover
all occasions and all Pittsburgh local companiesinside this one basket. Yes, it
is absolutely so. Where did thewhere did this idea? What? Who
originated this idea. I can't takecredit for the concept. It was founded
(01:10):
by Jan Jones in nineteen eighty fourin Upper Saint Clair. But here we
are almost forty years later. Wehave a large warehouse out in Robinson.
We can handle up to five hundredgifts easily. Our largest order has been
up to four thousand gifts for alocal conference here in town. So we
can do it all, and wedo do it all all right. So
if somebody is not familiar with Basketof Pittsburgh, what is your typical basket?
(01:34):
What is going to be inside?So we offer a variety, which
makes us a little bit different fromeverybody else as well, because you get
multiple types of you get a littlesweet, you get a little savory.
And they're all local companies. Alot of them you may not even know
about, but they are. There'ssome in Turtle Creek, they're some Minroville,
and they're not the ones that youmight think of, but we find
(01:55):
them be a little more specific ofsomebody. I know you have so many
brands and you don't want you know, you don't want to show favoritism,
but I want to give people anidea of a typical Pittsburgh basket, maybe
maybe one of your best sellers.What's an idea? What are what are
some of the items inside that box? So some of our best sellers,
they all contain a lot of themcontain Cerruses. Everybody knows Sarruss. Everybody
(02:19):
knows Saraus Candy. We have lotsof chocolate options. But also there's a
chocolate Graham pretzel company out in Monrovillecalled Artists in Gourmet. There's a salsa
company out of Baldwin that's called TwoUgly Mugs. Raina is in the Strip
district. You know, it goeson and on and on Mancini's and there's
so many to choose. I knowit's difficult to choose just so, but
(02:43):
if you go to Basket of Pittsburghdot com, you're going just to see
probably over one hundred different options,way more than that. And we do
custom gifts as well. So ifyou see something on there that may not
be in your price range or maybeit's you need to customize a little bit
for corporate event where your best option. All right, So jan started in
(03:06):
nineteen eighty four, so you're celebratingforty years in business here, very shortly.
I was going to say, youcouldn't have been around in nineteen eighty
four, So when did you takeover? Second generation of US took over
in twenty sixteen, and we've beenadded ever since. We've grown, we've
added, We've added additional companies inthat we put in the gift baskets.
(03:27):
We work with a lot of thecorporate companies here in Pittsburgh. We do
it all. You know. It'sfunny because I met you last month and
I was like, oh, basketof Pittsburgh. That's a great idea that
I went on your website and I'mlike, oh my god, I've been
on this website. I've sent becauseit's such a great way of representing the
city. Obviously, you know,being from Pittsburgh, I'm so proud of
(03:47):
what this city has to offer.And there's Pittsburgh's everywhere. You know.
All you have to do is lookat a Stealer game, even in La
or Las Vegas or Dallas, You'regoing to see Pittsburgh all over and those
people who are in Dallas and inCalifornia. It's the perfect gift for the
holidays to send the little piece alittle taste of Pittsburgh to these people.
(04:11):
We send them all over the countryevery day, especially in December of course,
you know that's a very busy timeof year. But we send them
all over the country and we getrave reviews. I just got two calls
from people who received the baskets theother day, and they were over the
moon about how excited and how beautifulthey were and all the local products they
(04:31):
and one of them was no longerhere. So you can take the person
out of Pittsburgh, but you can'ttake the Pittsburgh out of the person.
You know, she was just shewas so elated that she picked up the
phone and made the call to tellus how wonderful it was. So when
jan started, was it just oneor two items or was it as many
items as you have now? Now, well, we've expanded that part of
(04:53):
it, for sure. But there'sa lot more creativity in the market these
days, so we have a lotmore to choose from than she did back
then. But the concept was alwaysthe same. We've just taken it to
another level. Okay, guess that'swhy I wanted to know. There are
so many creative, creative ideas anddifferent baskets. I'm like Oh my god,
I don't know which one to choose. Are so cool? Well,
(05:13):
one of the signature items that wehave is our incline box, So it's
a little incline. We put thecontents in the incline, shrink it up,
bow it up, ship it wherever. That was one of the ones
that we delivered four thousand into thecity for guests coming in for a conference.
But it's a very very popular item, and it's in a variety of
gift baskets of obviously not the onesthat are more birthday oriented or sympathy oriented,
(05:38):
right, you won't put an inclinein that, But these are the
ones that really represent Pittsburgh and whowe are is a culture here now.
And to be fair, you alsohave like holiday baskets and you know,
birthday baskets and things like that.But I'm sure the Pittsburgh items are your
hot sellars. They do. Theyall sell very well actually, and even
(05:58):
the sympathy and birthday one, westill use the local companies. It's just
not screaming Pittsburgh, right, butwe're still lending that local to support to
everybody that we do business with.And if you had to recommend one box,
or one basket. Can you dothat? I don't even know.
You have so many children, somany kids, I can't choose my favorite.
(06:21):
Come on, Chantelle, is thereis there a particular basket that you
think really people should should see.So the PGH in that is a very
big seller because it very much embodiesthe spirit of Pittsburgh and it's black and
gold and it's fun, but yetit's rich with items in terms of snacky
(06:44):
things, and that it is.It is a very big seller. The
other one is the PGH Box,which is brand new. It's only a
couple of years old, but it'ssay, that's what I set out.
It has all those caricatures and allthose little items on the box itself.
It's really cute. So when itgoes through the mail, it just screams,
this is coming from Pittsburgh. Absolutely. It captures our culture in graphic
(07:08):
form on a box which is thedelivery mechanism for the local products on the
inside. And it's been a huge, huge win for us. People love
the concept and it's fun. It'sjust a very fun gift. All right.
So let's find out about Chantell.How did you get into this?
So I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit, and I've bounced around between corporate jobs
(07:30):
and doing my own thing, anda lot of that had to do with
being a mom with three babies,and that part of it was where I
would shift back and forth and Iwas working for somebody else. My kids
were getting to a point where theywere a little bit more independent, and
I was looking for a business.And I had looked for about a year
or so and talked to a lotof different people, and nothing just got
(07:51):
me. And I have always beena huge advocate of Pittsburgh. I left
here for a little bit and missedPittsburgh dearly from Pittsburgh. I am from
Pittsburgh. Yeah, I grew uphere, went to pitt and left for
about six years to the other sideof the state and just missed the culture
here so much. And so I'ma passionate Pittsburgh person. So when this
(08:13):
business came to me, I waslike, Oh, I could do this
in my sleep. I love this. I loved it then, I love
it now, my team loves it. We all love it. What we
do is just so much fun.You can't It doesn't get any better than
this. What is it? Whatis it about? Pittsburgh's We are so
proud of our culture and some ofthe items that you offer are pure Pittsburgh.
(08:37):
It's like, I don't know ifthis would either translate to you know,
another country or another part of theregion. And which makes it even
cooler. To be honest with you, it is very unique to Pittsburgh.
There's not a lot of us thatare as big as we are in Pittsburgh
that do it in other markets oras successful in other markets. So we
are unique in that fact as well. And I said, we send them
(09:00):
all over the country all year long. Do you compete against some national chains
and things like that. Honestly,we do. It's surprising, but we
do compete with the likes of Harryand David and other companies at that magnitude
from on a corporate level mostly.But I can guarantee you we do a
better job in terms of our serviceand as much of the value of the
(09:24):
gift. Well, you also havemore items, yeah than though you know,
it seems like ninety percent of itis confetti mm hmm. With Basket
of Pittsburgh. One thing that reallyattracted me is that it's a basket.
It is basket full of Pittsburgh stuff. I mean, really do a good
job. Well, thank you,and we are we do have a basket
that we just designed specifically for thevery merry YenS are Christmas, Yes,
(09:50):
yes, Verrians are Christmas. Veryends are Christmas. I always want to
throw Mary in there. And itis so fun. It's very Pittsburgh but
very Christmas. And a portion ofthe proceeds are going to go to Band
Together for the upcoming event. Andfor those who aren't aware, that's an
organization that was started by John Ventoand Moondog and what they do is they
(10:11):
get people who are on the spectruminvolved in music. Maybe it's DJ,
maybe play an instrument, maybe singing, maybe just enjoying music. And it's
a really cool organization getting people onthe spectrum involved in music. And having
a son who's also on the spectrum, I can appreciate that. So thank
you. Yeah, and we're excitedto be a part of it. All
right, So let's find out moreabout Chantel. You went to pitt what
(10:35):
was your major communications? Okay,so you wanted to be on radio on
TV. I did work for ShelleyDuffy. Thank you is an internship for
a summer and I was cutting in, splicing the tape and out doing Pittsburgh's
opinion. Yeah, I work withher on B ninety four age. Yeah,
(10:56):
yeah, I was B ninety fourand Quinn and Banana were there at
the time, So that's kind ofshowing my age at this point. But
yeah, they I did that atthat time, and then I ended up
in sales, and I excelled insales, so I just never turned back.
So you were you were living inthe like the Philadelphia area when you
decided to do this project. No, we came back to Pittsburgh. I
(11:20):
left and went to Philly in ninetyeight and came back in two thousand and
four. Now I notice on thewebsite you do have a Philadelphia section.
We do. We have a lotof friends there in Philly who were requesting
some gifts like we have in Pittsburgh, and so we started working on something
for them as well. It's notfully launched. We're just kind of dabbling
(11:41):
around in it, and it wasreally pushed because some of our friends wanted
it. Are you dabbling in othercities and other states? Eventually, eventually
we'll see how Philadelphia goes. We'rekind of focusing on Pa. Pittsburgh is
our is our home. PA isour you know, overlying home. And
so Philadelphia by sure is just youalmost innately know what does what needs to
(12:03):
be in a Pittsburgh basket right rightright, It's like we're born like yeah,
fortunately, yeah you need Hines,you need you know, you need
this kind of chocolate, you needthis kind of thing, and even have
like a nutritious inclusions as well.Oh yeah, we have Nugo and Ready
Clean bars that are in there aswell. So do you go to these
(12:24):
companies, these local companies find us, some of them find us, some
of them we find and some ofthem have been in the baskets probably since
you know, nineteen eighty four.Now long relationships with some of them.
Okay, to talk about you,first of all, let's talk about your
team. How big of an organizationis. So we have about five employees
(12:46):
outside of the holiday season, andthen in November and December we ramp up
to about thirty five forty and it'sseven days a week, multiple shifts a
day, and it is jamming.It is Santa's warehouse. It is insane,
it's it's nuts, but it's fun. It's fun. We make it
fun. We have a great culture. We're very customer service oriented. I
(13:07):
have the best team. I can'tsay enough about them. And do you
get the same people ordering year inyear out? We do have a lot
of repeat business. Yes, youget to know they're almost part of the
Basket of Pittsburgh family. Yes,yes, absolutely, absolutely. Even some
of the little ladies who have aflyer from one Jan was running the business
and they pull it out and theycall and I'm like, well, we
(13:28):
don't really have that basket anymore,but we'll find you something, you know.
So what do you enjoy most aboutBasket of Pittsburgh. I love the
creativity a part of it, andI love represent being able to represent Pittsburgh
in such a way that it makesboth parties happy, the sender happy and
the receiver happy. It's just it'ssuch a neat thing. And we're supporting
(13:52):
local companies, so on multiple levels, it's just a home run. You
get to support local companies, youget to represent the city that you love,
and then on top of it,you know the people that are sending
and receiving are elated. So isthis your passion? I didn't know that
it would be my passion, butit is now. Yes, why because
(14:15):
I love Pittsburgh. I'm entrepreneurial.So the challenge in the creativity part of
it there stimulate is very stimulating forme and allows me to thrive in that
space, but also getting to makepeople happy. You know, gifting has
become my love language, I guess, you know, just by nature of
being in the business. But it'snot me giving it to other people.
(14:37):
It's helping other people connect and makingthose experiences happen. What's your biggest challenge?
Our biggest challenge would be the holidayseason, just operating efficiently. We've
learned a lot over the years andwe were done on time ahead of schedule
last year, so last year wasprobably our best effort. It's I'm going
(15:01):
on eight years now, and youknow, we've learned a lot over the
years, and my team is ahuge part of it. We're all open.
Nobody knows more than anybody else,and we we grow and learn together
and we we love what we alllove what we do, and our customers
love us. So so what happenedduring the pandemic was that was that good
(15:26):
or bad for your organzation? Sofor us, it was good because nobody
could see each other, so theonly way they could communicate was through gifts.
So for us, the pandemic turnedout to be a win from a
sales perspective. We had our challengesstaff wise, obviously, because with a
limited staff and you know, theworld that it was and the things that
(15:50):
were going on, that was challenging, but we worked through it. I
would give us an a plus.So you mentioned the Very Years of Christmas.
What other charitable organizations do you doyou participate in? We donate regularly
to all sorts of charity organizations herein Pittsburgh. We get every day,
(16:12):
we get emails from somebody you know, looking for donations. It's just by
nature of what we do. We'rea natural extension of like, oh,
gift basket, gift basket, soeverybody thinks to call us for those particular
things. We have programs set upfor people that if they want to participate,
we offer discounts and things like that. But we come up with some
(16:33):
really creative gifts for some very createyou know, for some big organizations and
try to help them raise money.So we take the inventory we get as
samples that are good, but weget stuff in the mail the time,
and so we'll take that and recreateit and make it into something really special
and then just donate it to anorganization. And that's our way of giving
(16:55):
back to the community. What isthe one thing you want people to know
about Basket Pittsburgh. Basket of Pittsburghis a local company that is service oriented.
We answer the phone. We havebeautiful gifts and we send them all
over the country and make everybody happy. It doesn't. We support local companies
(17:15):
and it's just a great place.It's a really great place on so many
levels. It's a great place,and I wish I could take credit from
the founding, but I can't,so we'll just take credit for being such
a great place that it is stilltoday. The website is Basket of Pittsburgh
dot com. Chantel Goldstrom of Basketof Pittsburgh and a CEO you Should Know.
Chantel, thank you so much.Thank you. This has been the
(17:37):
CEOs you Should Know podcast showcasing businessesthat are driving our regional economy. Part
of iHeartMedia's commitment to the communities weserve. I'm Johnny Hartwell, thank you
so much for listening.
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