Sometimes there’s a need to outsource the tasks that one might not have the time for. There’s Instacart for groceries, Uber Eats to replace making dinner, BarkBox so you don’t have to comb through the aisles of a warehouse-sized Petco to find treats for your dog, and many other services offering shortcuts. For gift-giving, two Lynnfield women recently started their own venture, a gift concierge, to solve these dilemmas.
Longtime friends Joanna Dearth and Justine Routhier started their company, The Gift Scouts. The two were inspired by values instilled in them ever since they were young regarding the importance of gift-giving, showing appreciation through gifts, making sure you don’t come to someone’s home empty-handed, and making gifts stand out and be unique.
“Jo and I, our love language is gift-giving,” Routhier said. “We genuinely enjoy seeing people’s reactions to what we’ve pulled together, it’s like a natural high for us.”
Dearth, who grew up in Lynnfield, said she was inspired by her mom, who is the ultimate gift-giver.
“She had a gift closet, and having four children, just think of all the birthday parties, all of the teachers, all of the hostess gifts that were needed,” Dearth said. “So she would find something she liked and thought would be a great gift, and she would purchase them in bulk and then keep it in this closet, so whenever we needed to go to a party or we were invited to someone’s house, she was able to pull out these super cute gifts.”
According to Routhier, this passion led to family members and neighbors asking her and Dearth for ideas on what gifts to give, and finally, just before Thanksgiving in 2023, they turned this passion into a business.
Staying true to their slogan, “We scout it, you gift it,” one service their business provides includes seasonal mini-gifts. In certain times of the year like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, customers can buy quick “grab and go” options that are, as Dearth likes to say, “all tied with a bow and ready to go” to give away at parties or get-togethers.
For their Signature Service and Goody Bags services, clients will answer a gifting questionnaire so that Dearth and Routhier can curate gifts, goody bags, and party favors based on the answers to them. They also have a Just Ideas service, where the business will curate gift guides for clients based on their answers to the questionnaire.
“If you’re somebody who gets stumped when buying gifts, you can reach out to us,” Routhier
said. “We’ve had husbands who really want to impress their wives and we can help them hit a home-run.”
Dearth said that coming up with personalized gift ideas takes time and thought.
“It’s not something super speedy,” Dearth said. “You want to take the time to think about it to really absorb the survey that they filled out and come up with some ideas, present that to the client, let them think about it for a little bit, and maybe make some tweaks and recommendations.”
In addition to their gift-giving values, Routhier and Dearth, who are both moms to two boys and have full-time careers, started their venture as a creative outlet.
“We love the work that we do, we love being moms, we love our careers,” Dearth said. “This was just something else that we get so much gratification out of when we nail a gift, or when someone gives us feedback about how much a person just absolutely loved it, or a child was just over the moon with the goody bags.”
According to Routhier, the majority of their clients are on the North Shore and other nearby communities.
“We’re looking to expand and continue to grow,” Routhier said.
