gift-giving:

personal & local

co-founder Jen Kanter at the Arts District Co-Op

Years ago, we loved supporting a company founded by a man from our hometown – Bellevue, WA. Since he founded it out of the garage of his family’s home, it felt hyper-local & supportive of small businesses.

Over the years, the company scaled big time & maybe in a sense – outgrew its local connection. It became convenient, but with that – very impersonal.

I realized then, that I like when it’s personal.

I’ve accidentally sent gifts, a few times in the past, that required very little time or thought – two clicks & they were on their way to a friend, client, or family member. I remembered feeling a bit embarrassed, & following up each time with emails saying “so sorry, I’m so busy at work, but I wanted to send you a little something”.

So lame, right?

My gift giving mistakes (& successes!) over the years made me think: are there other people like me who love GIVING perfect & personal gifts, but sometimes find themselves out of ideas, out of time, or in a gift giving rut?

gifts made local

Recently we took a moment to think about how much we’ve learned in the past three years, how many cool people we’ve met, & the brand we’ve built along the way.

It took almost 3 years to put together our 100 local artists, social enterprise & non-profit partners & we couldn’t be happier with the growing list of partners we get to work with every day.

Our adventures around L.A. have us meeting amazing people, & trying out products from incredible, local companies. We truly have the best job ever. It’s amazing to know we can support cool, local companies we are close with, while connecting these companies to local people.

we’re proud of barrio.la

It represents all that we love in Los Angeles.

Because barrio means “neighborhood” in Spanish, it serves as a constant reminder that communities & neighborhoods really matter.

It always makes us happy to hear “we love what you’re doing”. Our gifts made locally in L.A. always leave people feeling happy & connected, which is what we’ve always intended.

go personal

During your gift giving season, we challenge all of you to go “personal”.

Buy that cool t-shirt that gives back to KCRW or be patient & wait for something to be created (like a one of a kind ceramic piece, leather accessory, or customized gift). Sure, you may have to be more patient – or, you may have to spend a little time with us to make sure you get EXACTLY what you want – but doesn’t that sound so much cooler?

Sounds kind of difficult? Trust us, we do it all the time.

We’re confident we can find pretty much anything made-in-L.A.

personal touches

We hand package every gift, hand write every card, & we know every person behind the products we curate.

Our gifts made local in LA are personal. It’s the #madeinLA way, right?

Not sure how to get started? Call us, email us, text us- we’ll help.

Contact us today to get started: www.barrio.la/connect

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