Perhaps the most logical place to look for a gift is a gift shop. Thus the name, right? However, bear in mind one-stop gift shopping at gift shops is not necessarily a mindless activity. There is no escape from knowing the people you’re choosing gifts for, including their likes and dislikes and their sense of humour.

Also, bear in mind that ‘gift shop’ encompasses a wide variety of types of shops. These can include novelty or humour-oriented gift shops, the traditional greeting card and stuffed animal shop, and the kind of souvenir shop you find at travel destinations. All are suitable for meeting your gift needs.

Any gift shop will contain a variety of items geared toward many different personalities and age groups. The humour or novelty-oriented gift shop is perhaps better suited toward gifts for younger people, although individual sense of humour may vary. Their offerings will range from humorous cards to gag gifts, and extend well into the risqué. Bawdy gifts are not appropriate for most contexts, but may prove uproarious for your best friend’s bachelor party. Typically these places will have many items poking fun at the recipient’s age. However, you will want to make sure that age is not a touchy subject for your recipient. In fact, if someone wishes to pretend they’re not having a birthday, best not to call attention to it. You can still shop here, but get them a gift that emphasizes their better, more timeless qualities, and de-emphasizes that it might have anything to do with a birthday.

The more traditional greeting card and stuffed animal shop will, not surprisingly, stock a wide variety of greeting cards and stuffed animals. These can range from the generic and trite to cards and gifts that will seem to speak directly to your friends and loved ones. The better you know the recipient’s tastes, the more likely you will choose wisely.

If your mum or granny is the sort who likes collector plates or Hummel figurines, this is likely the kind of shop to seek out. They’ll have a selection of such things. Of course, you’ll have to learn enough about those collector plates to know what she has, and what constitutes a good one, but that should be fairly easy. After all, seeing as its’ a hobby of hers, she’s quite likely to be willing to talk about it. She most likely won’t identify it as an attempt on your part to fish for gift ideas, especially if you do this research well in advance of any impending gift giving episode. Such a gift will only be a surprise the first time, but will be appreciated every time. Once the surprise has worn off, you might even consider consulting her on the collector’s item for the next holiday event.

Lastly, if you have ever been on holiday you’ve no doubt encountered a souvenir shop or two. Sometimes the treasures contained therein make ideal gifts, but try to choose something interesting and place-specific—and avoid shop-worn humour such as “my mum went to Ibiza and all I got was this lousy-T-shirt.” Even if you went to Ibiza and all you intend to get your daughter is a lousy T-shirt.