‘The Answer in Gifts’ is no more

The Answer in Gifts, a longtime Green Valley gift and card store, sold its last greeting card this past week.

Owner Mary Ann Perry officially retired after running the shop for more than 23 years and says she plans to spend more time with her grandchildren.

The popular store was located next to ladies’ fashion store, Bonworth, and a stone’s throw away across the parking lot from Ace Hardware in the Green Valley Village, formerly the Green Valley Mall.

Perry and her husband Ron bought the business in October, 1985 from original owners, Aldrich and Betty Jones, who first opened The Answer in Gifts in November, 1978.

Mary Ann was no stranger to the gift and card business. She had been employed by the Hallmark store at Park Place Mall in Tucson for five years prior to taking ownership of The Answer in Gifts.

The Perrys, who will be married 51 years this year, own a ranch in the Tubac area, and Mary Ann admits to being a frequent shopper, visiting The Answer in Gifts often before she actually owned it.

“I would stop in and browse and talk to the owners,” she recalls. “I always enjoyed gift stores and the merchandise it sells.”

After the purchasing the business, she stocked her own shelves with not only cards, but stationary, baby gifts, seasonal trinkets, gifts for the garden, apparel, stuffed toys, housewarming gifts, jewelry and unique specialty food items like marmalades, salsa and Arizona pecans.

Mary Ann admits she’ll “miss her customers the most.”

“I had regular customers who would stop in every week to say ‘hello’ and see what I had in that was new,” she says. “I want to thank them for being so loyal. They became my friends.”

rford@gvnews.com | 547-9740