Things Remembered

Pros:  Fast, easy way to get a personalized gift.

Cons:  Gifts are pricey and some are just plain cheap looking.

The Bottom Line:  If you don't mind paying for convenience, here's your supply closet for going away gifts.

Full review
Preamble
I am always the one who gets suckered into purchasing that going away gift for a co-worker, subordinate, or boss. Maybe it's because it's difficult for me to say no, or maybe, the people in my office think that I just have impeccable taste :).

What Is Things Remembered?
Things Remembered is a retailer that offers gifts like desk accessories, picture frames, trophies, plaques, and clocks with the added bonus of conveinent personalization.

You can find Things Remembered in all major malls across the country. It's truly a one stop shopping for the busy executive chick.

The Website
Things Remembered has a very intuitive way of navigating through their system. The average internet user will have no difficulty in finding what they need.

If you have difficulty finding the right thing for that person, the site has a gift advisor page that allows you to plug in some key information. This information (like price, occasion, sentiment, and brand) will assist you in narrowing down what gift choices are available. This, in my opinion, is a key time saver for those of us who don't have all day to look through every thing to find that perfect product.

Quality
Like most products out there in the marketplace, you have your spectrum of expensive, nice things (think waterford) and chinzy pieces o' crap things (think whatever you want).

The actual products are decent although for my tastes, they are WAY too conservative.

Cost
In the fast food world of sentiment, cost is the price you pay for convenience.

The products themselves seem to be about 10%-15% above the normal retail price of a similar item that you can find somewhere else. If you think time is money than this extra amount won't keep you up at night.

The engraving runs around $3 per word (over three letters) with a maximum of $50 charged. If you think about it, the engraving part costs sometimes more (or just as much) as the actual product therefore, you are just about guaranteed to spend at least $100 at this site.

Customer Service
Things Remembered has a place, like most shopping sites, where you are able to check on the status of your order. I had to make a slight change to mind (the shipping) and the email I sent off to customer service was answered within two hours. This is outstanding turnaround time for an e-commerce website.

The End
If you're in the market for this type of gift, it's a convenient one stop shopping place that prevents you from having to face the mall crowd.