Thoughtful Senior Gifts

Caring for an aging parent, grandparent or other relative takes time, even if you’re doing your part from a distance. Online shopping for gifts and helpful items is convenient as long as it doesn’t pull you into a time-consuming search for the best products. Boutiques that focus exclusively on gifts for seniors can save you time by pulling together popular, reliable, and tested options for you to choose from.

Thoughtful Senior Gifts offers a curated selection of items designed to appeal to the tastes of older adults, make their lives easier, and brighten up their homes and gardens. The shop’s owners say they’ve tested many of the offerings with their own senior family members.

Shop Description:

There are eight departments at Thoughtful Senior Gifts: books and hobbies, clothing and jewelry, garden, health and beauty, home, mobility and safety, music and movies, and pets. There are also special gift departments for holiday themed items, gifts for men and women, and items under $25.

Pros:

Well-known brands including Philosophy, Carhartt, Bose, and Dremel offer reliable quality. The shop’s navigation tools are easy to use and have a nostalgic theme that makes for a fun browsing experience. Each department offers anywhere from a handful to a few dozen products so choices are varied but not overwhelming.

Along with practical items like zipper and button tools made for arthritic hands, there’s a trove of retro-themed items designed to take recipients down memory lane, including a turntable/CD player styled like a 1930s radio cabinet, a gift assortment of candies that were popular in the 1950s, and a collection of music from Bing Crosby to Elvis.

Because checkout is handled by Amazon, shoppers get the current price for each item, even if it’s lower than what’s listed at Thoughtful Senior Gifts.

Cons:

The flipside of having prices updated at checkout through Amazon is that they might be higher, because Amazon prices fluctuate often. (Each sale item in the TSG shop has an “as of” date for when the markdown was taken.)

We added half a dozen items from different Thoughtful Senior Gifts departments to our cart. Of those, 2 (a pair of 1928 Jewelry Company dangle earrings and a Bonavita electric kettle) were the same price when we got to Amazon checkout. One item was priced higher. The Drive Medical Bobcat scooter listed on TSG for $699 was priced at checkout at $718.49 (list price was $1,908.45).

The other 3 items (a Crane humidifier, a set of Brinkmann pet steps, and a large garden utility cart) were all priced lower at checkout to reflect Amazon markdowns. For our cart, the overall savings at checkout was more than the price increase on the scooter. Shoppers should double-check prices at checkout.

Fine print:

Checkout, delivery, and returns are all handled through Amazon. Customer support from Thoughtful Senior Gifts is available via email.

Cost:

The most expensive item we found was the Drive Medical Bobcat mobility scooter at $699.00, although the actual Amazon price was slightly higher as noted above. Many of the products are priced below $200, and the Under $25 department has more than 100 items.

Best for…

Shoppers who want to find appropriate gifts quickly, without sorting through hundreds of products. The store is also convenient for frequent Amazon shoppers, because Amazon handles checkout for Thoughtful Senior Gifts.