Kirlin’s Gifts leaving Quincy Town Center, will open in September at Prairie Trails Crossing

QUINCY — Shopper Gloria Wilson said Tuesday afternoon she frequents Kirlin’s Gifts in the Quincy Town Center about once a month.

The store is currently running a hefty 75 percent discount on several items, but the sale isn’t what she’s most enthusiastic about.

“I’m really excited about them moving to Prairie (Trails) Crossing,” Wilson said. 

Bookended by empty storefronts, the gift shop is the latest business to leave the Town Center at 33rd and Broadway and head east to Prairie Trails Crossing. Other stores that have followed the same path are Spencer’s, Maurices and Bath and Body Works. Petco also moved from its 32nd Street location near the Town Center to Prairie Trails Crossing in 2021.

“People who aren’t from here or are new to Quincy, that kind of thing, it’s hard for them to find us here,” owner Craig Kirlin said.

Kirlin hopes the new location at 63rd and Broadway will be open by mid-September, with a grand opening slated for mid-October. The new store will have nearly 2,000 square feet less retail space than the store in the Town Center. However, Kirlin said the Prairie Trails Crossing location makes up for the smaller size with store traffic. He says the new store is projected to get 800,000 more visitors annually than at its current spot.

Kirlin, who bought the store from his family in 2017, said August 31 will be the last day Kirlin’s Gifts will be open in the Quincy Town Center.

Dale Kirlin and his wife, Marian, opened Andes Candies in downtown Quincy in 1948 and started selling Hallmark greeting cards in 1952. Kirln’s Gifts was in the Town and Country Shopping Center in the early 1970s and has been in the Quincy Mall since it opened in 1978.

“It’s definitely going to be bittersweet,” Kirlin said. “But, you know, things change, and we have to (make the) best business decision for us.”