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JUNE 10 - JUNE 18, 2014

Family Souvenir Business Thrives at One Niagara

By Tony Farina

June 10, 2014

 
The late Jack and Lynda Gibas worked hard to build the largest souvenir store in Niagara Falls. Their five sons have partnered and have built it even larger at One Niagara.

It started back in 1982 when the Gibas family of Niagara Falls opened the Green Onion Souvenir Shop in the Rainbow Centre Mall and continues today, more than 30 years later, at the Bloomin Onion at the One Niagara Welcome Center.

The Gibas brothers, all five of them, are now tending to a very successful souvenir business at One Niagara that carries on the souvenir tradition established more than 30 years ago by their parents, Jack and Lynda, at the former Rainbow Mall across the street on Rainbow Blvd.

"We are proud to be able to welcome tourists from near and far to our gift store year-round," says Ricky Gibas, "and especially now, as the tourist season begins in earnest in Niagara Falls. We offer our customers a full range of souvenirs to help mark their visit to our famous city, including a lot of specialty items like our own brand of T-shirts. We have something for everyone in the family."

Thousands of visitors come to the Bloomin Onion at One Niagara, and the latest version of the family's tourist business actually began in 2005 when Lynda Gibas set up a table outside and started selling shortly after the demise of the Rainbow Mall.

The Gibas business moved inside in 2007 with the arrival of developer Frank Parlato and now Rick and his four brothers, Greg, Darin, Mike, and Joe, from the Deveaux section of Niagara Falls, operate one of the largest tourist businesses in the area, and they do it with their own money as the Bloomin Onion is a privately-owned gift shop. It does not receive any public grants or incentives to operate, and the Gibas' family is proud of that independence.

One Niagara hosts a number of success stories, not the least of which is the Gibas family souvenir store.

Brothers Rick (left) and Joe Gibas at their shop.

On any given day, visitors from the Western New York community or from as far away as Beijing (China) can be found browsing the many souvenir offerings in the approximately 8,000 square foot Bloomin Onion Gift Shop which covers most of the front section of the One Niagara center.

While it competes with far more bigger name souvenir shops in the area, run by Delaware North (State Park) and Jimmy Glynn's Maid of the Mist shop, the Bloomin Onion may be the most successful of all of them thanks to the hard work of the family from Deveaux, the five brothers who carry on the good name and work of their parents.

The Bloomin Onion is proud to do business in Niagara Falls and extends the welcome mat to all who come to One Niagara and the cataract city and who may be looking for that perfect souvenir to help capture the moment of their trip. In all likelihood, they will find that perfect souvenir at the Gibas' family's Bloomin Onion.

 

 

 

 

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Family Souvenir Business Thrives at One Niagara

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