What Do Gift Wrappers Think About Us?

Among the many Sophie's Choice decisions testing our bandwidth this holiday season: to wrap or to pay someone to wrap.

WW tried to interview a fulltime Macy's gift wrapper to find out what it's like on the other end of our "dilemma" but got told, “I'll have to ask my manager.”

So we took our apparent boat-rocking line of questions to In the Bag, (708 NW 23rd Ave, 97210). There we found Bronwyn Richardson, 24, who has been a professional wrapper for, “a year and a couple months,” and asked her about her thankless craft.

Willamette Week: What do you detest the most about what you do?
Bronwyn Richardson: Demanding people. People are really picky about their paper. Sometimes it's just so weird to me.


Like who? What happened?
Like someone wanted lobster paper. And only lobster paper. I just thought that was odd.

Ever have any on-the job injuries? Like paper cuts, carpel tunnel, or prolonged mental anguish?
Yeah, starvation. But no. None of that other stuff.


When you get hordes of people does that make you want to wrap faster. Or does it make you want to throw a match on the paper and run out?
It makes me want to wrap faster. But sometimes it'd be nice to light it.


Do you wrap presents at home, or do you just throw them in gift-bags with tissue paper? Or, are you vehemently against gift bags and the gift bag industry?
(Laughs) Yeah, I wrap at home. It's not entirely awful. And gift bags aren't too bad. I mean, if they're good ones, at least…


Do your friends and family ask you to wrap their presents? Isn't that like asking a chef to cook for you, or, asking a lumberjack to chop your wood pile?
It is like that! But that only happens around Christmas. So it's OK, I guess.


Which of these titles best describes you: service professional, artist, stress alleviator, or holiday bitch?
(Smiles) I like the last one.