Dear friends, customers, and supporters,

When I started this business back in 2018, I didn’t really have a long-term plan. What I did have was a passion for sharing and promoting locally made goods. At that time, I turned to my immediate community, sourcing products right here in New Brunswick. I named the business "The NB Box" and launched with my very first offering: the “Ms. New Brunswick” Box, filled exclusively with items from women-owned businesses. There was no shop-what-you-want. It was simply a "take it or leave it" box of seven products, but it was a start. 

The original Ms NB Box - launched in 2018

As the months went by, so much changed. After a trip to PEI and Nova Scotia, I was inspired to broaden my horizons. I saw so many cute, unique products and realized the potential in expanding my offerings beyond New Brunswick. By 2019, (after my husband gifted me a homemade "Newfoundland Box," for Christmas) I was really eager to embrace the larger Atlantic Canadian artisan craft community.

  

Rob's homemade Newfoundland Box to me for Christmas 2019

In early 2020, I took the leap and registered a new business name: Rising Tide Gifts. It was meant to symbolize the growth of the business, encompassing products and small businesses from all four Atlantic provinces. But I hesitated, and the decision I made afterward—keeping The NB Box and Rising Tide Gifts as two separate entities—ended up being a mistake that cost me countless hours of time and effort to manage.

I had a real fear that people might think we were moving away from our local roots by dropping “NB” from our name. While Rising Tide Gifts better expresses what we do (gifts, hello!!), I worried that it didn’t quite communicate our dedication to local products as clearly. But rest assured, nothing has changed in that regard—we remain deeply committed to carrying locally made goods from New Brunswick artisans. Supporting small, local businesses is still at the heart of everything we do.

For the last four years, we've been operating as both brands. To us, they're synonymous, but to our customers, it’s been confusing. In fact, we’ve even heard stories of clients arguing over which business—NB Box or Rising Tide Gifts—was better to work with, not realizing they were debating the same company!

And so, here I am, owning up to my own misstep. But also, I’m here to tell you that I’m done hesitating. It's time for clarity and consistency. You will start to notice changes in our social media handles. We've already switched over our website URL, our email, and our packaging to reflect the unified brand of Rising Tide Gifts. And while this change may feel big, we promise our heart and commitment remain exactly the same.

And don’t worry—if you’re used to searching for us as The NB Box, we’ve got you covered. If you type in nbbox.ca or search for The NB Box, you’ll still get to us!

We hope you'll continue on this journey with us.

PS: To keep things a little fun and local, our seasonal pop-up shop at Area 506’s Container Village will remain known as The Little NB Box. It just makes sense for that local space, don’t you think? 😉

With love and gratitude,

Ingrid Munroe
Founder of Rising Tide Gifts (formerly The NB Box)