Date Published: 03/25/1998

Detroit News, Detroit, Mi ~ Gannett Newspapers

Detroit News, Detroit, Mi ~ Gannett Newspapers
Kortney Stringer

When past’s scents make perfume cents

        Ann Arbor company banks on nostalgic fragrances for sales.

        Ann Arbor ~ To Gary Droz’s discriminating nose, an aged, sweet-citrus spray or spicy-musk dabble represent pleasant memories of a better time and place.
        The owner of Fragrances Unlimited carries more than 650 different brands of perfumes and colognes, many of which are old, hard-to-find and discontinued lines.
        “There is an untapped, middle-aged market out there full of repressed baby boomers looking for scents of nostalgia,” said Droz, who started the mail-order two years ago. “I can find what they really want instead of giving them what they don’t.”
        Lena Moore of Detroit said buying new and old scents from the company makes perfect sense.
        “I think it’s absolutely great,” said Moore, who bought three discontinued perfumes from the company. “I don’t even look for (perfumes) anymore because now I’ve got Gary to find them for me and he’s been wonderful.”
        Fragrances Unlimited’s more than 1000 customers  across the country can phone or mail orders in and depending on whether a fragrance is in stock, delivery takes one week to a month.
        Droz said at any given time, he can have more than 2000 bottles of cologne in stock.
        “I have good service,” Droz said. “Half the stuff I have in stock, you can’t find anywhere.”
        Droz said he’s able to give customers up to 20 percent off retail prices because he buys perfumes and colognes from wholesalers.
        “My prices are great because I buy direct so I don’t have the worries department stores have,” said Droz, who often travels to wholesalers in Canada for inaccessible perfumes.
        “It’s kind of like a scavenger hunt. When (customers) ask you to find something and you do, they are so excited.”