Kool Stuff offers promotional items for businesses

Tom Scholz of Kool Stuff offers promotional and advertising specialties to area companies.

Some items are practical and utilitarian, while others are quirky, might prompt a smile or leave you asking, “Really?”

Popular items include drink koozies, pens, tote bags, golf items, T-shirts and caps. Plus a seemingly infinite number of others.

“Anything you can think of to put your company name on,” said Scholz, a 2017 Manatee Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year finalist in the category for those with less than $250,000 in annual revenue.

During a recent interview, Scholz showed off a sampling of familiar items: nail files, pizza cutters, plastic cups and folding heat screens for parked automobiles.

Others were a bit more unusual, including a fan that plugs into a smart phone, a solar-powered emergency light, a tiny Bluetooth speaker and a box that deceptively looks like a book, but contained a pair of sunglasses and a questionnaire.

Promotional items run the gamut, according to how much the business wants to invest and show its appreciation to customers.

“You are only limited by your imagination and pocketbook,” he said. “It’s all about how many people you want to reach.”

Scholz, a former agricultural products salesman, is a native of Quincy, Illinois. He focuses his sales efforts in Manatee and Sarasota counties and has lived in this community since 1983.

Lyle Kobus has been a customer and friend of Scholz for 10 years.

“I have bought shirts, T-shirts and drink koozies from Tom,” Kobus said. “He is a good guy who offers good service. He is always friendly and always dependable.”

For more information about Kool Stuff, call 941-224-0956 or email tomscholz12@gmail.com.

This story was originally published September 28, 2017 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Kool Stuff offers promotional items for businesses."