Welcome Wagon is a state-of-the-art new homeowner marketing company, located
in Plainview, New York. Employing world-class digital print-on-demand equipment,
we produce and mail millions of printed pieces in-house, within our brand new
facility. We have a large publishing and research department and we compile
our own new homeowner data to exacting standards.
Welcome Wagon has a variety of products, designed to help our customers – our
partners – build their businesses. Each year, we reach out to almost
2 million new homeowners with our flagship product, the Welcome Wagon Gift
Book. We know who the homebuying family is, what they want and how to reach
them. But that’s not surprising: we’ve been getting to know them
for a long time.
Early Beginnings
Welcome Wagon was founded in 1928 by an insightful marketing man in Memphis,
Tennesee, Thomas Briggs. Mr. Briggs was inspired by stories of early Conestoga “welcome
wagons” that would meet and greet westward travelers, providing fresh
food and water for the journey. He created Welcome Wagon to embody this same
spirit of warm hospitality and welcome. He hired "hostesses", women who
were friendly and knowledgeable about their neighborhood, to personally deliver baskets of
gifts supplied by local businesses to new homeowners.
Over a cup of coffee, hostesses would tell new home buyers about local civic and cultural
activities in the community while handing out gifts and coupons from local businesses. This
hostess network expanded across the country until, aside from Briggs and just a handful of
males, Welcome Wagon became one of the first all-woman companies in the US.
Thirty-four years later on Long Island, NY, Irv Siegel created a similar welcoming service
called Getting to Know You, to promote his local beverage operation. He introduced new
residents to local businesses by sending them a neighborhood merchant directory he created.
Joined as One
Through the
years, Getting to Know You became the nation's largest welcoming program, but it was the
"Welcome Wagon" name that Americans most recognized in association with welcoming new
homebuyers. In 1998, the nation's two foremost welcoming programs became one, under the
name Welcome Wagon. Together, their personalized greetings and community information have
touched the lives of over 75 million households, including American Presidents such as
Kennedy, Nixon and George W. Bush as they moved into the White House. The home visits
stopped in 1998 as an increase in two-income families meant fewer people were home to
accept visits. Welcome Wagon began greeting new homebuyers through the mail with a gift of
an attractive, customized gift book.
In 2001, Welcome Wagon became part of Move- the leading online network for real estate
and everything related to the home.
An Exciting Present - A Limitless Future
Although the
day of door-to-door neighborly visits are a thing of the past, Welcome Wagon is still
committed to connecting with new homebuyers through their mailboxes and the internet. Our
mode of delivery may be different than before, but our mission is still the same today as
in 1928:
Welcome families to their new homes by providing them with the
names and numbers of many local businesses and services that we believe will benefit them
as they settle into their new homes.
View Move Corporate News and Information.