MACHIAS – Ginny Little is heading toward a customer at the end of her glass display counter when she notices a young fisherman apprehensively fingering a sparkling silver chain.

She pauses, takes a ring of earrings from the wall behind her, and points out a pair.

“She was looking at these a few weeks ago,” she tells the young man before continuing on to help the next customer.

A few moments later the young fisherman is walking out of The Sow’s Ear with a small box he is sure will be well-received.

It is a scene that is repeated year-round at the popular Machias gift shop, but will reach a crescendo this week as Valentine’s Day approaches.

Manager Arlene Smith said some men know exactly what they are looking for, but others come in and simply ask what their wives or girlfriends like.

It is a question Little and her staff – which includes Smith and Elaine Utley – usually can answer.

The Sow’s Ear has been a Machias tradition for more than a quarter-century.

In the summer, it is jammed with tourists and summer people, but Little said her biggest months in terms of sales are November and December.

That is when locals from Machias and the surrounding area take advantage of the thousands of items that Little carefully selects from shows in Portland and Bangor and from her twice-yearly visits to Chicago.

Little knows what to bring back from those outings because she and her staff pay close attention to what their customers buy for themselves and what they like to give to others.

“I have one man who’s an amethyst and another who’s a bird,” said Smith, referring to customers’ preferences for particular gift items. “People like it when you remember them and can tell them about something new.”

There is almost always something new at The Sow’s Ear.

More a bazaar than a gift shop, the 900-square-foot shop is crowded with artfully arranged baskets, figurines, greeting cards, specialty kitchen utensils, Christmas ornaments, carvings, soaps, candles, stuffed animals, children’s toys, clothing, gaily decorated paper plates and napkins, quilts, wrapping paper, pillows, throws and stationary.

Maine jams and jellies are available, as are other specialty items including Blackfly Coffee – “For the buzz that just won’t quit.” Machias is the headquarters of the Maine Blackfly Breeders Association, a group of blackfly aficionados that includes Little and whose work she enthusiastically supports.

Collectibles – including Boyd’s Bears, Byer’s Choice Carolers, Snowbabies, Windstones and Fernwood – are displayed on shelves lining the walls or perched on the support beams of the cathedral ceilings.

Large birds fashioned from tamarack twigs – items Little first bought for her own home during a trip to Canada years ago and then found at a show – are perched atop a wall of scented soaps and body creams. African carvings and art posters take up one corner while fabric purses and satchels hang in another.

“I do like Native American things and, of course, we love our books,” Little said as she gestured toward a well-rounded collection of tomes. “There is very little here that I don’t like, but I do try to account for different tastes.”

The Sow’s Ear caters to a range of incomes and occasions. Earrings – arranged on more than 40 cloth-covered embroidery hoops on the back wall – run between $6 and $96.

Macrame necklaces sell for as little as $6 while a hammered silver necklace carries a $220 price tag.

“You have to have what people want or introduce them to things,” Little said.

The Sow’s Ear is named for the dilapidated building that Little and a former partner transformed into a gift shop in 1976.

Little declined to discuss annual sales figures, but said there have been economic downturns over the years that have hurt business. During those times, salespeople who usually won’t travel as far as Machias are willing to make the trip, she said.

And this year, people appeared to be extremely pleased to be buying locally, she said.

“I think people really want to keep their money in Washington County,” Little said.

Mainly, though, the shop’s 27 years of success appear rooted in knowing the people who crowd its well-stocked aisles and having what they want.

“Naida?” Little asks a customer shopping for a friend’s birthday. “She’s hummingbirds. Let me show you a night light that just came in.”