Our Black Friday and Small Business Saturday sales surpassed last year's numbers, which made us happy. The number of customers was about the same, or maybe slightly less, but people were more comfortable and bought more. They also took advantage of our sale bins and other assorted things, so we were kept busy with no time for woolgathering. That's what I like.
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It's all too easy to fall into woolgathering. If you're not familiar with the term, or need a reminder of what it entails, here's a basic definition. |
Back in the hey-day of beading, in the 2003-2010 days, we were busy enough to support two full-time sales associates and several part-time people who packaged beads for us in their homes. It was a lot of fun helping people to gather enough funds for their upcoming planned vacations, or to help them save for a special upcoming trip to see relatives. Those were the days when we had 30 bead stores in the greater metropolitan area, and probably around 50 in the state. There are few of us remaining now.
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Apparently Bobby Bead celebrated their 30th anniversary this year. That actually makes us older than them, and I thought it was the other way around. I opened my store in the early 1980's, either 1983 or 1984. I didn't carry beads until the mid-1990's, specializing instead on the Native American art and crafts that we've always carried. The two stores have been diametrically opposed in focus and heritage since the beginning, however. |
The store that's been around the longest is our competitor, Bobby Bead, was started in the 1990's (although I could swear I dropped by their store in the mid-1980's). It was established as a "hippie" shop in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, and moved to its current location about 15 years ago, maybe even a bit longer. We've been head-to-head competitors since I began carrying beads, but whereas I specialize in Miyuki beads, Bobby's specializes in Toho. Two Japanese bead factories, but the beads and bead selections are quite different.
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There are very few bead stores in the nation that carry all of the seed bead manufacturers. We're one of those rare stores. Our Native American and African clientele prefer using the Czech seed beads in a variety of sizes. Our contemporary beaders prefer the Japanese seed beads, and sometimes want the precision that the Miyuki Delica beads can give to their projects. We have a variety of beaders making a variety of projects, so we have a LOT of beads to help them make their items. |
The two of us have seen stores come and go like waves on a beach. Each store was unique in its' approach and merchandise, but we both hung in there. We're the "old farts" on the bead block now. There are a few other small stores around, and of course there are beads sold by Hobby Lobby, JoAnne's and Michael's, the big national craft stores, but for all-out selection, it's still Bobby vs us.
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I'm not fond of any of the big box stores (Michaels or JoAnne's). I refuse to shop at Hobby Lobby for any purpose whatsoever. But, several of the salespeople who work at these stores take our business cards and pass them along to beaders they're helping in their big box stores. We appreciate it and so do their customers. |
I've been looking into re-vamping my store website. My host went out of business during Covid, so I've been unable to update or alter anything on my website since then. I don't mind doing mail orders, although the sales tax situation has become far more difficult over the years. But I would need to do a lot of updating. Still, I've had Chickie working on a basic update for our information splash page at least. The hard part is that I'm clueless these days about websites and web technology, even though I built our last website from scratch in the late 1990's and early 2000's. *sigh* Just one more thing on my "to do" plate.
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There are certainly times when I feel exactly like this - LOL. I have a feeling you also have had times when it's been like this for you too. Unfortunately, I haven't kept up with programming websites and I really don't feel like learning something new at this stage of the game. |
So, I'll stick with focusing on making it through this holiday season, selling as much as I can, wrapping up the year, and then focusing on next year. One step at a time. With the help of all of you, my friends and internet buddies, I'll even keep on an even keel and not go totally insane during the next eight months or so. At least, I can hope for sanity - LOL. Have an truly excellent day and Slava Ukraini. I'll be back tomorrow.
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