Why are so many craft supplies shops closing?

[scotmum]

Just wondered what people think about the amount of bricks and mortar craft supplies shops closing down. I know of around 5 that have closed in as many months. It is worrying that these shops are going out of business. Any thoughts or insight into why this might be? I have considered opening such a business as there isn't a decent one for around 500 miles from me. This could be a gap in the market that has yet to be explored or a sign that people are not spending in this market, or possibly that on line sales account for most of this type of business.

Any ideas?

 

[Merchant UK]

Cheaper to buy from the internet, no rates, or large overheads

 

[Morgan]

I agree with Merchant. What little bits I've need I've bought online. Also you've got the likes of Hobbycraft now.

 

[scotmum]

But what about the bricks and mortar shops that have an on line presence too? They are selling their items at competitive prices. Some are offering free next day delivery, no minimum order, etc. This could be a reason why they are not turning a profit. I agree that Hobbycraft is a one stop shop for the general crafter, but they do not have a fantastic range of paper crafting products.

I guess one of the problems with craft supplies stores is that you are relying on people being able to use their imagination (although you could offer kits/workshops/demos, etc) to create. Not everyone can do this and so will struggle to see what they would do with a rubber stamp/ribbon, etc.

 

[Kernowman]

But what about the bricks and mortar shops that have an on line presence too? They are selling their items at competitive prices. Some are offering free next day delivery, no minimum order, etc. This could be a reason why they are not turning a profit. I agree that Hobbycraft is a one stop shop for the general crafter, but they do not have a fantastic range of paper crafting products.

I guess one of the problems with craft supplies stores is that you are relying on people being able to use their imagination (although you could offer kits/workshops/demos, etc) to create. Not everyone can do this and so will struggle to see what they would do with a rubber stamp/ribbon, etc.

You really have well and truly hit the nail firmly on the head Scotmum and in a perverse way you have also answered your own question.

The people that have imagination and vision are becoming a dying breed, because the seedbeds of raising new generations to use imagination and vision are being dug up by modern technology and it's a subject that Mrs Kernowman and I were discussing this very morning about children in the modern world.

Giving my age away I know, but when I was a child every single toy that I played with relied very heavily on a large dose of imagination and some degree of manual dexterity to make it work as a toy. A lot of it also relied on my playmate's interaction to make it viable as a game or toy. Because of that upbringing, I now have the spatial capacity to work out problems in a concise and logical manner, so mechanical problems are no problems at all because good old Meccano gave me a grounded education to easily understand the fundamentals of mechanics. Children of today simply don't have that, because the overwhelming amount of their spatial development is either kept from them by the nanny state doing their best to protect them from ANY harm, or spent on absorbing entertainment like a sponge from the likes of Xbox, the television and a myriad other distractions that require no interactions.

So now I have finished with the philosophising, unless you can see a clear gap in the market for crafting supplies, or you can add value to the way you sell those products, then I really do wish you well. However, for making it a long term sustainable business model, then I think that your customer base is shrinking because of that "lack of imagination" and internet or no, it will decline.

 

[scotmum]

You are right, but isn't it sad? I remember my Grandpa spending long rainy afternoons with me in his workshop making little shops out of card board boxes. We'd paint them and make things to sell in the shop out of clay.He taught me how to quill and build tractors out of Mecanno. I look at my kids now and wonder if I will ever have the time to let them be creative. I do make a concerted effort with my 3 year old - she has her own craft box (so she doesn't get her chubby toddler fingers on mine)- she is into rubber stamping and colouring in. It is a shame though that the toys that are advertised to children on TV require little/no imagination. I am actually going to try and steer my girls away from all the flashing plastic tat this Christmas in a bid to give them a creative chance in life.

 

[Jeff FV]

I actually think that 'crafters' are not a dying breed, but have embraced the internet with gusto. Twitter is awash with crafty types, there are many, many crafters who blog, etsy & folksy give them an outlet to sell their wares etc. etc.

It is a niche that could have been designed for the internet - many particpants, but geographically spread out across the country/world, the internet allows them to come together; a very visual hobby - this makes blogging/facebooking easy/popular: a blog post may be a couple of pics of a latest creation, with only a few words, far more interesting than 1000 written words about SEO/accounting/rugby/whatever, sharing/demonstrating skills and techniques on YouTube and the raw materials are typically light and easy to post, making them ideal for mail order/buying online.

Just because 'crafting' may be an old fashioned hobby, it doesn't mean its participants are old fashioned - they've embraced new technology and are using it to great mutual advantage. I think there is still a market in crafting supplies, but I think its online, not bricks and mortar.

Jeff

 

[360interactive]

You are right, but isn't it sad? I remember my Grandpa spending long rainy afternoons with me in his workshop making little shops out of card board boxes. We'd paint them and make things to sell in the shop out of clay.He taught me how to quill and build tractors out of Mecanno. I look at my kids now and wonder if I will ever have the time to let them be creative. I do make a concerted effort with my 3 year old - she has her own craft box (so she doesn't get her chubby toddler fingers on mine)- she is into rubber stamping and colouring in. It is a shame though that the toys that are advertised to children on TV require little/no imagination. I am actually going to try and steer my girls away from all the flashing plastic tat this Christmas in a bid to give them a creative chance in life.

Changing times unfortunately. The way we 'play' has always changed over time, for example when me and you were young we were doing different things to children back in the 1800's. (most of them were probably working!)

I must admit I see plenty of children still playing football, rugby, skateboarding etc. I don't think it is as bad as people make out. Yes a certain amount of time is spent on xbox's etc, but thats just changing times.

I suspect a bricks and mortor shop will bring down an online business somewhat in a market like crafts? But i may be wrong.

 

[Rhodes100]

Craft supplies shops have closed the same way that other independent shops have closed the same way that large chains of shops have closed, the same way that all businesses have closed down during the last couple of years.

It was called the recession, and if your personal finances are under pressure then the first expenditure that is cut back is your hobbies and other discretionary expenditure.

My mother is heavily into crafts and she told me yesterday before I saw this post that there is no craft shop close to her and she is hoping that when she goes to stay with my sister that there would be one so that she can stock up.

I think there is a market for retail craft shops and if there isnt a decent one within 500 miles (do you mean 50 miles?) perhaps there is now a market for it. Remember not everyone is on the internet and perhaps also crafters might like to see and touch materials before they buy to establish whether they want to buy.

The likes of hobbycraft have their place but the strength (and weakness) of the independent shop has always been its uniqueness. Sometimes if the owner gets it wrong they fail but I think people still would prefer to find that unique product that no chain stocks.

 

[Scott-Copywriter]

Times are a changing. It's as simple as that. All you would need to do is look at the amount of people who take part in regular crafting hobbies in the 60's/70's/80's, compared to the number of people who take part in that now within a given area.

Of course there will still be people who buy craft supplies on a regular basis, but if there aren't enough people to provide a high enough revenue in a given area, then businesses will fail as the numbers simply won't add up.

To make it even more difficult (and as people have already said) many of the few who still have craft hobbies will now be using the internet. To cope, craft shops will then have to increase their prices, and in turn, that drives a bigger gap between online and 'offline' stores.

 

[Kernowman]

We are also forgetting another important factor here methinks.

A large contribution to the decline is also the cheap imports that are available now. My wife had the urge to make her own jewellery a couple of years ago and if some pieces finished up as an attractive item to sell on, then that was the bonus. I quickly learned that imported jewellery was being sold for less than the component parts would cost to buy

 

[scotmum]

Added to this is the problem of registering a craft business for VAT. Without being able to claim back the VAT from the wholesale price your profit margin is reduced. Is a craft supplies business (where the ticket value of some items can be quite low) going to meet that threshold?

I think that if you can get people interested in a new/existing hobby and provide workshops/demos, etc, there could be a great opportunity for repeat business which is what it is all about.

Crafters can never have enough in their 'stash'. They will never use it all and buy things they don't need but like the look/feel of. Believe me, I have.

 

As we run a craft shop and have an internet presence I can tell you we sell 15 times the amount via the internet than the shop sells.

Having said that there has been a decline steady since 2006 in the craft shop and we are considering closing the shop.

As said the overheads for a shop are way to much compared with the cost of online selling.

Earl

 

[scotmum]

That's interesting Sirearl. From a quick bit of googling I see that many of the craft shops on line use this kind of format

http://www.scrapbooksisters.co.uk/

A lot of them seem to have loyalty schemes which should ensure repeat business.

I wonder how much a site like this would cost and if you could get a CMS with it to make sure that you had control over uploading products, etc.

 

[willitbe]

Crafters have been their own worst enemy. Crafting as a hobby soon became a business for most (God knows why they thought their hobby would translate into business) as they all set up a website selling wooden spoons with a face on and sprinkled with glitter( add other crafty/hobbies to suit).

Once they had realised there wasn't any return (or interest) in their hobby/business, they decided that instead of getting a real job again, they would step on the toes of the very shop that supplied them with their crafty things in the first place, and sell the products they used to quite happily get from their B&M supplier, at a cheaper price on their own site.

That meant still didn't have to get a job(for a while) and hubby would see some sales, so all was alright.

Times the above scenario by 10 thousand.....

And you have your answer as to why craft shops are on the decline/non-existent...

 

[Merchant UK]

Nice to see plenty of crafters on board, but unless kids remove themselves from the playstation, SkyTV and Xbox, crafters are going to become a thing of the past. Can you really see people crafting in say 50 years time?? our children and i'm including my two whould rather sit with their laptops, ipod and playstations, than making anything creative.

I'm an engineer by trade and my son started secondary school a few weeks ago, i asked him whats their metalwork workshop like "Whats that" came came back the answer, How about the woodwork room, nope, nothing like that at all.

Such a shame, when i went to secondary school, we did metalwork, woodwork, needlework and cookery. My daughter came back with a friut salad she made at a so called cooking lesson. i said to her when are you going to cook hot dishes, she said they can't because they have no ovens only whats in the School kitchen???

Kids are not being taught the creative, and from the looks of it leave school with no creative knowledge or first hand experiance at anything practical.

I think since the 1990's the computer and games stations have brianwashed our kids

 

[papverpoppies]

I went to a large local craft fair held in a hugh marguee!

Yes, there was some lovely hand made items, but the prices were just crazy, and very few people were buying.

I know crafting is time consuming, I craft myself, but you have got to be realistic with the pricing if you want to sell, what's the point of making it all, if the prices put people off.

I heard several people comment that most of what was on sale could be purchased online for a fraction, and they did not care if it was mass produced in China.

And, that is the sad fact today, most people just want something that looks good for a while, then they get rid, not many people today have the money to pay for the genuine article, so shops have very little chance of making it work.

I have a room full of 'crafting' items I have bought, my barn is stacked full of furniture waiting to be 'transformed', and my book cases grown under the weight of 'how to' books, all bought from car boots and charity shops for pennies (ex crafters books, who have given up, maybe)!

All in all, very sad and more lost traditions.

Poppy xx

One area that is booming is the TV shopping channels craft programmes - they sell out in hours!, and I think some of what they sell is tacky, proves once again, what pulling power TV has - people see it, and have to have it.

 

[scotmum]

One area that is booming is the TV shopping channels craft programmes - they sell out in hours!, and I think some of what they sell is tacky, proves once again, what pulling power TV has - people see it, and have to have it.

I agree - the kit type of crafting is big business. These shopping channels aren't going to make any money by selling one sheet of patterned paper here, one pack of flower embellishments there. They sell the 'crafting is easy and you can take 2 minutes to make a card with this pick and stick kit'. These channels are not promoting creativity in any way. They push the idea that you don't need to be artistic to be a crafter. They sell kits that my toddler could assemble. The sad thing is that they target an audience that tends to be older women, many with disabilities or those overcoming illnesses.

 

[unnamed02]

As a company that spent 8 years in retail bricks and mortar and in 2007 left this way of selling completely for three simple reasons.

1. Customer loyalty changed as they found bargain galore on eBay, bought far too much on the sattelite channels and became internet savvie.

2. Suppliers disowned there loyal retailer in the pursuit of more revenue and sold to lots of groups and indeed even some of my customers direct which they then sold on to freinds ie my customers and the purpetual loop destroyed a living and indeed lost a number of staff its jobs.

3. Craft shows up to now 40 a year across the UK, selling just above cost price and even clearing out the "hot products" to the shops in the stack it high sell it cheap mode, again embrased by a lot of suppliers to this day.

It really is not rocket science just evolution and as with all other small independents will eventually end in major hobbycraft type stores to visit like we are now increasing finding for our food.