Courageous?

Admired Businesswomen?

Loyal to Community?

Two things struck me this week: A customer told me she thought I was courageous; and we found out this week that another local business will be leaving our community. First, let’s address the second point. The Creative Shops of Delavan, formerly known as the Ben Franklin of Delavan, is closing its doors after just 2 brief years. We are losing another woman led, and family owned business. This is a very sad and more and more common occurrence. The business climate has been challenging for the independent ever since the invention of the strip mall, the grand mall, and the big box.  In the case of this craft store, the competition has been especially damaging, as WalMart re-introduced their fabric department; and the space they are located in has a very high monthly rent, which became another “nail in the coffin”, when 2 adjacent stores also closed their doors.  

In the case of the high rent, it is so tempting to locate in a high traffic area, but at times the increase in foot traffic may not be out-weighed by the exorbitant cost to keep the place open. Other damaging factors can include having “exclusive” vendors moving to big box stores, and online sites, thereby cutting into your exclusivity on any given product. In addition, he space requirements for bolts of fabric, bulky craft tools, baskets, and classes with work tables challenge owners to find spaces that are expansive, both in storage, as well as rent. If just one thing changes, (say a city that closes its main street for needed repairs, or a big box store adding products from one of your main categories), all these things coupled with strapped local economies where customers are searching for the very best deal for their dollar (even though running all over God's creation at the high cost for the gallon of gas these days needs to be accounted for, and shipping is also a factor) –any one of these changes can spell disaster for the independent. It is no easy thing opening and running a business, especially in a small town. Every year, the still-open members of our downtown community comment, "Whew, we made it through 1st quarter." That is the quarter book-ended between holidays, when everyone spends so much; and the tax season, when we all get to pay so much! 

We were fortunate to have found a great space that is small enough we can afford the monthly rent, but also unique enough it attracts people looking for something out of the ordinary. We cannot hope to compete with the Panera Breads, Chili Restaurants, or the plethora of truly fast food choices available to all consumers. My challenge has been to stay true to my core – that of providing wonderful WI cheese to my local community, and while doing that – perhaps bring in harder to get products from masterful artisans. I love the idea of us being ‘curators’ – the new buzz word being thrown around the social media world. We will slowly, in our small space endeavor to hang on to what we’ve built. We will add staff as revenues grow, court them carefully, prepare them to love the products we offer and the customers who come to seek them out.

It takes extreme amounts of dedication (called pig-headedness by some and passion by others), no small amount of fortitude (the image I keep in front of me at all times - Dori, the little fish from the animated movie "Finding Nemo", whose mantra is "Keep on swimming, just keep swimming") to remain open when you only see a handful of customers in a day. Overhead and payroll must be paid despite lackluster sales. You don’t get to say to the government or your employees, well we only earned $... revenues, so I will only pay ___% of my payroll or taxes. It requires a ‘herculean’ effort to keep things fresh every month, week, and day throughout the year. And we are definitely not all cut out for this life.

We will miss Maggie, and her very helpful staff. The beautiful fabrics, the great basket collection, and the ability to touch and examine something before you buy.  It's a REAL shame.