Idea for a local business

[lovemydog]

Open a crafts store near a hobby lobby. Preferably next door. Owned and run by women. Display a sign: We honor all aspects of the Affordable Care Act.

[Uncle Joe]

1. I believe you might be on to a good business strategy.

Thanks for the thread, lovemydog.

[lovemydog]

2. Hey, thank you Uncle Joe

I would go in there and buy stuff and give it to friends who like it, just to support and encourage a store like that!

[SheilaT]

3. Maybe.

Maybe not.

Hobby Lobby stores tend to be huge, and the craft stuff is somewhat less than half of their business, or at least the floor space. You could compete, so to speak, by stocking much better quality of goods, such as yarn. But the kinds of people who buy yarn in a HL are almost a different species from those who buy good yarns. Trust me on this.

[lovemydog]

4. I hear ya on that.

I don't know much about that business. I support local businesses as I prefer their service and knowing to whom my money goes. I'm aware of awful companies and avoid them like the plague. I would guess there's others like me who would support a competitor, even if it's not exactly what Hobby Lobby sells. Even if it's at some remote or inexpensive space in my town, I'd go out of my way to shop there.

[SheilaT]

5. I have been making a conscious effort to do more of my

own shopping at locally owned stores. For a lot of stuff it's just not possible, but we can all try.

And of course, I have no trouble imaging someone whose day-to-day life just would never involve needing anything at all that HL sells. Well, you might want to buy decorative items for your home, but there's a vast number of places to get those things.

I live in Santa Fe, NM, and I like the kind of art that is produced here. About once a year I try to buy something nice, at least nice by my standards and the fact that I can afford a couple of hundred dollars at a time, not thousands.

Last summer I bought three figures to hang on my wall. They are hard to describe, but are vaguely shamanistic in appearance and made from found and re-purposed materials. The artist is local, and I think I'll go back to that same gallery in a month or two and buy something else. I love various kinds of artwork, and I try to buy stuff for my walls that's not mass-produced.

I have tried to stop buying books on Amazon, unless I buy one from an individual who is selling it. There are so many little decisions like that, and of course it is easy for so many people just to default to the nearest big box store.