One more pondering post, and then it's back to crafts and pictures, I swear.
So here's my dilemma - I've been discussing it with my sister, but I'm curious to know other people's opinions.
If you read my last post, you know I've been thinking a lot lately about crafting and spending. If you've talked to me lately, you might know that I'm also thinking about opening a store.
I'm a little bit ashamed to admit that I just today put those two things together.
On the one hand, part of my vision for the store is that I want it to be a social place, where people can come and learn a new craft in a class, or hang out with friends and make some cards or knit, or bring a project they've been working on and use the bigger tools that they might not be able to afford to have at home. So, in other words, I'd make money from people buying elements (and the bigger tools if they just like them and want their own, but part of the service would be that they could try out new things without having to buy them) while they're working on things, and from the classes and stuff.
On the other hand, there are certain items within the stamping world specifically (and I think probably in all of the other crafts) that encourage obsessive collecting. And one part of me thinks that some of them (a particular kind of marker) are important enough to enough stampers and scrapbookers that I can't NOT stock them, but another part of me feels like I would turn myself into an irresponsible-spending enabler if I did.
Like my sister says, don't guard people's pocketbooks for them! But I want to feel like I'm doing the right thing ethically, too.
Thoughts?
2 comments:
Knowing you as I do, I can understand why you just can't quite settle your conscience by reminding yourself that you're not in charge of other peoples' money (although, that's totally true). You've hit on the heart of the matter, which isn't so much the money spent as the failure to purchase responsibly, or then responsibly use your purchases...basically, over-consumption. The thing about that is, over-consumption is a deeply rooted appetite. And like any appetite, it can only be tamed by starvation--if there were any other way, my eating enough marshmallow peeps would cause me not to want any more, which is totally not the case. I can think of a number of scenarios that your business could use to encourage responsible stamping. Next time we get together remind me to remember them. But the hard-core bingers are going to binge on something, somewhere. More to the point, though, you won't ever really be in a position to make that kind of call. I can remember my mom making massive fabric-store stops that might have made people think she was bingeing--except that she'd do this maybe twice annually . On the other hand (you mentioned this in your last post) somebody using their umpteenth Michael's 50% off coupon could be somebody really economizing or somebody impulse-spending, you just can't tell!
You know, I think that's actually part of why the cafe model appeals to me - I'll be able to encourage people to come in, buy something, and then sit down and find a use for it right away. It seems like a large part of the problem I've seen with spending is people having to have something that looks good on the shelf, but then taking it home and "organizing" it away somewhere and never touching it again. I'd love to have a setup that encouraged bringing what you have, using what you have, and finding something new to use, not stash away. I think that's probably as far as I can go as far as encouraging people not to over-spend - giving them a venue to cut and glue and sew and whatever so that they're really using what they buy.
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