On this subject, I will admit I am torn. I do encourage people to have a relationship with their local shops, the people involved with them, and the groups that meet at them. Your local support is extremely important. This is true of any specialty or local craft store. Many of these stores will host workshops and classes. These are important you will learn skills and meet people.
Now for the flip side of the argument:
Money is tight for a lot of people in today’s economy. We find ourselves trying to make a dollar into two. So why should the money we spend on our supplies not work just as hard. This means you have to find places that will give you a discount for bulk orders or shop wholesale. I have recently started shoping online at Fire Mountain Gems. Since I keep most of my craft receipts I was able to go back and compare my “shop purchases” with my new “online orders”.
I learned two things. Shopping online is safer. I am not walking around a bead store able to touch the shiny objects. This means that I can look at the picture and not have the impulse that if I don’t buy this now it will be gone forever. There is also a convent link that lets me look at a list of items and a total. This means I pick the items more carefully. I make sure that I get what I need and maybe a few specialties. I also don’t like the sites that require a minimum purchase. I find that I am usually unable to make the minimum purchase due to an inability to get all of the money in one place.
I shop on a site called Fire Mountain Gems. They have a large selection, but this isn’t the main reason. I shop there because they have a tiered discount system. There are four tiers based on the number of items in you cart. This affects the item price of everything in your cart. And, they are upfront with all of their costing. And, since they use a tiered system for discounts they don’t inflict a minimum purchase.
So I want you to consider a few things…
Where do you shop and why?
How much do you get for your money?
1 comments:
Clothing and shoes I won't buy online because I have to try 'em on. Housewares is about half and half. Business related expenses are all online, because they're cheaper, and it's actually pretty hard to even find good printing supplies in art stores around here.
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