As a consumer, the best way is to buy on line.

If you have a great little local bead store that offers a nice environment, great service and beads, it may not be there for long if you buy on line. If you want it to thrive, grow, and be there for years of enjoyment, you have to spend your money there. If you don’t, it won’t have great prices, it wont have a great selection, it can’t offer great classes and it will close.

Providing a beads store is a very expensive venture. It is even harder if the beads store’s wholesaler is competing with them for their customers. What does this mean? A bead store buys its product from a company that stocks lots of beads to sell in large quantity at lower prices to bead stores. This place, in general terms, is called a wholesaler. The beads store sells the product at smaller quantities to consumers at slightly higher prices. This higher price buys you, the customer, a nice store to shop in and it pays the salaries of the people who own the store and work there. The wholesaler has a warehouse and does not offer great classes and a great place to shop and congregate. Most likely the wholesaler does not pay tax in your town and does not support your town with jobs for the people who live there.

What has happened is that the large “wholesalers” and catalog stores with the help of the internet have decided to sell directly to their retailer’s customers bypassing the retailers (local beads stores). Yes, you may get a better price for a few beads, but you and your community lose in every other way. When you want to take a bead class or see some beads in person or get some personal help, the wholesaler will not be there for you and there will be no store in your town either. When you want a summer job for yourself or your children, that local store will not be there. When there are only big box retailers and alot of empty store fronts in your town, the wholesaler will not be there for you.

Places who have great beads stores support these stores. The only way to have a great store store is to support it. Don’t buy from on line retailers, buy at your local beads store or from a local beads store like The Beadcage. If your local store does not have what you need, have them get it and then buy it. It may be a bit more expensive, but in time prices will come down. Take classes at the store. Teach at the store. Tell friends about the store. Spend time posting positive constructive comments about your store on blogs and rating services on line so others will know about it. Don’t bad mouth a local store, work with them constructively to help them improve.

Remember having a lemonade stand as a child and watching cars go by and no one stops? As a child it is a pretty bad feeling. This is the same feeling a bead store has when people drive by and buy from an on line “wholesaler”.

This is an interview conducted with an executive at The Beadage, Inc.

Thank you for taking some time do talk about your business with me.

My pleasure. I need a break. I just finished tying my 10,000th strand, or at least it feels like it. I’ve got blisters on my fingers as the song says. Thinking about getting all of the products I purchased on my last buying trip over seas onto the sales floor should have been more on my consciousness at that time I was purchasing. I just never thought about what a heroic effort it would be to get all of the product into the computer, labeled tied and onto the floor.

So this is a new experience for you?

No, we go through this every time. I think I purchased more product on this last trip than most stores have in total stock. I wish I could give total numbers, but there were at least 300 new findings, and an equal amount of glass strands. Then there was a significaant amount of semiprecious stone that I purchased. I was told not to get too much stone, but I got caught up in all the beautiful product and all the amazing deals that I went a bit crazy. Three weeks after getting the first shipment in, we have most of the beads done and out onto the sales floor. They have not told me yet, but I’m sure that those 50 or 60 boxes in storage is more that has to be put out. I have no idea where we are going to put everything.

You have another shipment coming?

Sure. We managed to get one container out just before China shut down for their New Year’s celebration. That was crazy by itself trying to get as much of our shipment squeezed on one of the last boats going out. Not everything came, just a small amount.

Why don’t you give us some insight into your traveling and your store?

As most people know, I do travel alot. I travel for my job and I also travel with my job here at The Beadcage as an importer. Over the years we have been able to import more and more product into the store ourselves. This means more out of the ordinary products, different and better quality products and products that are unique to our store. When traveling with my other job, I always make time to visit beads stores in the areas I am at. Yes, I spend a good bit of time shopping other stores. I think this is important for any successful business. I want to see how we stack up to the competition elsewhere. I want to make sure that we are at the top of our game. I’m sure I have been to close to 50 different beads stores as well as hundreds of gift shops in my travels.

Going through this new shipment gave me time to reflect on how I think we are doing. I can say that I am really proud of the way Paula has grown and managed The Beadcage. I believe we are one of the top retail beads stores in the country and in addition we are also an excellent gift retailer. With only seven years under our belt, I think we have grown into a really nice destination store. This was a goal from the beginning, and every year we do better and better.

So what were you thinking about as you were working a few minutes ago?

As I sat tying strand after strand of the fresh water pearls that I had hand selected only a few months before, I got to thinking. We really do have a nice selection of products for our beads store. Just based on the shear numbers and types of pearls we have, I don’t think there is a store that could cater to the bridal jewelry business the way we do. I was talking to Paula and suggested that there was not a gown we could not match. Some of our best pearls are under $200 a strand and they look to be so much more expensive. A bride or bride’s mother could get our finest pearls and we could design pearl necklaces for the bridal party with our less expensive pearls for repetitively little money. It amazes me to think that a bride could come in and get a custom made necklace and jewelry to match any of her bride’s maids outfits on the spot. There would be no running around from store to store. We could make all necklaces look the same no matter the size of the bride’s maid. I was really impressed at our selection and ability in this small area of jewelery for which we concentrate.

I also got to thinking that we do a very good job as a retailer for our small community. Many people come in and say we could make a killing if we were located in this city or that city. I often wonder how well we could do in bigger cities. It feels good when you are told that there is nothing like your store in a particular area. Right now I want to concentrate on our goal of becoming a great destination store for beads. Many of our customers have never been to other beads stores, so I think we may have spoiled them. Until they go to other stores, they may never know how good they really have it. I know one small store cannot be everything to everyone. We realize this everyday. As soon as you think you have done a great job bringing in a line of product, someone will always point out to you they are not really interested in that and wish you carried something else. Maybe with another 10,000 sq feet of retail space. Until then, we just keep trying to do the best we can.

So where do we excel? Why would a customer want to make a special trip to The Beadcage?

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