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?

Well, I’m not sure it is just one thing. I think it is about 100 things that come together like a great orchestra to make a wonderful piece of music. Don’t be fooled if it looks so natural. Everything we do here is choreographed and planned in order to make the customers shopping experience here relaxing and enjoyable. The bottom line is that when you come to a great beads store you want to feel relaxed and inspired. We start off with an architecturally designed store that was built for purpose. It feels natural when you walk in and you feel immediately welcome. The staff then adds to this feeling with honest warm southern charm. Most of our staff are designers or beaders so you will be around people who share your love. We know our product and we know most of our customers by name.

So what else sets your store apart from other stores?

Well besides the physical plant and the wonderful employees, I’d have to say one of the most amazing things about our store is the “bead-bins“. Most people who come to the store really like shopping here but they just can’t put their finger on it. In my opinion one of the most special things about this store is the bead-bin.

Tell us about the bead-bin.

When we opened the store there were very few options for displaying beads in beads stores. I know because I visited many and spent hundreds of hours on line looking for a solution. Most stores were using cups and saucers and pie tins and compartmentalized boxes of all sorts to display their beads. Not only did this not look professional, but it was a very inefficient solution for the task.

I managed to find a compromise solution for the problem of displaying our beads. It was not great, but it was the only thing available. We purchased tiered acrylic display bins which were fixed and also similar rotating acrylic displays. They were more efficient and better looking than the cups and tins displays, which we never used. however they were still inefficient and riddled with problems that made their use hard for us and our customers.

So after almost three years I had scribbled my design for a display on a napkin and sent it off to be put into computer form. The result is our current way of beads display. I hold the US patent for this product. We also produce this product. It is a beautiful piece of art on it’s own and hands down the most efficient and best way to display beads. It is so simple and beautiful that people really do not even notice. All they notice is that they are able to see all the beads and pick them out with ease. The creative design allows us to display so much more beads in the same amount of space that we were able to do in the past. We are able to have so many more beads in a smaller space that people are amazed at the amount of product that we have. It just does not seem that we have so much because of the way the beads are displayed. This has allowed us to keep our stock more presentable and up to date. It results in a cleaner more appealing environment to shop and design in.

So your store is pretty efficient? What kind of numbers are we talking about?

We pack alot into a relatively small space. It is still growing in capacity, but we are surely reaching our limits. My next project is a better way to display all of our seed beads.

We have approximately 4050 beads bins displayed at this time. Each bead bin will hold one product. There are about 2100 compartments holding seed beads. In most compartments there are more than one type of seed bead. There are a total of 560 pegs for holding strands along the walls and an equal amount on rolling displays on the floor. We have a glass case that goes along the far end of the store that holds over 1000 specialty and artist beads. We have hundreds of findings we hold behind the counter and many new findings we have just included packaged on hooks on the showroom floor. We have one rolling display dedicated to tools and wire.

The numbers may not seem so large, but you must remember that most of the pegs we have for stands hold three or four our more different products. Most stones strands come in different qualities shapes and sizes. Hundreds of our most precious semi precious strands are kept in the back for safe keeping. These are brought out on request only.

So there is even more that is not out on the floor?

You couldn’t imagine how much stuff. I know Paula knows where everything is. There just is not enough room to display everything. Some of our best quality semiprecious stone is kept under lock and key. It is only brought out by request. It is quite a selection of semi precious stones of fairly good qualit

y.

Overall this sounds and looks like a tremendous amount of product in a relatively small space.

Yes. But small is relative. The store is about 5000 square feet. We split the showroom in half. Half the showroom is beads and the other half is gifts and jewelry. We have just under 1000 sq feet dedicated to a separate classroom and kitchen area that can hold 16 to 20 students comfortably.

The store just is not large enough for all we have though. We have a 600 sq foot storage area filled to the brim with stocks of additional beads. There is an equally large storeroom filled with products for our gift section and unused displays.
In addition we have tons of additional product stored in our house. We make regular runs to these storage areas to restock when necessary.

This sounds like you have a considerable amount of stock that is not available for sale?

Yes, it really does not make great business sense to have so much product just sitting around. I wish we had more space to display it all. I think we would make a great wholesaler, but we can’t seem to entice to many people to take advantage of this.

The reason we have so much is that in order to get the deals I get, I have to buy in large quantity. When I find a great deal, I jump on it. This translates to significant savings for our customers and also some really great unique products.

So as you were saying before, you do your own importing?

I learned quickly that in order to find unique items at great prices I could not shop where everyone else shops. I travel to the countries that actually produce the beads. This way I can deal directly with the people making the beads. It allows me to choose and design beads no one else has. In fact, even though some of our products may seem similar to products our customers see elsewhere, they are different. I look for quality manufactures that will work with me to produce unique or better quality products for better prices. I’m able to get a larger selection of colors sizes and shapes than most people. When it comes to quality, I can specify higher quality leaving lesser quality products for others.

So you only look for cheap stuff?

No. Absolutely not. We understand our customers and work hard to get them the products that they want. We look for the best value for the buck. We know what our designers are looking for as far as quality and we also know how much they need to put into their final pieces so that they can sell them and still make money. I’d have no problem buying the best quality stones and pearls, but most designers do not have a customer base that can afford this type of costly product. What I look for is product that looks alot more expensive than it actually is. This is good for everyone. Our customers, our designers and our designers customers all appreciate getting more expensive looking product for alot less. Everything I buy is seen and touched or designed by me. Buying right from the source also means there is a better chance of the stone our customers buy being the stone that is represented on the tag. Our product is not cheap or seconds or junk. Our product is a great value and of the highest quality for the price.

Before our customers buy our product, I buy it. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m going to get the best value for my money. My hard work in purchasing the best product at the best price translates into better values for our customers. With most of our product, there is no middle man.

In fact, we now have examples throughout the store showing our quality and value in comparison to other local stores that sell beads. When we compare exact products such as Swarovski Crystal, our prices are always less and sometimes by up to more than half the price of the other stores. When our prices are more, it is because there is a significant difference in quality, but this is a rare occurrence.

Before I let you continue, I’m sure people will want to know why you do not buy your beads here in the United States?

Great question. For whatever reason, the United States is not a manufacturer of beads. We do have artisans producing beads, but on a small scale. For centuries beads have always been produced really elsewhere. You have to go East to find the major production areas for beads. I mean mainly India and China. For seed beads you have to include Czechoslovakia, Taiwan, Japan and France. France no longer produces the seed beads. These are the areas where beads are produced and this is where I go to get them. It would be much easier if they were produced here, but sadly they are not. We get most of our artisan beads from the United states. Specific items may also be sourced here in the US, but not a large quantity.

You were mentioning Swarovski Crystal. How can you afford to sell Swarovski crystal at such a great price?

First we are a Swarovski Distributor. We buy in large quantity and pass on the savings to our customers. We carry every color that Swarovski makes in nearly every size and shape. We even carry a number of Swarovski Crystals with special coatings increasing our range significantly. In fact we are the only people in the world to carry a 2mm bicone with a double AB coating. More and more people are learning about the great Swarovski deals we offer and we sell more crystals allowing us to offer better prices.

Another way we save our customers money is that we sell our crystals by the piece. This means that if you only need one crystal you are not forced to buy a package which includes more than you need. In addition, we have great quantity pricing for customers, designers and others buying in greater quantities. With our quantity discounts it would be difficult to get better prices for crystals. The best thing is that when shopping in our store, you get these great prices and get to see and touch exactly what you are buying.

So do you offer the same great prices on other beading items?

I think we offer amazing prices for a retail brick and mortar establishment. I think our prices are very reasonable, but we do offer quantity discounts every day as well as the occasional sale. One of our best deals is with our semi precious strands of beads. After you buy 15 strands of most of our strands of beads you get them all and every additional strand at 50% off. This with other quantity offers makes The Beadcage a great one stop shop for designers and all beaders. I really believe that even if you are not buying in quantity, you are still getting a great price for great quality product. Nevertheless, for those who are not buying in quantity, we have every day savings for these small purchases. With our “bead card”, you can save up to 10% on your regular bead purchases. We really have made an effort to support all of our customers with special savings.

Do you sell by catalog?

No, but many of our beads and prices are on line at TheBeadcageBeads.com. You can shop for beads with us 24/7. Most times we have free shipping offers. Our pictures are not stock pictures and are pictures of the product you will receive. Shopping on line is fine, but we hope that our site will encourage customers to come in person to the store. I believe that until they come and see the quality for themselves, they wont realize what a great store we have.

Why would designers want to come to your store?

Designers need a place of inspiration and a place that is stocked with all the tools they need to complete their projects. Because we are staffed with designers we know what designers need. We carry every color of Swarovski crystal and then some and just about every size and shape also. As far as seed beads, we have over 300 colors of seed beads in sizes ranging from 6 to 8 to 11 to 15/0. We are stocked with the full line of Delicas in addition to other Japanese and Taiwanese seed beads. We individually hand fill most of our seed beads in Tic Tac type containers because that is what designers prefer. We stock an amazing selection of pearls and semi precious stones. We have also expanded our findings selection in both sterling and many plated designs. We have specially designed crystal cabochons as well as a full range of other cabochons. There is a very good selection of wires and threads as well as tools. Most times the classroom is available to work in. It is well lit and comfortable for creativity. The store is well stocked and we take special care in working closely with our designers to assure that their needs are met and their supplies are stocked.

Paula is an amazing artist herself with a tremendous amount of creativity. I often see many designers bouncing ideas off her. Many designers rely on her for her keen sense of color. Designers and national instructors have all come to Paula for her assistance is choosing colors.

The other reason why the store is so great for designers is all of the ways Paula has tried to save them money. From our everyday great prices to quantity discounts to the bead card to sales, we save our designers money. They also save time and money from not having to drive all over creation to find what they need. When some stores specialize in one particular thing or another, we have taken that same dedication to most things we carry.

You said that Paula has been a consultant to many designers and even national instructors. How did Paula become that well known?

Paula is just a really great person. I guess it is that southern charm and accent that people really like. I don’t know how she did it, but she made friends with some pretty influential people in the bead industry. I think she really proved herself with her first Southern Bead Retreat. She continued to make friends and impress people with her in store classes over the years. Her second Southern Bead Retreat will continue to focus interest on her and her acceptance as a rising star in the world of beading.

What is the Southern Bead Retreat?

We had been in business for about 5 years and had been to many bead festivals and classes. We regularly attending the Tuscon show in Arizona. We had never experienced anything luxurious when it came to beading. We were thinking that beading had no class lines and stretched through all levels of income. However, there was really nothing targeted to those beaders who would appreciate a luxury setting where you could enjoy beading for a week in luxury. We just had never seen anything like this.

So we believed that there was going to be a segment of the beading population where a luxurious experience would appeal to. We wanted to cater to those people who choose to spend their vacations at luxurious retreats and who enjoyed beading. We wanted to create a comfortable environment where everything was taken care of and the attendees could enjoy their time in a comfortable setting with others who appreciated the same. We wanted to create an intimate atmosphere where beaders could spend time and interact with instructors inside and outside of the classroom. We wanted them to have access to fine spas and fine dining. We also wanted to provide activities for their significant others and or family at the same time.

The idea was to get the best instructors available together at a luxury resort in the South. We knew it was going to be expensive, but we were sure there would be beaders out there who were looking for this type of program. The Southern bead retreats are all about luxurious hotels, fine dining, and pampering yourself for a week while enjoying the company of instructors looking to do the same.

So how did your first Southern Bead Retreat turn out?

Well, you know the saying about how success breeds imitation? Well if imitation has anything to say about it, we were very successful. First off, every attendee enjoyed themselves and we succeeded in our goal to make it a relaxing luxurious week in the company of great instructors.

In the year preceding the event we had a couple detractors. We were unproven at the time. In fact, some of the detractors were extremely cruel comparing Paula to a charlatan and wannabe. It was a battle to convince particularly these few people that we could pull off something that had never been done before. I think some had a misconception about what we were doing. There was some resistance to the price. Some could not understand the necessity of the opulent surroundings. We had a hard time getting some to understand the concept as many were used to attending beading classes in common settings. There are plenty of venues that are available to those on a budget. This retreat was for those who want to enjoy the luxuries of a resort and are willing to budget for it. This retreat was never planned to be all about the beading. It was much more.

So we really struggled with costs for our first retreat. Nevertheless it was an overwhelming success for our debut event. Those that were able to attend experienced something very special. The word got out that Paula and the event were the real deal.

So I know there is a second Southern Bead retreat coming up.

Yes. At the end out August 2010. We have been working tirelessly on this event for more than a year and it seems that it will be a great success.

We worked hard to increase the value of the program and I know we have done a great job at doing this. We are keeping up the luxury and giving our attendees more. The costs of making a Southern Bead Retreat happen are very high, especially when you do it to our high standards. It takes a significant amount of time and employee hours just to get the event started. You just don’t wave a magic wand to get the instructors Paula is able to have at her events. Also, it is a heroic effort just to find a location and arrange a date. Then there is all the work that goes into arranging the rooms, getting the space for classes and a retail room, and planning and selecting meals. It takes hundreds of hours of planning to make an event go flawlessly on a luxury level. We have to arrange and pay for flights and transportation for all of our instructors as well as paying for their accommodations and meals for week of the retreat. We also have to pay the instructors rates for a week. Most times instructors are paid by the day and are hired for a day or weekend. We have top of the line instructors booked for a week and they need to be paid. We have to pay our employees throughout the year to work on the events and then pay them to work during the events. It required a tremendous amount of manpower to make one of these events come off flawlessly and this costs alot of money. In addition there is all the little extras we do. People who have attended our first retreat know all about these little extras.

I know we have done everything we can to make this second retreat everything the first one was and better. We have stressed the importance for attendees to stay at the event hotel. Staying anywhere else would take away from the enjoyment of the retreat and we discourage this. One of the ways we are able to keep costs down is to guarantee a certain number of rooms filled in order to get discounts on classrooms. People staying at other hotels during our first retreat cost us quite a bit of money. We actually had to pay out of our pockets for their rooms even though they did not stay at the hotel. This time we did not allow this to happen. The most important part of the event is staying at the hotel with everyone.

We have an all star list of instructors and a great group of employees willing to put their hearts into seeing that this event is a success. We are adding a special twist this year and including a field trip for a day in the South. We are planning a special lunch and some time to enjoy The Beadcage.

The resort we have chosen is in the heart of the beautiful South, near places made famous by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The resort is a playground for nature lovers. There is so much to do for everyone in the family. So while mom enjoys her day beading and at the spa, dad and the kids could golf, ride bikes, fish or play at the water activities. There will be some time to enjoy and get inspiration at the butterfly exhibit at the park. You can even visit the victory garden made famous on PBS.

Meals will be chosen to highlight southern cooking traditions and the formal dinner event will be one not to be missed. Relaxing, recreating, beading and dining. What could be better?

The resort is very nice and luxurious. The pool at the resort is amazing. It is so comfortable and relaxing at this resort. The class rooms will be well lit and most will have large windows looking over the gardens. Everything will be done to make this a stress free and enjoyable week.

It sounds like this upcoming event will follow in the footsteps of the last one. It sounds like it will be a dream vacation for those that will attend. How many will be coming?

We have planned strict limits on the number of attendees for our events. You cant have a comfortable class that encourages personal interaction with the instructors with 30 or 40 students. Our class sizes are small encouraging interactions and fostering relationships. This leads to sharing of ideas and increased learning. It also helps to explain some of the costs of the event. Where else can you spend the day with a top instructor, dine and share drinks with them and have special one on one time? Right now we are limiting the event to 60 attendees.

What about the projects?

We have required our instructors to come up with something new that has not been taught before. This is a very difficult task. It also causes problems for instructors and us. Invariably someone will complain about the project. Either it is too close to another work, or it is not hard enough or the attendee just does not like the piece. This caused headaches at our first event. One attendee complained so much about one of the instructors projects that the instructor actually came up with a new project. Then the person who complained ended up canceling on us. This person caused us so much trouble that Paula swore she would never have another event. But the actual projects, while challenging and unique, are the the focus. Getting to learn techniques from the actual artists who designed the pieces or wrote the books is what is precious.

This event really is not about the project and it is difficult to get some people considering attending one of our events to understand this. Our events are not about the project. Our events go much deeper than the project. Our events encourage people to ask questions and try new things and bounce things off of our instructors. It is a learning process. It encourages interactions of the attendees and the sharing of knowledge. It is a chance to make mistakes and be guided by the artists. It is an event that will bring people who like beading and luxury together so that everyone has an enjoyable time. It is not about finding the hardest projects or the most beautiful projects. When you entertain 60 different beaders you get 60 different opinions. So we really aim for people to take home something new that they discover about themselves or their new friends or their instructors.

We want everyone to be at a certain level to attend and this is strictly enforced. A good working knowledge of at least peyote and right angle weaving is a must. Having our instructors teach basic beading stitches would take away from time spent on their project. That said, as long as you can do this, whether or not you finish is not important. If you spend the whole week talking and meeting new friends and you have had a great relaxing time, then it has been a success.

There are plenty of venues for intense beading challenges. This is not what our events are about. If you come out of a class stressed we have not done our jobs. Look at it from the instructors perspective. It is a heroic effort to come up with a project and get it to the classroom stage. The atmosphere and the attendees we attract allow the instructors to experience a whole different type of teaching gig. While the students are getting to enjoy the instructors, the instructors get to enjoy the students.

We look for nice instructors and nice students. You get trouble makers in every group and it is our job to weed them out. Students and instructors who do not fair well in our environment just do not return. We are in the South and things here are more relaxed and easy going. We hope everyone will settle in to our way of life for the week. Anyone having trouble will probably be given a drink or two.

So how do you choose your instructors?

Paula has mingled on the fringes of the beading world and was lucky to get close to a very famous instructor who took Paula under her wing. From there it was all Paula and her southern charm. People just want to work with her. She treats people like she wants to be treated. Whatever she does is working. She goes to Bead and Button and other places and has met some very amazing people in the bead world. You wouldn’t expect such talent from such a cute little package. She is an amazing artist. But she has chosen to make her mark as a retailer. She still teaches and consults but she is famous for being the President of The Beadcage, Inc. and for her classes and events.

Right now, instructors are coming to Paula and requesting to teach with her. We are still building a sizable beading community here in Columbus GA, but we are not at the level of being able to fill alot of classes. So we depend on people coming to us from other areas. With this economy it has been difficult. I feel that in time we will become a necessary destination store. It is all a matter of time and the economy turning around.
I hope that by bringing our attendees of the Southern Bead Retreat to our store, the word will get out about what a hidden dream we have developed.

So how else do you plan to get the word out about your store?

This seems to be a monumental task. I tell anyone who will listen about us.
Then as I search the internet I see web sites touting such great bead stores that sound similar to ours. When I visit many of them, they do not seem to have what we have. For me it is usually a tremendous difference. We have a full time web master who works about 10 hours a day doing nothing but our web sites. We have a wonderful web site, thebeadcagebeads.com. It has most of our products listed here. For whatever reason, it has been difficult to get the response we would like from this web site. We are competing with alot of stores on the web selling beads as well as eBay. We hope that the web site will drive in store business and make us recognized as a great destination bead store.

We hear stories all the time how people are disappointed with their eBay experiences and how they find our product a great value. We are not an eBay store and we are not a catalog store. What we excel at is our customer service and value. This means high quality product at a great price. We excel at professional beading supplies and we cater to designers. In most cases are prices are either comparable or less than the prices found elsewhere on the net, but it is just a matter of people finding this out.

I’m hoping that interviews like this and blogging may help a little.

What I really need is for some of our customers, and we have thousands, to come out on the web and tell about their positive experience with us. There is nothing better than a good reference from a customer. I think that many of our customers just are not the kind to go out and write these reviews. We had a really wonderful review by one of our attendees of the first Southern Bead retreat, but these kinds of reviews are difficult to obtain. A customer that has a problem will tell ten people while a customer who has a great experience may not tell anyone.

We do advertise in beading magazines and on the web, but until people start to see that we are the real deal, we just have to keep plugging.

I know that you do most of your importing. How did you come about this?

When we started I believe Paula went up to the America’s Mart in Atlanta Georgia and brought home to the store about $500 worth of inventory. That is a far cry from where we are today.

In time we started attending the Tucson bead show. What we found was that we were seeing the same people at the Tucson show that we were buying from in Atlanta. I learned that from the time a bead leaves the factory and ends up in a customers hand it has gone through upwards of 7 or 8 middlemen. This makes it impossible for many small bead stores to compete and it made prices at bead stores seem high.

I also learned that while Tucson is huge, it was really the only venue for bead retailers in the US to get a good selection of beads. However, everyone was buying at the same place and everyone had access to the same beads.

I wanted to have beads that no one else had and I want to be able to compete with middle men who were selling to our customers at the same prices they were selling to us.

Making the step to importing was a great step for us. Not only did it require the knowledge of where beads are made, but it required a sizable commitment to putting alot of money into inventory. When buying direct from the factory or when designing your own product, you have to order in significant quantity. It meant getting Visas and traveling to places and countries we had never been to and whose languages and cultures we did not know. It meant finding translators and brokers and customs agents and getting wildlife permits. It meant learning from the seat of our pants. It meant weeks of time away from our business and considerable travel expenses. It meant needing additional storage. It meant hours and hours of cataloging, putting things into the computers, labeling, and displaying. It meant learning about stone making and glass making. It meant getting deathly ill in places in the middle of no where. It meant learning to make contacts and trusted friends in other countries. It meant learning how to transfer money and ship product and wade through bureaucratic red tape. It meant that not only did we need to know our product but the product being shown in Tuscon and all over the US. We had to find out who the trusted suppliers were and who was looking to rip us off. Lastly we had to learn and are still learning how to sell what we buy.

Over the years I have traveled to many countries and purchased from many suppliers. I have walked and traveled thousands of miles to obtain the product we have in our store. Every piece is personally chosen by me and or Paula. It has to meet our standards for value or we don’t purchase it. Now we try to only import our product and not buy from places everyone else buys. This allows us to compete with the wholesalers selling to the public on price and it allows us to have product no one else has.

I spend hours on the internet looking for places to travel to where I can find great product to sell. When I find a lead we plan a trip.

Now we import just about everything or most things. When we can find a better value for our customers from wholesalers we will buy from them.

People are now coming to me to assist them in importing. The other day a jewelry maker for the stars who has been featured in magazines like Vogue contacted me to assist in importing product.

So how do you deal with customers who say they can find your product cheaper somewhere else?

Education. We cannot be the cheapest on everything and that is not what we are about. We create value for our customers. What we do is to research what the customer tells us. Most times, the customer is not comparing apples to apples and sometimes the customer is mistaken or remembers things different. When someone tells us they get their product cheaper on eBay or at the local hobby store, we just check it out. We use these comparisons as examples in store. Some people just want to believe we are more expensive for some reason. Invariably we find that if we have higher prices they are justified by quality or quantity. Nevertheless there are those wonderful times when customers come from Atlanta or places further and compliment us on our prices and quality. Sometimes we think local folks just do not know how good they have it.

Because of the economy, silver prices have really increased. Customers were going other places for plated findings. We had not carried plated findings in the past because of quality issues and because pleated findings could be found at the big box stores. Customers were not buying as much silver findings. So we decided to try to import plated findings. We searched for the highest quality plated products and we succeeded. It is difficult to tell our plated from the real thing except for weight. We have a greater selection of plated product and a better quality and more unique selection than our competition. One of our customers told us that in order to get the same price on a similar product over the internet she would have had to buy more than 100 pieces.

Like I said earlier, it is not always about price. We try do have great prices, but we offer so much more than the internet competition. We are here for our customers six days a week and 24/7 on line. We are part of the community where that eBay seller is usually not. What we provide cannot be obtained on the internet. We provide a comfortable setting to shop. You can see touch and feel our product and know you are getting a great value. What you see is what you get when you shop with us. You will always have an experience bead artist to help you with your shopping. An internet store does not support your beading community. We provide classes and a place for the local bead society to meet. We offer beading parties. We offer professional design assistance. We offer a wide variety of discount programs. We are a great place to shop and a great social environment. The only thing they have to compete with us is really price and sometimes they do not do such a great job.

Most people may not realize that if they choose only to shop on line and not support their local stores, then their local stores cannot stay in business. They may not realize that without support their local store, classes will disappear, a place for the local bead society will disappear, jobs will disappear etc. We really appreciate all the people who understand this and make us their bead store of choice.

You say that you want to become a destination store. Why would someone want to travel to Columbus to shop at your store?

If you are a beader you could save time and money by coming to The Beadcage. I know that in larger cities you may have to travel to several beads stores to find what you need. That is alot of travel time and money getting around. You could plan to come to Columbus to shop at the Beadcage and have a full day of shopping available at our store. I bet you could even save money traveling here. We are not just a beads store though. You could plan to come when we are having a class or a weekend of classes too. Hotels in Columbus are mostly very new and relatively inexpensive. We have three hotels in easy walking distance to the store as well as budget hotels and more expensive hotels. There is no shortage of things to do just around the store, but also in Columbus. We are right next door to Chico’s and Talbots and many other great stores are just around the corner. There is a bowling alley across the street and a Hollywood Connection across the street in the other direction. We are right next to some very nice food establishments and also the famous Chef Lee’s restaurant. Columbus has the new Infantry Museum and the IMAX theater. We are not far from Calloway Gardens and there is a myriad of other things to do close by.

Besides beads, we also have a really great jewelry and gift store. You can also do all of your gift and Holiday shopping while shopping for beads with us.

As far as beading goes. Earlier I described all the things that make The Beadcage such a great place to shop. I know I told you about the near 10,000 beading products we have on our floor every day. The store is a haven for great beads great people and great inspiration. We are not a store dedicated to children parties but rather a place for the professional artist and beader. We are a sanctuary of beading in the South.

I guess that sum’s it up. From what I can see, you really are telling the truth. Thank you for your time.

Special Class December 6th at 11:00am EST

Only 4 spaces available

Email info@thebeadcage.com or call (706) 221-4438 to sign up.