The loss of local stores

I noticed on my Facebook this morning another one of my favoite stores is closing. This one is The Scrapbook Zone in Michigan and Kelley, the owner, has worked very hard for 10 years helping her customers to create wonderful scrapbook layouts, cards, altered proejcts. She has done her work with love and enthusiasm.

This is, unfortunately, too often the story of the local stores. They are in a fight for their lives and we need to support them in anyway we can. As a manufacturer, I don't sell to discount stores and give local stores lots of ideas to share with you. That's a big sacrifice for me but I believe in local stores and I think that this is the right way to do it. I do sell online because so many want that convenience but I always urge folks to support their local stores.

Visualize a world without small local stores, not just scrapbook stores, but all kinds of stores. It will literally change the landscape of Main Street America. Kind of depressing to visualize towns filled with the same stores over and over again. I for one love to poke around in small stores where I can find unique things, where I can find lots of personal service and where it feels good to support the small business person. I am a small business and I know what it takes to keep a small business going and growing. Work, work and more work. But it is a labor of love. For me, it has been a labor of love for me for 32 years.

So if you love SRM Stickers and you have a local store near you, please see if they have our product. If they do, buy from them, if not always at least from time to time. If they don't have SRM, ask them to bring some in. You will be glad that the store stays in your town and you don't have to say, like so many are saying these days, "Oh, I can't believe that they are going out of business". Instead you will be celebrating their success with your help and the help of your friends. Pass the word. Get people talking about helping small businesses and helping to retain the look and feel of your community.

And if you have purchased our products and are looking for inspiration it is all around you. It's in many of the magazines, on numerous blogs, SRM is featured in challenges and of course on the SRM blog where 5 days a week our amazing design team works their magic over and over again.