Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: Craftsy Uproar & The Enablers Ranked
Last week I chimed in with my 2 cents on the current Craftsy predicament. It isn’t like there is that much drama in this industry, so I need to capitalize on the blogging when the opportunity arises and strike while the iron is hot.
Since my initial blog on Craftsy, I have received many emails, blog and social media comments on the subject. I now want to share some newly discovered info with you, but before I do that, I wanted to make one observation. The majority of the comments that I heard were from non-quilt shop owners i.e. ultimate consumers and most of them were in defense of Craftsy, which caught me a little off-guard. The comments were mostly focused on the cheap prices. I guess in there lies the crux of the problem….people still want to pay as little as possible for all purchases….including fabric. That being said, I would love to hear from some quilt shop owners about the situation, how they feel about it and what they are doing about it. Please do share your comments.
The good news is, at least for the Jaftex companies (Studioe Fabrics, The Blank Quilting Corp. & Henry Glass Fabrics), that our reps are actually getting more business due to this Craftsy situation. A couple of reps have told me that they have visited shops and the shop owners actually took out the list of approved vendors (non-Craftsy suppliers) and the disapproved vendors (Craftsy suppliers). As mentioned before, I can not complain about being the beneficiary of the boycotting of Craftsy vendors. I should really clarify this because it isn’t officially being called a boycott, but rather I think the euphemism being used is “selective purchasing.” This isn’t the ideal way to gain market share as we would prefer to do that on the merits of our amazing fabrics. In any case, you know how the expression goes…
For those of you who are not in the know and involved with the Fab Shop Forum, where much of this anti-Craftsy banter is being tossed around, I wanted to share with you and all my readers the list of Craftsy fabric vendors. The lists are below and separated into “big vendors” and “little vendors.” Moda is number one in the rankings. Unfortunately, this is not a number one ranking that anyone can be proud of….probably a first for Moda as they are number one in most everything else. I guess you can’t win them all. Just as an aside, I have great respect for Moda.
MORE THAN 10 ITEMS IN CRAFTSY (THE “BIG VENDORS”)
MODA 127
ROBERT KAUFMANN 97
RJR 78
ANTHOLOGY 42
FREE SPIRIT 38
RILEY BLAKE 34
KONA COTTON 32
ROWAN 26
MARCUS 25
BENARTEX 23
TIMELESS TREASURES 20
MICHAEL MILLER 13
LESS THAN 10 ITEMS IN CRAFTSY (THE “LITTLE VENDORS”)
ANDOVER
ANNA GRIFFIN
COTTON & STEEL
NORTHCOTT
The last issue to discuss here is the legality of “selective purchasing” a.k.a. boycotting. The reason that I am delving into this is because I am being told that some company presidents and owners are saying that there could be legal ramifications to what is taking place now. In my opinion, there are no legal issues and the presidents are just trying to scare everyone away.
As my loyal readers know, I did suffer through three long years of law school. Having given this situation some thought, with my legal hat on, I believe that there are no legal issues based on these facts:
I can sell to whoever I want to: One has a choice to sell Craftsy or not.
I can stop selling to whoever I want for any reason or no reason whatsoever: Vendors can stop selling Craftsy whenever they want.
Anyone can stop buying from me whenever they want for any reason or no reason whatsoever: Shop owners can stop buying from “violators” if they want.
In closing, in seems that the “violators” need to make a decision to continue selling Craftsy or not. Whatever that decision may be, the companies will have to deal with the consequences that come with the decision and don’t forget that it isn’t easy to get Craftsy to stop selling your products on their site. So even if you do stop selling them, your existing products will remain on the site until sold out and deleted. As the expression goes,
Until Next Week,
This Is Still Scott “NOT SELLING TO CRAFTSY EVER” Fortunoff
These are the opinions of Scott Fortunoff and Scott Fortunoff only. This does not represent the opinion of anyone other than Scott Fortunoff, the individual, or any of the companies that Scott Fortunoff is associated with.