October 27th, 2015 at 09:12 am
If you want to make a difference, consider making a commitment:
because just sharing a placard on Social Media means nothing.
Last year after thinking about it – not shopping on ONE DAY makes no difference if you are then bright and early every day thereafter.
I decided I would not buy at Wal-Mart until they changed their family holiday policy for one of the two “purely” US Holidays’ Thanksgiving. It does, often, conflict with our policy about buying local whenever at all possible – but not so much after all.
According to my records (and yes I do keep every sales receipt) between Thanksgiving 2013 & 2014, as a couple we spent about $3500 in our local Wal-Mart – including RX Co-Pays.
Beginning November 2015 we transferred all his RX to another pharmacy –
Keeping in mind, that I do not require anyone, including him to walk off the plank with me, in the past 11.5 months, our Wal-Mart purchases are (including the co-pays in December while getting RX transferred) total less than $75.
Did this take some effort? yes, but I am anything if not stubborn when ti comes to something that “matters to me”
Did it mean paying more for a few necessities? Maybe, but not enough to change my mind. For example, a brand new super Wal-Mart just opened, so yes we spent a few hours browsing. Even spent 88 cents for a cup cake tin and 1.72 for a good tray for a bead tray experiment.
But I was also armed with my “comparison shopping list” which is a notebook that lists all the food & household supplies we use on a regular basis.
Turns out that Wal-Mart continues to be no more competitive – even with store brands – except for ONE item – In fact more than 85% of the everyday low prices were 10 to 20 % HIGHER than any other stupid markets prices. Including his RX Co-Pays.
Did it mean a bit of extra effort? Yes, it did = but it seems the one thing that temped me most – Idaho Potatos – is no longer going to be stocked year round. and the produce manager in my preferred stupid market lets me know when they are “special purchase” in his store.
Do I think many will make a similar commitment? No, and that is okay with me – we each get to choose what really matters and so requires action on our part.
Was it worth it? Yes, I think so – apparently both financially and emotionally.
We in fact saved money. Yes I am proud of myself – maybe I will invent a “Thanksgiving is for Families” chip –
Do I think Wal-Mart much misses our $$$$ ?
probably not – but imagine if even 1/10th of its customers – even just for one critical quarter – October to December – did the same thing…
Will I still browse at our local Wal-Mart and maybe “slip” because an employee was helpful in my “information gathering” expeditions?
Probably
Now on to preparing the “winter stock up” shopping.
Let you know next year if I am as incorrigible as charged.
Enjoy The Making
Wheat
October 24th, 2015 at 11:32 am
For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is an increased sensitivity to certain additives (soy, corn sweeteners, sulfates, etc) as well as necessary dietary restrictions; I have been “experimenting” with making down sized recipes – not an easy task for someone who spent time after college in banquet kitchens, so more comfortable prepping for 20 to 2000 than for 2.
Freezing is the easy answer for entrees often an answer when it is just too complicated to really down size a recipe and desserts are a rather different set of challenges.
As a life long fan of breaking down a task so that it can be done in small bits – I have always “pre-measured” and then stored dry ingredients of many “basic” recipes. Some, like pie crumb & Pastry shells, even lend themselves itself to freezing. (by the way, I highly recommend the use of Vanilla powder over extract for just this reason.)
Some ingredients do not lend themselves to freezing and so can’t be included in the assembly line plan. “fillings” are often there and I doubt Marie Calendar is going to share her tricks with us.
That just leaves the filling and good as my desserts might be – no one really want the same one for a week straight so it does not ‘go bad’. AND sometimes one wants more variety to satisfy “everyone” (cheese cake flavoring would be an example)
So I was happy to see apparently the writers of the King Arthur blog have been getting signals from my brain – so not exactly what I “need” lots of helpful ideas in their blog today Freeze & Bake Tips and the little added gem about what freezes well or less weel was “hidden” in the comments so there may be more freshly baked bread and calzones in the monthly menu –
Enjoy The Making
Wheat
October 22nd, 2015 at 11:38 am
Based on the 1st Amendment – so long as I remain within the parameters of not inciting panic or riots,
my speech is Politically Correct.
my new banner (or it will be as soon as I remember HOW to add it to the blog – will be my answer for all who would, as a result of their opinions, feel my voiws are not okay and should be changed.
October 18th, 2015 at 08:28 am
The business side of the working Artisan is often a tricky and Lord knows, time consuming – especially when it comes to Sales, Marketing and PR.
So, once again we come back to “Intended purpose” and as often as not, “untended consequences”
Is what you write of any lasting value?
well then right off the bat, 140 characters that will disappear into oblivion pretty much immediately, certainly with a day or two, and then be nearly impossible to find again – never mind “refer back to” especially if you are foolish enough to entrust your content to a platform where you have no control
Do the stats matter?
Maybe, it depends on your purpose or purposes. But for my blog, there are really only 3-4 of the overwhelming amount of raw data that I look at more than very few months for my blog, and weekly for my e-comm site.
Is it a “public diary” – (just beware If you must indulge TMI try not to sound too whining because there is only so much cheese that ships well – okay?)
well that won’t fit into 140 characters now will it.
Then again I am old school, I usually think before writing and favor the point over the person (except for politics) so while I can still usually manage it in “one page” – 140 characters is good for nothing except “atta artist” (don’t need message about atta boy vs atta girl )
Do you use it as a safe place to share your thoughts and opinions without worrying about those who disagree whining to a group admin about how mean and evil you are
yes, that was and continues to be why I have a blog. Although it is also helpful for keeping track of stuff I might need when not at home – like recipes.
Do you use it as a “safe place” to keep bits and pieces of information?
well that raises a bunch of other questions not germane to this discussion
but rather one for if you think your blog is of value to you and your goals.
Is your blog a legacy of sorts?
a place where someone can go back to – because they are fan of your work, or your writing, or you jig saw puzzles.
Are you active in “group help activities” but get tired of writing the same advice over and over (yes another reason for my blog)
then it is a place to keep the info that won’t fit into 140 characters – and those who are interested will go and read it.
If you fells your work, be that completed work or “as a teacher”
Each of these outlets (and others) should have a place in your business plan.
Your website is your public resume and portfolio – for the teacher it is also where you kept general information about classes you are prepared to teach.
this is where our linked in profile should point
Your blog is where you share your “current’ work as an artisan
this is where your 140 character / Social Media posts should point
Quilt Art and similar groups are where you share with more or less trusted peers.
Social Media (Twitter, FB, Ellio, etc) are where you keep up, “be a person” (Robbie Eklow & Melissa Leapman & Kim Guzman are among the best at this on FB)
Both to make us Love them as people and Generate short term interest that leads to sales – books, classes, completed works.
One thing I can tell you after more than 4 decades (back in the days before the Web and the internet was all SIG Lists secreted in government and other institutional servers with text only.
Each of these may or may not have a place in your life – it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish and what “audience” you to have / build.
Once you have decided which fits your needs – personal and professional, Then, you need to decide if you are willing to put in the work to make each work for you. Because as with all “business” the details matter. And they all require a time commitment.
To paraphrase Smokey the Bear – ONLY YOU – Can decide what fits YOUR Needs.
need to get off this soapbox before vertigo sets in – although given the issues caused by the most recent “stroke of the eye” I might have already gone to far. so might have to repost in a safe place,
Enjoy The Making
Wheat
P.S. to all my QA FB Friends, thanks for being there – I do love the opportunity to start my day with Eye-Candy so many of your provide.
P.S. Jr – Yes I do FB, but DO NOT HAVE A SMART PHONE – only a very stupid phone that can make phones – can’t even text (well I think it might be able to, but my vision does not allow me to use that effectively)
October 12th, 2015 at 08:08 am
Shared, written, with specific permission:
Originally Posted on October 9, 2015 by Marnie’s Creations
http://www.creationsfromthehart.com/amazon-review/
A closer look at the new Amazon Handmade section
I know many artists in my position were really excited when given the opportunity to apply to be a seller on the newly launched Handmade @ Amazon section. We were even more excited when we received the form email that congratulated us on our acceptance. Since receiving that email there have been many other form emails telling us to add products, set up our profile and advising us on how to market our soon to be launching Amazon store. Exciting? Right? Amazon is huge and has a lot of traffic. This takes us out of website maintenance, the Facebook auctions, the face to face selling and all of the other interaction we currently have so that we can spend our time creating instead of conversing. To some this sounds like a great thing. Never mind that their fees are higher than any other platform available at 12% plus 50 cents per sale and the $39.99 per month (which is waived until August 2016 for artisans). It’s Amazon, what can go wrong?
Well folks I’m not an accountant although I did take numerous classes on the subject and I would not consider myself to be good at math but do you have any idea how many items you have to sell on Amazon to actually make a profit after materials and those fees? It’s a lot. Most of the artisans I know are a one man show, so to speak. We can only make so much in a day. Perhaps that’s why Amazon considers you a handmade artisan if you employ 20 people or belong to a community of 100 people. Yeah, that’s not how I do things. It is only me. I make my products, I purchase the materials to make my products, I photograph my products, I actively sell my products, I handle the invoicing, I pack and ship my products. I handle all aspects of my business. Working for Amazon I would simply have to make more of the product to produce the same amount of money. Don’t get me wrong, I work. I work A LOT. In fact the majority of my awake hours are spent working. The reason I work so much is so that eventually I can get away from working for someone else. It sounds to me like selling on Amazon would be similar to working for Amazon. Today I deleted everything I had on their site. I’ll tell you why a little further in this post.
I was excited to start. I set up my shop and added my products. I received email after email from Amazon telling me they’re launching soon but giving no indication of when soon was. I have to admit that the lack of details was a problem for me but the bigger problem with their emails is that not once did they use my name. Now, my name is not a huge deal. I’m no one important but in a business transaction isn’t it polite to use someone’s name when addressing them. As a business owner that sends emails, messages and writes handwritten notes to my customer I find this lack of personalizing a tad disturbing for a site promoting handmade items. I figured I’d let that slide. Amazon is huge and maybe they accepted everyone that applied and they have too many people to write to…although I’m not sold on that idea because I know that even I can get a program that will fill in people’s names in a form email.
All of this up to this point I considered to be small annoyances. What was really bothering me is that whenever you buy something from Amazon you say you got it on Amazon. There are a great many sellers on Amazon but who are they? It doesn’t really matter. Do I want my jewelry to be another Amazon product? I put time into what I do. Everything I make comes from my heart and my hands. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that to feed a monster company like that. Those that know me know that I don’t even shop at Walmart for similar reasons. So maybe I was trying to talk myself out of it, maybe I was curious but something caused me to further research. I read about sellers experiences on Amazon. I read that Amazon will actually compete with you, that they will reproduce your product if it’s doing well. I read that you can’t have a watermark on your photos, that you cannot link out from you business website on Amazon but of course they encourage you to link from your business website to Amazon. I read some horror stories where sellers left Amazon to sell on their own website and were competing with their old Amazon profile. This makes sense because who has better SEO (search engine optimization) than Amazon? Seriously, type in any kind of product in Google, Bing, whatever search engine you use and tell me who comes up first. I heard that Amazon exploits their sellers. I heard they reserve the right to use your name and product any way they wish.
Ok, all of this is bad. It can’t all be true, right? Well I had a bad feeling about it. It hit me at 3am yesterday. I made the decision not to participate in the launch of this new section. I went to bed feeling really good about this decision, no harm done aside from the hours I spent setting everything up. I woke up this morning (well it would technically be yesterday now) to an email from Amazon. We’re now live. My heart sank. So now I’m definitely going to see if there is a basis for all of this negative feedback I read. I went on Amazons website. First I read about payments and returns. It was just the first thing I saw. Did you know that the sellers still pay 20% of the fee for items that are returned, even if it wasn’t their fault? That’s besides the point though. I wanted to see about branding, to see if I can promote my actual business. I can’t. You are not allowed to have any communication with the customers other than through Amazon. Why? Because they’re not your customers, they’re Amazons. They clearly state this…somewhere. I have to say that it’s not exceptionally easy to find information on their site even while logged in as a seller. I had to dig for quite awhile and was able to verify everything I had feared.
You know what actually got me to immediately delete all of my products? It was this, copied from the Amazon website. License: You grant us a royalty-free, non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use, reproduce, perform, display, distribute, adapt, modify, re-format, create derivative works of, and otherwise commercially or non-commercially exploit in any manner, any and all of Your Materials, and to sublicense the foregoing rights to our Affiliates and operators of Amazon Associated Properties. Now if you’re thinking of selling your handmade items I want you to read that again and when you’re done, a third time. I did. I read it multiple times mainly because I could not believe that they are so blatant about it. Yes, we have the right to exploit you. You give us this right. This right is irrevocable. Well crap. I had 50 something products listed. I did a batch delete immediately after reading this. It might not even matter because they were there and Amazon now owns those product pictures and designs. Fortunately in the few hours it was up nothing sold so perhaps Amazon won’t have any interest at all in my designs.
So this is my experience with Amazon. Next time an opportunity arises I am going to research first. Sometimes it can sound like a great thing and be the exact opposite. I’m still a tad nervous but happy it’s over. All of those things that Amazon said to encourage artisans to list there…You know, no more Facebook auctions, not so much communication, etc. Well, I enjoy those things. Being in a creative field I draw energy and inspiration from other people. I don’t want to simply sit and make products. I need feedback. I need the interaction. I’m not going to give that up. I’m back to auctioning again this weekend and have other things planned. I do still take the time to create and I take breaks from selling during this time…but I can do that. This is supposed to be an enjoyable experience and so far it has been.
As for Amazon I think they’re misleading both the buyers and sellers. The sellers for the reasons I stated and the buyers because Amazon has the artisans set up shop, they have pictures of themselves, their work space, a description of their process, their background etc. What it doesn’t necessarily say is that they could have 20-100 people working for them. I support the independent artisan. I, myself, am a self representing artist. I could never be sure that the money I spend in this section on Amazon is going to that nice person I read the profile for. Although I do know for sure that a hefty amount of it goes to Amazon. I really haven’t shopped on Amazon in a long time and they have now made it to my growing list of places I will never shop.
Please note that while the decision to back out came from their post about the license this selling site may work for some crafters. It won’t work for me. I encourage anyone reading this to do your own research prior to deciding.
My featured image is of one year here in Minnesota when it snowed a lot. It was my yard at the time. I was trying to think of something that fit this topic and for some reason snow came to mind.
Part of the problem is that we have become so dependent upon this system that is killing and exploiting us, it has become almost impossible for us to imagine living outside of it, and it’s very difficult physically for us to live outside of it.
~ Derrick Jensen
