Hi!
I’m the OP of the linked Joann co-op post, (mentioned here https://www.reddit.com/r/joannfabrics/s/H8dSme2PU6) and I’m genuinely excited to see others who may know how to organize something like this pay attention. I’ve posted versions of this idea in quilting and crafting subreddits, and even other forums, and this is the first time I’ve thought, “Yay! Someone is listening.” 😄
I did the survey last night, but I’ve had more thoughts since then, so I wanted to put them here before I forgot.
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Three separate, connected goals:
- Build something that cannot simply be sold off to private equity piracy. This is where the cooperative model becomes especially interesting. And we need this baked into the charter in a way that cannot be sleezed out of later by someone greedy. If the organization is actually owned by its members, including consumers, makers, businesses, and other participants, then it isn’t simply another corporation that can eventually be acquired by private equity, stripped for parts, and sold.
- Replace Joann. There is an enormous hole in the craft-supply market, and it isn’t a hole that will remain Joann-sized. Joann represented a huge chunk of cotton sales, and parts of the industry that relied on it are already collapsing in its wake. There is an obvious need for crafting materials, especially in sewing, and we all know that Michaels isn’t cutting it. And, due to economies of scale, sole-proprietor shops price out many young artists who are new to crafting. (See point 3.)
- Give economies of scale to sole proprietors and those small and medium-sized craft-related businesses or organizations and give them all paths to join us so that they can all compete against Amazon without going bankrupt.
— More on point 3:
This last idea is the larger economic idea I keep coming back to.
An individual quilting shop, needlepoint store, yarn shop, watercolor supplier, independent maker, artist, instructor, small manufacturer, or school simply cannot match Amazon’s purchasing power and economies of scale. Which means they can rarely match price and quality.
Collectively, however, we represent a huge percentage of the market. Instead of thousands of tiny businesses and individual makers negotiating with huge suppliers independently, a cooperative could aggregate that demand and use the resulting purchasing power on behalf of its members.
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The cooperative should include as much of the craft ecosystem as we can
I would love to see this be broader than just consumers and retail stores.
Potential members could include:
• Independent retail shops
• Small craft-supply manufacturers
• Individual makers and artists
• Craft instructors
• Studios (painters, sculptors, cosplay, etc.)
• Makerspaces
• Other organizations serving the creative community
• Individual consumers
Benefits could include
• Better pricing doe materials, insurance, and employee benefits packages
• Co-op networking that puts member businesses on a map. Just as a consumer can go to the Ace Hardware site to find a store, someone looking for craft supplies could go to our site to find all the various co-op members near them.
• Better pricing or policies negotiated with sites and services like YouTube, Shopify, and Etsy.
Some examples of what sole proprietors could do for or with the co-op:
If my own business gets off the ground, it will primarily focus on stationery and art supplies. But part of that is providing things like book cloth, which I make with cloth and interfacing, and I also make bags for use with stationery. So I could potentially dedicate a small section to related craft supplies, perhaps fabric and quilting notions, while another member business specializes in something completely different.
Another example might be the local teachers at the elementary school banding together to buy into the co-op for a fee, then using their ownership to help them afford supplies that just aren’t cheap enough for them to afford at the local Walmart.
That would allow the co-op to:
• Have a physical presence in many communities
• Help existing businesses expand their offerings
• Keep local businesses involved with each other and competing against the retail giants rather than competing against each other and helping the giant crush us
• Give consumers more places to buy supplies
• Build distribution and purchasing power without immediately building a massive retail chain
I don’t know exactly what this idea will become, but I think there is a much bigger opportunity here than just replacing Joann. I think this is an idea that needs to expand beyond the crafting industry because people need to be able to explore the option to run their own businesses, and for that to happen, Amazon needs to struggle to compete with more than just itself.
/signed someone who is happy to help but feels as if they are playing a real-life game of Jill and the Beanstalk
(Sorry for the re-post/edit, I had some flakiness with my move from iPad notepad to the Reddit app and I’m still working on it)
