Post CHA Conference Call February 11, 2009

Participants: Aimee/Rexburg, Dana/Antioch, Jayna/Monroe, Scott S/Waite Park, Neil/Redmond, BrianDonna/Pt. Huron, Steve/Kaysville, Darlene/Springfield, Heather, Kelli

Dana/Antioch:

Scenic Route new line available

October Afternoon did not make it to the show but they will have a new line available on line Monday, awesome quality, small collections paper, rub on’s, stamps and easy to get in to. button to blog.
Amuse Stamps: we brought in $600 in Amuse and sold through by 2/3 by the time we came back. Savvy stamps too.

Shop-a-tron: on line retailing. EK Success would let consumers shop on their website and Shop-a-Tron would be the fulfillment through independent retailers based on fulfillment percentage and proximity. They pay direct deposit to your account twice a month. We sign up for everyone. Dana does the packing of the orders and goes on twice a day to pull orders.

Stampendous: Will be doing Shop-a-tron in the next couple of weeks, Melissa and doug is another one on there. They have a program set up with which products are offered at 30,60, 90.

Fancy Pants: Did anyone buy Fancy Pants? Darlene did all of it. She has always had good luck. Aimee had done it as a pick up from Notions and has re-ordered. WP ordered all of it except frames. Darlene also bought the frames. Dennis Daniels has the same frame with painting on the frames. Aimee will try the technique with MCS Cabriolet. ****Jayna to send photos of the frames from Fancy Pants.

What about Graphic 45? Darlene likes it, Monroe likes it. Discount 5 % under $500, 10% over $500, 15% offover $1000 verified with Aimee at Graphic 45 on 2/11/09. Darlene’s order came to $400.

Jayna/Monroe
We liked Graphic 45 and Stampendous also Scrappin Sports School Line and their new Fire Paper. They did a WII model too and with so much excitement around WII s we might do a Wii Page Contest.

We spent a lot of time in EK Success and found findings we liked @ $300. Martha Glitter Eggs in an Apothecary. ***Jayna to send pictures.
Glitz Designs Paper we chose a lot from them but really liked 4 different collections from them. ***Jayna to send line names.

Scott/Waite Park:

We are meeting with the paper dept tomorrow we bought the Fancy Pants line, we liked the Piggy Tales line and Basic Grey and Doodlebug. American Crafts we bought the baby line.

Accu cut had nice wedding invitations it is up for debate in our store you can download the templates for the design. It seems a little high but they are nice.

Aimee: has anyone done anything with their die cut center that relates to that program. Redmond did and it has helped paper sales. Not overwhelming though.

Yellow Bicycle we bought it all.
Creative Imaginations we liked the line
Cosmo Cricket they were excited about it not sure what they bought
Neil/Redmond:

DCWV still a big vendor for us 15 new stacks available we bought 12 of the 15 good dollars

8x8 and smaller stack sell the best, 12x12 still okay.
DecoArt paint pot program in metal and glitter and holiday we had been buying Delta and Deco and will convert to DecoARt. Also rub-on faces for fall.
7 Gypsies: Gypsy Market Line we liked the line for fall. For mini stars projects 6x6 paper pack #19317 retail $7-8.00 cost $3.88 before 20% SPC
Darice: Glitter line with visors and foam sheets and the entire new line from them.
Ranger: Had Memory Capsules
Yellow Bicycle: we did all the lines there
HHH: Hinged frames that open, good addition to jewelry department
Brian & Donna/Pt Huron

Plastic Canvas design works had the strongest line for the holiday season and a felt collection that offered home décor colors for pillows creating a nice

MCG had two new rugs in latch hook toy horse and tiger both really cute

Caron Yarn Simply Soft ECO we do well in the store with their line with good catalog support

Allary nice roll tote for yarn

Bucilla Felt Collection for 2009 looked wonderful and a new stamp collection and Holly Hobby new stocking ornament and tree skirts

Dimensions had the best cross stitch line at the show.

***All products were chosen for June catalog support
Saleutions we liked the booth especially the kits

DRG great new publications coming out in

Sock Monkey we sold 1000 units last year and found a vendor that will do custom kits for us “When Creativity Knocks” would do it as an option for the group will kit for us.

Darlene/Springfield

7 Gypsies the Gypsy Market Collection 97% complete tags that we have been doing well with and the ATC’s the Bindery Punch at $19.88 Chatterbox Easy Brad Maker

Graphic 45 is on our favorite list

Hero Arts $15 teaching kit 6 samples, all the stamps in one kit for classes to teach and you can buy all of the stamps 4 collections we picked up 2 different ones collage elements and whimsical elements.
Hot Off the Press: Dazzles like Stampendous retail $1.99 in gold and silver. We are going to try those out and see how they work and they have circle, envelope templates. They have 2 different Easy Peasy Books. Memory Book Frames retail $6.99 a good addition to it.

American Craft: we bought that line too

Clearsnap: Smooch like Radiant Pearls got it in last week and sold half already. They are buying all of the colors without demonstration. We bought the displayer pack and ordered two displays and it has worked out fine. Retail: ? WP and Monroe also bought it.

AccuCut: also had some really nice new die cuts we got them in and are anxious to use them. Some of the book dies and pages. ***Darlene to fax to Kelli and Jayna
Monroe, Rexburg and Idaho Falls, Redmond

Rexburg/Redmond and Monroe have all done better with Petaloo than Prima.

Jayna: Design Master 12x12 Frames and embellishments, round glass they have great pictures. They had great ideas

Heather: Design Master is working on some great projects

Scott/Waite Park: Diamond Tech Kiln Microwavable Kiln we picked up last summer and have done well, also their mosaic and stained glass. ***report from Scott

Heather: Cameo Style has Redmond decided what to do yet?

Bob: David is working on something and will get back to us shortly. I think they need to work on the merchandise side of their business. We would like to go see a few of their set ups in action.

Heather: they are talking about adding an extra system for the money at the same cost. There are none in WA or OR. The price is an issue and I do not see them flexing. Not sure what to do to get the price down. They feel that is what it is worth.

Scott/WP: I could go check one out if you provide me the list.

Bob: Picture Framing Business Facilitate a Framing Conference Call.

Discuss what other people are doing? We are seeing wild fluctuations on both upside and downside. More Quick Fit than custom, ready made still very strong but more in import area vs. domestic. Imports are great but perhaps the number of vendors.10-25% of total retail saies here producing 40% of net profit. It is still a very strong part of our business anything having to do with home décor is one thing but framing is still strong for us. Prints and reproductions drove our business a few years ago and now it is non-existent, people are framing different things than they were a few years ago. Staying on top of it behooves all of us to stay really tight with that.

Jayna: the more sharing we can have on the successes. The better we will all be.

Neil: We will be bringing the advice from a…program numbers. We are pulling together a frame it up line of products. 8’ section with all of that stuff in it.

Jayna: Phone Tree idea for the next show? For example I have a few cell numbers and when I found the Fiskar’s deal I called as many as I could and shared the news. They were able to act on it and others could not as they sold out.

Neil: Darice and SPC. We are going to the meeting next week and will be sharing ideas back and forth and coming up with seasonal and everyday and a few get shared and a lot do not. I encouraged Tom to pull some of that out of a few people and it helps all of us.