In my last blog I went into detail about where a buyer's money goes when they shop on Etsy and where a crafter's money goes when they produce an item. I also mentioned that for a year I made the majority of my sales on the sock monkeys I design and make in a little local consignment store and that I no longer sell there. I also said I'd blog about that.
Consignment is a great way to get a handmade product into the hands of a buyer. Unlike a web store, the customer can see it, touch it, in the case of a stuffed animal, hold it and look it over carefully. Colors are more accurate (I once sold one simply because the socks I chose were the same color as a family was using in the nursery for the new baby!). I made between $50-$90 a month selling in a consignment store, which is far more then I have ever made online in even a year! It doesn't pay the bills, but it does keep production going. So why did I ever stop?
Early on in the brief existence of my online shop, I was contacted by a friend of the owner who told me she was looking for new sellers for her children's store. Tucson has an excellent reputation for "buy local" awareness and I really did want to have a few of my monkeys in a store where the customer could see them because I think tangible purchases you don't have to wait two weeks or so to enjoy give a lot of people more satisfaction then items purchased through the Internet (even though it is exciting to get a package in the mail). So I took a few by.
The owner was a nice lady with a store full of used and handmade items for children (great idea!). The consignment rate wasn't too bad. 60-40 is better then 50-50 by far, after all who's buying supplies and assembling the item anyhow? So I agreed to leave something like four monkey in the store. I went back one or two months later to discover they had all sold and she made a check out to me for a nice little sum of money, which I spent buying more supplies and I brought her more monkeys. And so it went for a whole year. Normally she does 6 month runs on consignment items, but after 6 months they were still selling, and there are two street fairs where the store was located which draws in buyers, as well as the impending event of Christmas. So she kept taking monkeys. And they kept selling. Some of the employees at the shop regularly told me that not only were my monkeys their favorites- but favorites of most customers as well. Whether that was totally true or not, it was nice and encouraging to hear.
Whenever the owner would cut me my check, she also would send me an invoice via e-mail for what was sold, for how much each item was and what her cut was for my records. I don't always get the e-mail. But I always get paid, and since I don't make enough selling the monkeys, I don't have to pay taxes and therefore the records are irrelevant to me.
But as spring was on the way it seemed like coming by to see if anything sold and collect payment due was becoming an irritation to her. And I assumed for my own peace of mind that she had her own worries. And I was right, the lease was coming up, and there were sentiments in the selling "district" that a children's store was not right for the area and rather then pack up and move (for a second time) she was thinking on closing and moving away to a new opportunity. Then someone with money, seeing the stores potential and the market for a children's clothing exchange and all the great locally made items stepped in and offered to buy the "store" from her.
At this point the consignors were asked to retrieve their merchandise and I came by several times trying to do so and each time the store was closed and I only was able to get them the very day before the doors on that location were closed forever. I had sold two monkeys since my last payment and she told me she owed me something like $33 and some change. But- she wasn't paying consignors right now, she'd send me my e-mail invoice and then the check would be in the mail in the next week. I was unemployed and could sorely use $33, but it was not a large sum and I could see that she was extremely preoccupied and was content to wait a week. I took my merchandise and she told me that the new owner has my e-mail address and would contact me if they wished to have the monkeys in the new location. This was back in February, which as fall approaches, feels like an eternity ago.
I never got my check or my invoice confirming the two sales. Weeks passed and I noticed on the Facebook Page for the store that there were a few other consignors trying to appeal to her to send them their checks (some were clearly angry and impatient) and the former shop owner herself had completely disappeared from Facebook. I commented that I was in the same boat with them. The new owner deleted our comments. The new owner sent out a mass e-mail inviting all consignors to come by with their merchandise for them to look over. Included in this message was a note that they were aware that the last owner had not yet paid several people and that complaints should be made to her personally, not to this new owner because that was none of her business and not her problem.
I can't sue for $33. That would be ludicrous. And I wanted to message her, but seeing as how I was not alone in being stiffed- what's the point? To my knowledge, she has moved to South Korea to teach anyway.
I can see the point of view of this new business owner. She can easily say it wasn't She who kept our money and that it is not her responsibility to pay us. I might take up the same stance if I were in her shoes. From where I stand, this person purchased- not just a store (because the location itself moved) but a Label. A Brand Name. An Icon. A Landmark. Something a lot of locals know. And while it was an individual that stole money- they did so under the guise of this business. If the shop name, licence, bank account, tax ID changed hands in the transaction (and maybe I am ignorant of business practices here) then why not the money that was owed to the consignors? And therefore- why not the responsibility to pay? Most of the merchandise moved with the store, why not checks for each consignor?
Its the "I don't care if she didn't pay you, that's not my problem" attitude that leaves a bad taste in my mouth toward taking my products to the new location and the new owner. I still receive a mass e-mail asking for consignment merchandise, and in the last message a specific request for hand made toys, though nothing addressed specifically to me. I would prefer to see a gesture of good will of some kind, maybe a little compassion and certainly concern for how cheating us makes the store as a whole look to the community. Also perhaps the the assurance that this new owner has a more efficient system of payment in place to prevent "stealing" from consignors in the future. Until then I'd rather be without that potential $50 a month because somewhere out there are two monkeys someone paid for thinking they were supporting an artist- and that artist never got paid. And I will freely admit that I am angry every time I think about it, partly on the principal of it, and partly because $33 to an unemployed artist is like $300 to an ordinary person.
