Frog Tales: Crafting Goodies, Yarn, and Supporting Local Businesses

Hello from the wonderful world of Crafty Frog. This has been an interesting week.

Since we have opened the international online store again - ie fixed the postage issue that was stopping us being able to send to international business - our international orders are growing quickly. So now people from all over the world are enjoying our fabulous range of crafting goodies.

 

Yarn continues to be popular.

However, it is amusing that every week we seem to get one or two customers who come in for advice, who have been recommended by some chain stores, that Crafty Frog is the best place to find advice.

It is wonderful that word-of-mouth reference can be seen at its best, however, it is also mildly annoying when those same customers proudly brag about how they buy all their yarn from those chain stores but come to Crafty Frog for advice. Makes you wonder if they really understand what they are saying.

By shopping at the chain stores and buying inferior imported yarn, they not only risk the viability of the very stores they rely on for advice but also risk the jobs of many people across Australia.

The big chain stores continue to mechanize their operation and reduce staff numbers. Small (and I guess now medium-sized) craft shops hire young people for their first jobs; hire those who don’t want a full-time career but enjoy interacting with other crafters, and provide a welcoming, safe place for all to come together and share their love of craft.

Small business is the engine that powers commerce across the Western world. I know that I am preaching to the converted, but maybe, just maybe, some of the people who use us purely for free advice, might read something like this and have second thoughts about not supporting their local small businesses. Stepping down off my pedestal now.

Our Patchwork and Cross Stitch fabrics are going gangbusters, not only locally but around Australia.

The number of online orders continues to increase, as customers realize not only what a fabulous range we have available, but also the vibrance of the range and the realistic prices.

We continually hear two comments. "You have a fabulous range" and "Wow! Your prices are so good".

I am the same as my customers, I hate being ripped off. From the first day that I started in 1999, I vowed to only charge reasonable prices. I would only charge what I would be prepared to pay. So along with our fabulous customer service, we never have inflated margins.

Weaving, spinning, and felting continue to increase in popularity.

The new range of needle felting kits that we are importing from Scotland has proven very popular. They contain everything that you need for your needle felting, needles, needle-felting block, fibre, and instructions. The best thing about these kits is that once you have finished the project, you still have everything that you need for more needle felting projects, except the fibre. And who sells the best fibre? Of course, the one and only Crafty Frog.

Slowly, ever so slowly the refurbishment plans are coming together. It looks like we will have to shut the shop for, hopefully, only two weeks - not permanently as some customers have reported they have been told.

One of the major costs is moving and storing all the stock.  To make this easier and cheaper, we will be having some huge sales. We have already started with a whopping 30% off various ranges of fabrics.

You can find those on the Sale page of the website. Keep an eye on social media and the Sale page, as more and more products will be added. And believe me, the reductions will be massive as we try to move stock out before the refurbishment starts. 

 

Only a few days until winter proper starts. The forecast is for a mild winter this year, but so far, we have had some bitterly cold days. I will hold judgment on the forecast, they may be right, but lately, it hasn’t felt very mild.

With winter comes the usual colds, flu and of course these days Covid.  Some people cling to the belief that somehow it is all a big conspiracy. Last week in Canberra alone, there were 996 new cases, with 32 in hospital, 2 of which are in Intensive Care and one is on ventilation.  If you don’t know about ventilation, google it. It is not just a mask on your face, the patient is anesthetized, and a tube is put down their throat. It is just horrible.

One of the conditions on entering Crafty Frog is that you apply hand sanitizer, either yours or ours.

Why do we do this? We have many immune-compromised customers and one immune-compromised owner.  Applying a bit of hand sanitizer doesn’t seem like such a big ask.

Yet we still have people who object to it, and one couple refused to apply hand sanitizer and left the shop. Glad they did, because if they didn’t voluntarily leave, they would not have been admitted.

I care for my health, the health of my staff, and customers too much, to allow anyone to enter the shop without at least taking the most basic of preventive measures. People who don’t care about how their actions might affect others are most welcome to shop at other “craft” stores, just not Crafty Frog. 

Enjoy your long weekend and hopefully take the time to enjoy your craft and re-charge for the coming months.  

Take care and I look forward to seeing you all back in the shop, or online.  And as usual, I love to hear from you in the comments section.