Creative Memories

[DTWDSM]

If you know this company you know that they do home parties for scrapbooking. Stuff is nice but costs higher than you can buy at most stores.

Well was at show put on by our local Junior League and a local rep had a booth set up with frame and mat samples. Stopped by and talked to the lady and found out that they have just started to do home custom framing parties. They will have a party for 5 or more people and the consultant brings about 30-40 corner samples and around 100 mat samples. The consultant has little or no training in design or about the "mechanics" of framing.

They are provided with a slide rule typ of device to get pricing and tell people that their costs are the same or better than Michaels 50% off sale. The prices from what i can see are pretty cheap. Moulding is not any brand name moulding, mats lok to be Crescent, glass is called "preservation".

All work is sent to South Dakota and turnaround is about 12 days. It sounds like the program has been around for almost 2 months and most consultants do not sell it yet, only 3 in Iowa. Nothing about it on their corporate website.

Any thoughts?

[Danimal]

It's a free country and people are free to sell, or buy whatever they wish within the confines of the law.

That being said, do I think they are getting quality framing advice?
Based on your post, no.
Will they be happy with their products?
Probably. Unless they are familiar with custom framing and compare the finished products side by side.
Will it catch on and put further strain on Frame Shops?
Only time will tell.

[J Phipps TN]

The more that people are educated on custom framing, the more they will see how wonderful it is. They will also not feel great about sending their work away and will in turn come to see us for the good stuff. I think any kind of advertising for the custom framing industry is a good thing.

We are kind of a middle to small town and we just got a Hobby Lobby here. My sales have increased since they came to town two years ago.

We need more of it, it's not that we are splitting the business, but getting More of it. Some people really just don't understand it. I think we should encourage these people.

Business Breeds Business!!!

[Harry FKA Harry]

If it gets people to get their family photos out of those darn scrapbooks and in frames on the wall, that can't possibly be a bad thing for us.

"Frame'em if ya got'em", I say.

[Mitch]

"All work is sent to South Dakota and turnaround is about 12 days."

Tim, Would that be Canton SD?

Mitch

[DTWDSM]

Don't know where in SD why do you ask about Canton?

I do find this interesting that many people on this forum have nothing but bad things to say about Michaels and thier framing but when someone else enters the ring and says that they are the same or cheaper than Michaels, it is only good responses that show up here.

[Steph]

Tim I have to say I was a little surprised by soem of the responses as well. I chalk it up to trying to find the positive in the situation. I on the other hand am more worried about what and how info is being presented at these parties. If the little to no training is true, that only serves to work against the trained independant framer and can project that framing is much more simplistic than all of us know.

If this were to catch on, would you want it happening in your neighborhood?

[DTWDSM]

Was just looking at the brochure that I took home and it does say that everything is sent to their corporate headquarters in Canton SD where they have over 17 years of picture framing experience. Am I missing something here?

[Mitch]

Canton SD is the location of Framers Supply. Previously located in Sioux Falls, they distributed in SD, ND, and MN. They have done production work for quite awhile along with the distribution service. I think it was about two years ago, after they moved from Sioux Falls. They dropped everything except moulding. Recently they announced that as of Dec. 31 they would no longer distribute moulding. (That was after I sank a fair amount of dollars into their corner samples.)
I know of a few framers that are irritated that they made a big push to distribute in NE and then backed off fairly quickly. I am personally irritated by the poor service and product I received - especially when they moved and really started to push their production business.

They are trying to take the retailers share after they used retailers to build their business. I guess times are a changing.

Creative Memories was founded in 1987 by St. Cloud, Minn., businesswoman Cheryl Lightle
http://www.creativememories.com/MainMenu/About-us/FAQs

[Jerry Ervin]

If the company gave poor service and poor product to their wholesale customers, do we think it will be any different to the retail customers?

It sounds like they couldn't make it in one area of our industry so they are trying a different area.

We should start a pool covering how long this venture will last. It may last a little longer than the custom framing at WalMart if the company has deep enough pockets to ride it out.