Ben Franklin stores closing?

Handy

MGF, Master Grumble Framer
Joined
Jun 17, 2005
Posts
787
Loc
Manitoba, Canada
I've read two different posts recently on message boards saying that some Ben Franklin stores are closing.

Anyone know anything about this?
 
That happened here about a dozen years ago.
 
Last night I caught part of a local newscast that reported about the store closing sale of a Ben Franklin's that's at the other end of the county I'm in. I didn't catch the whole story, but I think it said something about the owners not wanting to renew their lease in the mall they were at.
 
Our local Ben Franklin was the anchor store for a small mall on the outskirts of town. Rumor has it that the landlord raised the rent so much that the owners closed their doors last year about this time. I think they had trouble competing with Michael's’ anyway.

The people who ran their picture framing department struck off on their own in a new location. The last time I stopped in I got the impression that they weren’t doing too well (lucky for me).
 
The Ben Franklin's in our area closed about a year ago. We were in North Myrtle Beach SC two weeks ago and I went to the BF there to pick up needlework supplies and they are now a AC Moore. I also heard that the BF in Harrisburg, about 40 miles north of us closed. I don't know of any in our area that are still open.
 
Just the other day one of our reps mentioned that one of the Ben Franklins in the Seattle area was one of, if not the, highest volume frame shops in the state. Who knew?
 
Doug, is this Monroe or Redmond? No competition in Monroe. There is a misconception of price; I have talked to people within a large organization who do not know I do framing for a living and they rattle on about how great Ben Franklin is, their prices are so low (not), etc.

This high volume thing has been hanging around for over 10 years now.
 
Ben Franklin stores are all Franchise Stores. Promotions Unlimited, Racine, Wi, owns the franchise name. I can believe that a Ben Franklin frame shop could be one of the highest volume stores. Personally, I owe a lot to a little obscure Ben Franklin store for starting me in a career of picture framing. In my early years, I worked in 3 different stores. In 1996, the company suffered a bankruptcy because of bad management decisions. At that time, there over 800 stores nationwide, 32 of those stores were "company" stores. All Company stores were closed during the bankruptcy.

Today, Ben Franklin stores are surviving because they service smaller communities in places where BB's aren't interested in going.

Ben Franklin stores are as good as the people that run them. For training, I was sent to the Larson Juhl training school. I had some excellent mentors and the 5 stores I was originally connected with had some great people as mentors for me. I can easily see a good Ben Franklin store being a top performer in framing sales.

There is a store in the little town of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, that is one of the top Ben Franklins in the company. The reputation of that frame shop has been excellent for better than 25 years. However, as with any retail store, it is as good as the people who run it. Battle Creek, MI, has a store that I was shocked to see what a poor framing department they had.
 
Lynn, he said it was the one in Redmond.
 
The Ben Franklin in Appleton, WI and in Oshkosh, WI both closed. The Oshkosh location closed this past April and I believe the Appleton location just did. This is what was said in the article about it closing.

“The craft industry has shifted dramatically,” said Kurt Retzlaff, store manager and franchise owner with Bob and Linda Graf. “The liquidator we hired said he’s closed 51 craft stores across the country in the last couple of years.”

Although Ben Franklin did close in Appleton, Michael's is opening there in 2007. The Ben Franklin in Green Bay, WI is still open.
 
Originally posted by pollyann:


“The craft industry has shifted dramatically,” said Kurt Retzlaff, store manager and franchise owner
I heard today that Garden Ridge is no longer going to carry craft supplies. They will be a 'home decor' store only. The local one here sure has changed a lot recently.
 
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