Competition or Slow Down

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cody

CGF, Certified Grumble Framer
Joined
Jun 24, 2000
Posts
157
Loc
Cornelius, NC
I run a tight ship in our high end store. We have almost come to a screeching stop on incoming orders. I'm concerned.
I'm in an area where 4 small towns run together, total pop. 40,000. There are about l5 store front shops now with 3 more opening soon.
I've always maintained even with new openings, but this is getting crazy.
Would you call this saturation in framing shops? Secondly, are others experiencing slow downs due to the economy?
We're the only one now with a cmc and are capitolizing on that. We have been at this location 12 years. Any thoughts please. Thanks Cody
 
Our shop is going through a growth cycle right now, but the growth has slowed a little. Framing sales are very strong and art and gift sale have slowed since Christmas. Our area, SE Pennsylvania, has very strong growth and that is helping too. The competition is out there, but in our case the population is up around 460,000 for about 20 frame shops.
 
Screeching stop is an appropriate description. We hit a brick wall the third week of Jan. and Ive taken in about 90% LESS custom orders since then.

Have been busy though, completing projects taken in early Jan. I am about to catch up and will have nothing but time to do those things I never have time to do... getting new business will be at the TOP of the list.

---Mike
 
It's slow here, too. I've been waiting for this time to get to projects that have been put on the back burner.
 
Cody, we're in Clayton, NC and January-March have historically been slow months for us. Janet, the brains of the outfit, attributes it to the post-Christmas money tightening. Things have always loosened up after March. We're about 12 miles from Raleigh, in the fastest growing area in NC, according to all I see and hear. Janet has been overwhelmed with work since last June. She graphs out work-flow per month, has for years, and these have historically been slow months. With the competition in Raleigh, for us, we still have more than we can do. She thought this slow season would be a good time for me to come aboard and learn to frame, but this is the first busy Feb she's had.
Next time we head to mtns, we'll stop by and visit. Do you know Mona at FRAMEscapes in Valle Crucis? Are there any other NC framers in the Grumble?

[This message has been edited by Charles Lowry (edited February 17, 2001).]
 
Cody, Whoa! 15 frame shops for 40,000 people! We have about 45 frameshops in our entire county of 532,000.
 
We're slow also, in a usually "recession"-proof area. The break's nice, though, and anxiety won't set in for a little while longer.
 
Sorry to bust the thread but I'm Flat Out for the last 4 weeks.

Yes! I'm surprised.

framer
 
I was warned that our shop would slow down (and thus my hours would get cut back) but we have been unpredictably busy ever since Christmas....it may be because so many people are moving to this area of the city, or because of anticipated income tax returns. Either way, we have been steadily increasing sales for this period compared to last year.

This is when I wish MADLY that it was my shop. LOL

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I don't care what color your sofa is.
 
Thanks to everyone for their input. It sounds like we are getting saturated with frame shops and having an economic slow down. Last year we were on a Xmas schedule for 8 months so I can't really complain. To those of you that ARE busy, that's GREAT. For the rest of us we'll just get an extra cup of coffee in the morning til things pick up. Best to all Cody
 
Cody, I agree, your town is saturated with frame shops. There has been a little slow down, but not brick wall stop. In San Diego we had a saturation problem back in the 80s.
The ones that are going to survive in your town are the ones putting out a quality product and their debt load and overhead are at a minimum. If you can keep those two things at 30% or less of your gross sales and your product is top grade, your shop will survive.
Best of luck,
John
 
Is seems slow but our numbers are better that YTD last year. We had an old established art supplies and framing shop go away recently and a one person shop close up last year. I think more will follow. Michaels moved in and absorbed a lot of the low end business.

I think the technical term for these events is consolidation.
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Timberwoman
AL
I cut the mat, I pet the =^..^= cat.

[This message has been edited by ArtLady (edited February 18, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by ArtLady (edited February 18, 2001).]
 
It's slowed down a bit here, but the average sale has almost doubled in price. Can't complain about that! ACMoore opened a custom framing shop last fall and Michael's is due to open any day now. But the figures are still up over last year.
 
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