Thursday, March 22, 2012

My Scrapbook Shopping: LSS or Big Box?

Angee Butler-Carter here to share a little bit about my shopping addiction habits.

I'm a heavy duty scrapbook shopper. Heavy duty in that I'm a gadget geek and I'm a super-comparison shopper. I must know who has the best prices, the best reviews, the most reasonable shipping rates, etc. before I make a purchase.
All that being said, I recently married and moved and had to seek out new scrapbook shops for my hauls in the clear lake suburb of Houston and I've been exploring some of the local scrapbook stores. A lot of the LSS around have closed or are a bit too far for me to drive. One of the biggest in the area that I found right before I moved here closed before I ever had a chance to stop by. There is one nearby that I occasionally visit. It carries a wide range of products, however most of them are not my style and the selection can be pretty limited. I've talked to the owner and she has indicated that she'd be willing to order anything that I would want and that is impeccable customer service which is why I continue to frequent her shop.
However, my local Hobby Lobby is amaz-balls. They have a huge variety of popular scrabooking items, alterables, markers, paints, open-stock card stock, and more. I visited them often this past week when I was off work for Spring Break. I picked up a few things. *grin
While I was there I snapped a few pictures of the awesome selection and a few of the items they kept in-stock that I was really impressed with.....
All types of containers for storage and altering.
Stock of paper pads.
Open stock of card stock. Holy paper batman!
Good selection of Thickers!
Wide array of binding materials. Bind-it-All and Cinch in stock.
A pretty good selection of Tim Holtz & Ranger products. And a Vagabond. (The box is empty and just for show. They keep them in the back).
Hello Grand Caliber & Spellbinders!
Now I've been a Hobby Lobby shopper for a long time. Michaels too. My old Michaels was much better that my new Michaels. Although they seem to be about the same size the selection is a bit different and not their section of in-stock items don't get refreshed as often. I still visit Michaels for a few things. My new Michaels is literally two blocks from my new apartment. So for the convenience of it I do visit there quite often. (yes, when I shop it's a visit...lol)
Right next door to my new Michaels is Aaron Brothers. I had never shopped at Aaron Brothers until I moved here. They carry a great selection of mixed media supplies and a much larger selection of Ranger products as well.
My other favorite shopping haunts are Tuesday Morning, Big Lots, Marshalls, and Ross which are all about 3-7 minutes from my apartment.
You might be thinking Ross, Marshall's? Those are discount clothing stores. Yes, yes they are. And they occasionally have great deals of scrapbook products in their stationary section. Don't skip that section. Oh and don't skip the shoe section either!
Oh and don't forget your local thrift store. I must say my Goodwill is awesome. They had a large selection of older Stampin' Up! stamps the other day. I only bought one large Ampersand stamp for obvious reasons. :-)
I know, I know. I have no idea what we were thinking when we moved here. There is a major mall about 4 blocks from my house as well. And we're finally getting an H&M at "my" mall this year. It's the first one in Houston. Yippie! I digress.
I wish we had more Local Scrapbook Stores around that I could frequent and meet some crafty friends but much like many independently owned scrapbook stores around the country it's quite hard to compete with the big box stores and their weekly 40-50% coupons. I know I will not buy anything from the big box stores without a coupon. I don't even step foot in the store without one.
It because of this that I tend to support online scrapbook stores where they are family owned and carry the products that match my style. And I'm still looking for my LSS in Houston, TX. If you know of one please link me up in the comments.
Sweet hugs.

Angee Butler-Carter

12 comments:

  1. Ummm I "Visit" all my stores too, but I'm fortunate enough to have several within an hour's drive. I love to support the LSS and the online "lss" when I can. They usually provide a lot more interest in sharing my projects than the box stores do. Thanks for the post. Love the photos of the store they would make great journal photos.

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    1. I added these pics to my Smash book that's currently being neglected. I'm going to go break that out right now. Thanks for the reminder.

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  2. Very interesting post, Angie! Love your style of writing! I don't have a LSS either, therefore, no crafty friends here. So, I love the online resources for crafty friendships!

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    1. Aww Brigitte. I just made a new crafty friend here in town. She's my first actually. She operates a great little gift shop and she offered to start selling my cards in her shop. She's so sweet and kind and I hope we can get together to crop soon. Maybe put a filler out there on the Artsy Addicts FB page to see if there are any ladies in your area. Hugs.

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  3. oh man Angee, wish I lived close to a Michaels or Joanne's but I don't it's a good 2 1/2 hour ride for me, which really probably a good thing...lol
    I shop mostly at my LSS store where I worked last year at...I love to stop in for a visit and pick up some of the new arrivals...it's funny the relationships that small stores give you...

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    1. Peggs I'd be happy to send you anything you might need just let me know. Hugs.

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  4. I do try to shop at LSS but there just aren't many in my area so I mostly shop at Joann, Michael's and Hobby Lobby.

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    1. Good stuff. I'm just learning more about the industry and how hard it is for LSS to compete with the big box stores but in this economy the best deal wins out.

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  5. Cool, your Hobby Lobby seems to have way more than mine. All of our local scrapbooking stores have closed as well. Sad that people always fail to support the little guy or local scrapbooking stores. I really don't get it? Crafting is such an awesome part of my life and apparently each of yours as well.

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    1. This Hobby Lobby was amazing. I'd never seen one so big or so fully stocked. They werent as stocked with things like the Tim Holtz line. They had very limited quantities and I went back a few days later to buy another die and the only one they had was still there so I guess they don't have a huge supply for those items which would make sense as to why they don't stock more of them.

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  6. love the post Angie.
    i used to shop at a LSS often, then i moved and now i can only go to the Big stores....and yes i only go when i have a coupon, & clearance items...i have to scrap on a budget now, so those coupons def help a lot.
    i buy a few things online that i can't find at the BIG stores, but thats not often these days.

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    1. I am definitely on a budget now myself and the coupons definitely help with that. I'm lucky to have such a great LSS owner who's very understanding and fairly priced.

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