LEWISVILLE, N.C. -- The sagging economy has some retailers worried.Not Marilyn Johnson.Since opening the Enchanted Cottage 15 years ago, she has learned that craft businesses such as hers weather turbulent economic times pretty well.When money is tight, people continue to make crafts, she said."Things become more meaningful when times are hard, whether that is making handmade things or writing memories in a scrapbook," Johnson said.Crafting is already a big business. According to the Craft and Hobby Association, Americans spent more than $13 billion on crafts in 2007. Of that total, they spent $749 million on rubber stamps.Johnson got into rubber stamping just as it was about to sweep the East Coast. Her store specializes in stamps, which crafters use for all sorts of projects, from cards to notebook covers to scrapbooks. Some projects may not involve much more than stamping something cute on the back of an envelope; others might involve fashioning elaborate cards with handcrafted paper.With more than 35,000 stamps in its inventory, the Enchanted Cottage has become a sort of Mecca for stampers. Johnson said she believes that the store has the largest stamp inventory in the country. The store uses 6,000-square feet in an old roller mill that is one of the town's iconic buildings.Cindy Owens, who has worked alongside Johnson since 1993, has noticed interesting reactions from people when they come to the store for the first time. "Usually, they stop at the door and they open their mouth and just drink it in," Owens said.With its large collection of stamps and scrapbook supplies, the store has become a destination for people all over the Southeast. The store has benefited from the boom in scrapbooking, which produced $2.5 billion in sales across the country last year, according to the Craft and Hobby Association.(E-mail Lisa O'Donnell at lodonnell(at)wsjournal.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com)
Despite economic downturn, craft store doing well
Submitted by SHNS on Fri, 11/21/2008 - 13:57
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