Zopi
With all due respect, We had a woodcraft store here in Fort Wayne Indiana that was run by a wonderful husband and wife team. You could not ask for two nicer people to deal with. Always very helpful and always looking to save you money. If I went in to buy something that was going to be on sale the following week, they would advise me of the up-comming sale to save me money. If they did not cary an item, they would go out of their way to find me a supplier that did, even though this would not mean a cent of income for them. Always had free coffee, hot chocolate, and donuts for the customers and were very well versed in woodworking and the products they sold.
Regrettably, the store closed several years ago just before Christmas because they just could not turn a profit.
As others have said, much of the wood they sold came from the corporate distribution center, but the local store owners are also very supportive of local suppliers as well. You could bring wood into them and put it on consignement and they would add a modest markup to cover the floor space you occupied and the cost associated with processing the sales transactions and credit card fees. I never knew them to be greedy and if the price of a piece of wood was towards the high side, it was usually because the fellow that put it in their store on consignment wanted a high price for it to begin with and not because of the small additional amount they added for their services in making the final sale to the customer. Likewise, if the decription of the wood was stated incorrectly, it was most likely the fault of the person placing it in the store on consignment and not of the store personnel.
Our local woodcraft store was always supportive of local sawyers and let us place business cards and flyers in the store, right on the front counter advertising our services. I personally got quite a bit of business from their referrals and in return showed my appreciation by buying supplies from their store on a regular basis. They never asked for a cent of compensation for this service, even though it could cost them sales if someone decided to by wood from us instead of out of their Woodcraft store.
As others have stated, Woodcraft is a franchise operation and it will cost well over half a million for someone to open a woodcraft store. Corporate insists that all store locations be in mall settings, which translates into much higher rent rates. Store owners are expected to have a decent size classroom setting and offer classes, which again requires more square footage, the likes of which produces very little income per square foot. The store owner is expected to stock items in the store that may be slow movers, just in case someone comes into the store and wants to buy that particular item right on the spot. This forces them to invest in inventory that they would otherwise not rather keep on hand. And if that is not enough to deter you from opening a Woodcraft store, then corporate sends out emails to Woodcraft customers, about what seams to be every other day, trying to get you to order directly from corporate by offering you free shipping, thus cutting your local Woodcraft store owner out of the picture completely. What a nice thing to do to the local Woodcraft franchise owners who helped corporate build the company up to where it is today. The last thing they need is someone standing in their store driving what few customers they have away.
Personally, I think it in very poor taste to enter the store of another and cost that store owner sales or market your own competing services withing the confines of their retail space. I have never been an advocated or believer in negative advertising. Always found the best approach is to work with you competitors and find a win-win relationship. Maybe they can not sell the wood as cheap as you do, but I am willing to bet you can not offer the variety or selection of tools, hardware, and supplies that they do in their stores.
Not meaning to ruffle any feathers, but just trying to offer some insight as to the inner workings of what it takes to run a store like a local Woodcraft franchise or for that matter any retail store.
