Sharing What I Know...

Happy Summer and Happy 4th of July!! I hope your summer is off to a great start!

I wanted to take a moment to jump on here and let you know about something that has happened in the scrapbooking industry. Some of you may have heard that Notions Marketing sustained a fire in their main warehouse a few weeks back. Notions is one of the places I order from for goodie bags items, prizes, and the product I sell in the store at retreats, including Bazzill cardstock. Notions is the largest distributor of craft products in the industry and I have been ordering from them for many years. Notions has done a great job at informing us (the retailers who order from them) of the incident a few weeks ago, and providing updates along the way.

Unfortunately, Notions let us know that they are going to be stopping operations for an indefinite amount of time while they assess the damage and get back on track. Since this fire happened in their main warehouse, lots and lots of product was damaged. Sadly, Notions laid off many employees last week as well, while they work through this. Needless to say, this will cause a huge disruption for both online and independent craft stores. This will undoubtedly change the course of the scrapbooking industry in one way or another. If you are interested in hearing more about how the scrapbook industry works and how this incident could play out, Stacey at Scrapbooking Made Simple does an excellent job at explaining it. My heart goes out to everyone at Notions Marketing and everyone else who has been or will be affected by this event.

Click here for Stacey’s explanation.

What does this mean for Scrapbook Creations Retreats and your shopping opportunities at the retreats?

Thankfully, for our upcoming Fall retreats it means nothing! I already have all the new store product in my studio. I also have the goodie bag products and prizes here as well. You will be happy to hear that since last summer I have been ordering a WHOLE LOT of Bazzill cardstock, which has been arriving sporadically since then. Since I have received almost all of it at this point, you will not see any shortages of cardstock either!

Beyond the Fall retreats, I do not know how this will affect things for us. I am sure we will feel some of the ripples, but in what way is still an unknown. The good news is that I do already have accounts set up with several manufacturers. That means that I am able to order product directly from them without going through a distributor such as Notions Marketing. I pray that Notions Marketing can get back up and running, but we will be ok no matter what happens with Notions.

Whether you already had heard about the fire or not, please rest assured that the retreats are ok and I will have plenty of new product for your shopping pleasure at the Fall retreats! Until then, have a fabulous summer and I can’t wait to see everyone in the Fall!