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Jan, I totally agree with you on every one of these!
Martha being K-Mart totally cracks my tush up! You should see our K-Mart. It's the ONLY store in a large shopping complex......ALL of the other stores in this complex went out a LONG time ago and are all boarded up and have graffiti all over them.
Martha wanting to go upscale? BIG FAT GIANT HONKIN' SNARF!
I wonder if she knows that her precious line is at a K-Mart that looks like it belongs in the slums? I think if she visited the K-Mart up here, she would die of a coronary! I can guarantee you that she'd be donning her HAZMAT suit instead of a pair of white gloves!
Personally................I BOYCOTT Martha. Yah, so it may not revolutionize the world, but at least it makes me feel better not buying any of her overpriced sweat-shop crap.
Hee hee...Erika, you are so right!
Kmart...the world-wide headquarters of Kmart is right here in the metro-Detroit area. You'd think that the metro-Detroit stores would be the models, the flag-ship Kmarts and would be the best ones, wouldn't you? Nope, they are horrible! They have the worst store organization, they are always a mess, you can't find anything that's on sale because they stick it in an island in an aisle on the other side of the store than it usually is and most of all, they suffer from the same syndrome that all the stores like it around here (except Target) suffer from: the "I could give a crap about customer service or taking pride in my work environment" employee that seems to be everywhere here.
in the issue of why M's over Archiver's, ACM or Hobby Lobby...
M's is National, the others are not...we don't have any of those in the NW...yet...M's is the largest National retailer of Craft supplies.
I thought i'd heard that in 6 months if LSS want to buy they can, but until then it is going to be a M's exclusive...kind of the reverse of the Cricut mess...who told the LSS it was a LSS exclusive and then went National and made a lot of people mad (LSS, consumers who bought at a higher price point, and competing national stores - M's and Walmart).
Love the letter. Can't STAND Martha. UGH!
How is it she is still selling her over priced crap?
I just do NOT get it. Shame on Michaels!!!!
Well, I for one will NOT be purchasing this stuff.
Anyway.......I guess the best way to protest this kind of thing is just by NOT purchasing it. If no one bought it, they would either have to let you use coupons or put it on sale to get rid of it.
I DO love your well worded letter though I doubt it will make a dent in corp mentality. Only in the pocket book do we seem to make a dent these days.
Cheers,
Stacy
__________________ "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~Abraham Lincoln Come visit my family blog! Stampin' blog here.
Kmart...the world-wide headquarters of Kmart is right here in the metro-Detroit area. You'd think that the metro-Detroit stores would be the models, the flag-ship Kmarts and would be the best ones, wouldn't you? Nope, they are horrible! They have the worst store organization, they are always a mess, you can't find anything that's on sale because they stick it in an island in an aisle on the other side of the store than it usually is and most of all, they suffer from the same syndrome that all the stores like it around here (except Target) suffer from: the "I could give a crap about customer service or taking pride in my work environment" employee that seems to be everywhere here.
Oh Jan........and others...........sooooooooooo agreed!!!
K-mart here in Tucson is a DUMP!!! I have gone there a couple of times and cannot STAND being IN there. It stinks -- no, seriously....... it does!!! --- Literally!! It is always dirty, and the people who work there.........oh dear!! They honestly seem like they do not know WHAT they are doing! This store was razed about 8 years ago now (don't quote me), and they rebuilt this HUGE Super store. It looks as bad now as the old run down little K that was originally there. :confused: :confused: LOL!
My DH refuses to even go IN there. :-)
Sounds like this is a nationwide problem too.
I sure hope Sears doesn't end up like the K. They still seem to be ok in MOST departments anyway. Time will tell, I'm sure. I was sad the day I heard KMart was buying out Sears.
I'm sticking w/my fave here in Tucson................Target.
Cheers,
Stacy
__________________ "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~Abraham Lincoln Come visit my family blog! Stampin' blog here.
Be sure to copy the letter to the President of Provo Craft while you are at it. The new Cricut machine comes out in June and like the original one....NO COUPONS!
Location: Beautiful Minnesota, land of 10,000 sky blue lakes
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SU! doesn't offer 40% off coupons, and they DO make our customers jump through hoops with their specials (buy this and this and this and get half off of that. no substitutions allowed).
Why the uproar with MS does it?
As far as I'm concerned....all the better for me from a business perspective!
__________________ Smiles from beautiful Minnesota! ~Jody~
My avatar is the youngest of my three boys. wheee....
I will never purchase anything with her name on it ever. I don't think she deserves a penny of all our money! I can't believe how she came out smelling like a rose after serving jail time. I am not going to buy anything, no matter how good it looks! Just my 2 cents! Audrey
I like Martha just fine. I think she's smart and like the stuff she sells. As far as the coupon thing...there are a ton of companies that don't allow their stuff to be bought with a coupon. Most perfume companies don't...cosmetic companies, jewelry and watch companies..Calvin Klein...yeah, they're mostly in department stores, but they're still not allowing you to buy their stuff with a coupon...so I don't get all the fuss...or am I missing something?:confused:
__________________ Keva
We shouldn't have expectations of others that we, ourselves, could not fulfill.
I might be missing the boat here, but if people cannot use the coupons at Michaels on her stuff, doesn't that make SU stuff look even more appealing? I would think that would mean better business for us.
My thoughts exactly. As a SU demo, I hope they don't accept coupons!! When I saw the huge display going up my first thought was, ooh, this is going to hurt business a little!! And I really liked a lot of what I saw, but I try to only buy stamping/scaping product from myself.
I really don't understand all the fuss over the MS line at Michael's. It looked nice, nothing too exciting. As for the no coupon thing, they are perfectly within their right to do that. I don't have a problem with it.
I also don't really understand why so many people can hate someone they have never met before. Simply because she is a savvy business woman who has a team that does their marketing research and knows what will sell and what people will buy and where to put their merchandise so that the vast majority of people will come into contact with it and possibly buy it is no reason for me to hate her. I don't even know the woman, other than what we have seen on TV and other print media.
As another poster said, it's a good thing that my customers don't expect me to have a sale or a coupon or something for free everytime they order from me. SU does the same thing with their specials that Michael's does, it's just worded differently. "Buy A, B, and C for this much and get D for this much." If I like the special, I buy it. If I don't like it, I don't buy it. I certainly don't boycott SU because of their business decisions.
First let me say that I am a Michaels employee, I am offended that some of you consider Michaels dirty & low class as far as a craft store. For as long as I have worked there we have very strict rules as to how the store is kept & how the employees keep themselves. In fact we as employees are respondsible for all the cleaning of the store including the bathrooms.
We carry most of what the other stores carry but we also have some better products that can't be found in the other craft stores. Recently we have started to carry some really awesome lines and many of the cheaper products have been phased out and by the way all that stuff is now 70% off.
As far as the Martha Stewart line goes, some people love it & others totally hate it. I have mixed feelings, I think the quality is good and there are many unique products in the line but it is a bit pricey for some of the stuff.
My problem is I have to deal with the coupon issue on a personal level, yes personal. Customers are just plain nasty when they are told that they can not use a coupon....I have been called names, have had entire orders at the check out thrown at me at the checkout line. I am dreading going to work tomorrow. If you can't use a coupon, you can't. Either buy the stuff or not, get over it. Just by some of the sentiments expressed in this thread I can feel the anger, just think what it is like being on the other side of that anger in person.
I'm just trying to let you see that it is very hard on the store employees with this MS thing, it is much worse than the Cricut when that product first came out. And the next time your in a Michaels please take a good look around, our store is immaculate, if yours is not report it.
This is not a letter of attack on any one so please don't take it that way. I just think it is a shame that there is so much rage on the employees over this issue.
Barbara
__________________ "Everytime You Stamp Something An Angel Gets Her Wings"
Member #4839
So....I dont' get the MS no coupon thing, it just seems like a bad business decision on Michael's part. After all, they still buy the merchandise at the same price, it just Michael's profit on it is less. KWIM?
But I'll sign the letter! It sounds great!
This is a growing trend in the retail industry. All the brands considered "high end" are now putting this in their contract with retail locations for the priviledge of carrying their brands. I think we will be seeing more and more of this as the time goes on. In the craft industry, we see Cricut, Xyron, and now Martha. It started with several designers who thought they were too good to be discounted and it has spread from there. Now it has spread to store bargain brands as well.
__________________ KJ
Lovin' bein' an SU Demo
Furkids deserve a forever home! Have you adopted a stray lately? Spay and neuter your pets, put us out of business please!!
Oh I love my Micheals, well it's not really mine but the one I frequent the most is always clean, the staff are wonderful. I have met several of the employees (how can you not if you're in there for hours on end) and have become very chatty with them, they've all been wonderful. If I can't use a coupon I can't use a coupon I don't hassel a sales person over it.
I'm the lady waiting in the Timmy's line, behind 5 others, waiting to order my coffee but I get out of line to help an elderly couple carry their order to their table and give up my place in line to go to the end of another 10 people.
I just don't care for MS one bit.
I also love chocolate icecream with peanut butter but I don't like candy sprinkles...
I like cream of wheat but not oatmeal... and definitely no RAISINS (poor abused grapes!)
I love comedies but hate horror flicks
I think Johnny Depp is sweet and so does my 14 & 16 yr old DD. Stranger things can happen!
__________________
Creativity is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God.
The Michaels I frequent is most often neat and clean. Most of the staff is very knowledgable and if they don't know the answer they try to find it. I am not a MS fan but some of the products look interesting. I comfort myself with the idea that she probably didn't have much to do with designing a lot of the product. ??WHO designed those huge alblums?? As if we didn't have enough stuff to lug around! Those things are waaay to big! And $80!-I don't think so! If the exclusions are on the coupon I have no problem. It's when they tell you that you can't use it on something that is NOT listed as an exclusion that I get irritated. But I NEVER take it out on the cashier. They are not the ones who set the rules.
I also don't really understand why so many people can hate someone they have never met before. Simply because she is a savvy business woman who has a team that does their marketing research and knows what will sell and what people will buy and where to put their merchandise so that the vast majority of people will come into contact with it and possibly buy it is no reason for me to hate her. I don't even know the woman, other than what we have seen on TV and other print media.
Barb
I HAVE met MS and that's why I won't be buying any of her stuff. Here's a post that I put on another MS thread:
Many, many years ago, I met Martha Stewart in person and she left a very bad taste in my mouth. She was not yet a household name then - no magazine or K-mart line yet - but she was already a royal b**** to everyone. She was rude to the technical people who were doing the lighting and sound during her on-stage presentation, she was rude to a woman who offered to bring her something to drink during her book signing, and she was even uppity to those of us who were standing in line to buy her book and have her sign it. She never even looked up from the table to loo her fans in the eye. I should have left the line then and there and not bought the book, but I did buy it. I gave it away less than a year later because I couldn't even stand to read it.
Ever since then, I have sworn off buying anything with her name on it. I will NOT be buying her line of craft and scrapbooking products that Michael's is going to carry, and I have already let my Michael's know how I feel about her stuff taking over such a HUGE area of their store. I told them that I will give them a chance, but they may lose me to the Ben Franklin up the road. I choose to speak my mind through my spending habits, so NO Martha Stewart for me!\
So, I'm not boycotting Martha because of her jail time or because of anything I've HEARD in the media. I'm not buying from her because of what I witnessed with my own two eyes and ears about how she treats people - staff and fans.
__________________ Cindy McVey Proud VIRGINIA TECH ALUM
Please visit My Gallery & My Blog, Crazy For Crafting
I support my habit by being an SCS Fan Clubmember!
I like Martha just fine. I think she's smart and like the stuff she sells. As far as the coupon thing...there are a ton of companies that don't allow their stuff to be bought with a coupon. Most perfume companies don't...cosmetic companies, jewelry and watch companies..Calvin Klein...yeah, they're mostly in department stores, but they're still not allowing you to buy their stuff with a coupon...so I don't get all the fuss...or am I missing something?:confused:
I agree with you. I don't get what all the coupon hoopla is about. How do we know it's all Martha? It could be the companies manufacturing her stuff too.
__________________ Blogblogblog
I'm not lazy, I just don't care ~Peter Gibbons
My understanding is the big Kmart headquarters in Troy, MI (suburb of Detroit) is pretty much empty. It was on the news/radio all day today. The City of Troy wants to make it into condos, shopping, and even a movie theater to revive the area. It's a big empty parking lot.
I don't like anything that I've read in press releases about the MS line at Michael's. Sounds too much like the company is sneering at us "paper crafting" bumpkins...
I won't buy it...especially if I can't use a coupon.
I sure hope Sears doesn't end up like the K. They still seem to be ok in MOST departments anyway. Time will tell, I'm sure. I was sad the day I heard KMart was buying out Sears.
Stacy
I'm pretty sure it's the other way around. Sears bought Kmart. Kmart had to file for bankrupcy. My neighbor worked for Kmart (corporate) when it was taken over by Sears.
Well, after reading some of the threads re: MS's new line I went to our spanking new Michael's today and I have to say I LOVED her new line. I loved how I could buy silk ribbon with glitter to match and the punches are the most user friendly and of course I appreciate them being ivory colored.
Most of all- I loved the presentation. I only wish other companies took pride in their product enought to go all out like that. I could care less if I can use a coupon or not- prior to M's coming to town I did all my shopping online (aside from su! that is) and I don't remember having many coupon codes to use so I am ahead of the game not spending it on shipping costs.
Ohhh and I also liked the way all her products had holes in the bottom so they could be placed in a binder.... nice and neat. (I wouldn't expect less) and the white gloves?? Cool.....She wants her backdrop neat and dirt free?? Excellent. I have no issues with that. I appreciate it when someone takes pride in their work.
First let me say that I am a Michaels employee, I am offended that some of you consider Michaels dirty & low class as far as a craft store. For as long as I have worked there we have very strict rules as to how the store is kept & how the employees keep themselves. In fact we as employees are respondsible for all the cleaning of the store including the bathrooms.
We carry most of what the other stores carry but we also have some better products that can't be found in the other craft stores. Recently we have started to carry some really awesome lines and many of the cheaper products have been phased out and by the way all that stuff is now 70% off.
As far as the Martha Stewart line goes, some people love it & others totally hate it. I have mixed feelings, I think the quality is good and there are many unique products in the line but it is a bit pricey for some of the stuff.
My problem is I have to deal with the coupon issue on a personal level, yes personal. Customers are just plain nasty when they are told that they can not use a coupon....I have been called names, have had entire orders at the check out thrown at me at the checkout line. I am dreading going to work tomorrow. If you can't use a coupon, you can't. Either buy the stuff or not, get over it. Just by some of the sentiments expressed in this thread I can feel the anger, just think what it is like being on the other side of that anger in person.
I'm just trying to let you see that it is very hard on the store employees with this MS thing, it is much worse than the Cricut when that product first came out. And the next time your in a Michaels please take a good look around, our store is immaculate, if yours is not report it.
This is not a letter of attack on any one so please don't take it that way. I just think it is a shame that there is so much rage on the employees over this issue.
Barbara
Barbara, I don't think that Michael's is low class...I think the reference was to the WSJ article that called craft stores that sell scrapbooking stuff "cluttered." http://online.wsj.com/article_email/...TQyNjU3Wj.html
and another one that referred to scrapbookers as "white trash".
I think, though, that Martha just might consider the people who shop at Michael's in need of an education in taste. That was my point. I consider that *I* have wonderful taste ;) so if I buy stuff at Michael's, it must be okay, right? :mrgreen:
As far as Michael's go, I shop at a couple of different ones...both of them are clean and well kept. They are the newer large Michael's...I seriously hate shopping at the one in Dearborn...it's an older one and I find it claustrophobic to shop in there. But I imagine that there are some Michael's stores that are not as well run as others...at least I've heard stories from people in different areas of the country that have said so.
First let me say that I am a Michaels employee, I am offended that some of you consider Michaels dirty & low class as far as a craft store. For as long as I have worked there we have very strict rules as to how the store is kept & how the employees keep themselves. In fact we as employees are respondsible for all the cleaning of the store including the bathrooms.
We carry most of what the other stores carry but we also have some better products that can't be found in the other craft stores. Recently we have started to carry some really awesome lines and many of the cheaper products have been phased out and by the way all that stuff is now 70% off.
As far as the Martha Stewart line goes, some people love it & others totally hate it. I have mixed feelings, I think the quality is good and there are many unique products in the line but it is a bit pricey for some of the stuff.
My problem is I have to deal with the coupon issue on a personal level, yes personal. Customers are just plain nasty when they are told that they can not use a coupon....I have been called names, have had entire orders at the check out thrown at me at the checkout line. I am dreading going to work tomorrow. If you can't use a coupon, you can't. Either buy the stuff or not, get over it. Just by some of the sentiments expressed in this thread I can feel the anger, just think what it is like being on the other side of that anger in person.
I'm just trying to let you see that it is very hard on the store employees with this MS thing, it is much worse than the Cricut when that product first came out. And the next time your in a Michaels please take a good look around, our store is immaculate, if yours is not report it.
This is not a letter of attack on any one so please don't take it that way. I just think it is a shame that there is so much rage on the employees over this issue.
Barbara
Barbara,
Your post was very eloquent and thoughtful, and I couldn't agree with you more. I am sorry you and your fellow employees have been subjected to such poor treatment by some thoughtless customers.
It seems many posters liked Martha's items well enough to purchase them, but not at full price. That's fine...just wait and you'll have the opportunity to buy them at a discount at some point. Some of us liked them enough to buy them at full price. It's basic economics - supply and demand - and both Michael's and the Martha Stewart Omnimedia Group are logically betting that her brand name along with the style and quality of the products will have sales going. The products won me over - I made a substantial purchase and I saw others buying, too.
To the posters upset about the coupon rules - I'm just curious: did you use a coupon for your last gasoline purchase? Your last haircut? Your last dinner at a nice restaurant? Not everything in life is discounted. If you want discounted products, there are plenty from which to choose. The MS line is not part of those. The items are new, the marketing costs are expensive, and Martha Stewart is a premium name. I can guarantee you that Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Porsche, and Mercedes don't have to give out coupons for their products to sell. Martha probably won't either, at least not initially. From a consumer perspective, a coupon is a great incentive. From a business perspective, Martha's line has plenty of other incentives at the moment. Coupons will come with time (Michael's employees have verified this, so it's not like it's a big secret).
If you don't like Martha, her line, Michael's, etc. (it seems the list is long for some posters), that's OK, too. Don't buy anything. No one is forcing you to purchase. If you want a coupon, wait. But please stop slamming everyone. It's rude.
I hope the nastiness on SCS dissipates soon, and Barbara, I sincerely hope you and your fellow coworkers have more pleasant customers. I know I will be thinking about your situation the next time I shop - regardless of whether I'm at Michael's or the grocery store.
Jane
P.S. - was there this much noise when the Cricut came out? I didn't regularly read SCS threads then. Just curious.
Come on without Martha we wouldn't have all those great skits on Saturday Night LIVE...they crack me up! Just shedding a little silliness onto this thread.
I had heard(but can't seem to find the article online)that Martha had been quoted as saying that scrapbooking is a dying industry and it needs her products(or something along those lines)...which shows she is out of touch with the customer base! Has she not been online at all?!?!?!
I think you can like the MS line, you can hate it, but I think it is totally rude and unfair to blame the cashier that waits on you for not taking the coupon! It was not their choice!
The Michael's store here IS one of the nicest stores for craft supplies and Joann's is a PIT.
I would like to know what Michaels Martha visited that she thought they were upscale. All the ones I have been in are kind of messy and a bit dirty.:confused:
What about her line at K-mart?? Don't get me wrong. I might shop at K-mart if there was one near where I lived, but I certainly would not consider it an upscale store.
The Michaels here in Canada are pretty nice, at least in Ontario. There are no other large craft stores around to buy things anyways so it could be a rummage sale and most people wouldn't care.
As for coupons, I bought almost all my rubber stamps and supplies at full price. When I get to a Michaels and see the MS brand if I like it I will buy it whether it comes with a coupon or not.
I honestly wouldn't blame Michaels for getting rid of their coupons all together. I think that is probably the only time a lot of people shop there. It seems to be more of a pain then anything.
First let me say that I am a Michaels employee, I am offended that some of you consider Michaels dirty & low class as far as a craft store.
Barbara-
I think that most people here, when talking about dirty and low class, are talking specifically about the Michael's in their local area, not Michael's as a whole.
For me, I try to avoid my Michael's if I can. It is not taken care of by the employees, it's dirty, you can never find an employee because they're all in the break room or the bathroom. I've literally walked into the break room and bathrooms looking for employees and asked them to help me only to be told to go find someone else. When I actually DO find someone, they either have no clue what I'm talking about or don't know where the item is. Things have been out of stock for months on their shelves. And there's hardly EVER more than one register open at our Michael's even though there could be 15 people in line. And no, I'm not exaggerating. It happens quite often. The cashier calls over the intercom for another employee, even two employees and no one shows up to help. As a customer, these situations are highly frustrating.
On the other hand, I've gone to Michael's stores in other states when I'm on vacation or a business trip and have been very impressed. They're well organized, well staffed and very tidy.
My local Michael's, though? I've complained before and I know others have, as well, and nothing has changed.
__________________ Erika Martin * Vermont * SU! Demo * My blog: Stampin' Mama
Just so you know- the Martha Stewart Craft line is also on Marthastewart.com, so since she doesn't offer coupons on her website why would she let Micheals sell the same stuff cheaper?
After reading some of these posts, I had to go to Michael's last night to check things out for myself.
Personally, I was not too impressed with the MS line. Some of the stuff was kind of neat and the display was awesome, but I didn't see anything I had to have, especially for the price. I kind of thought it was a tad overpriced, as most of her things are.
I generally like Michael's, although there are some issues I have with them that I don't think are appropriate for this forum. I read the Michael's employee's post and must say that she works at a different Michael's than the ones that are close by me, because we don't have the same experience to say the least. One thing I will say is that the empoyees that I have come across have been less than helpful. I remember going in there one day looking for acetate and three different employees (including a manager) looked at me like I had three heads and one of them even asked why acetate would have a place in a Craft Store. *GASP* But again, another story.
My two cents is this. I think whoever makes the decision to exclude the MS line in the coupon is making a mistake. There were a few things that I would have bought had I had a coupon to try them out, but since I didn't, I bought a similar item from a competitor (at 40% off). So for me personally, I just don't see myself paying full price for something when I can get a similar item that is cheaper. I didn't see anything super original that no one else had, so I think I'll just stick with the items I already know and love. Since this is a new line, give people an incentive to try some things out. Will it be so hard to offer 40% off one item? I think not.
Here's my thoughts: The way I look at it...it might get more "non-stampers" stamping when they see it at Michaels. More women for us to convert to SU once they see what we have to offer!!!!! While I won't be buying her products, the exposure to women across the country...and the new interest it will create will be terrific for demos in the long run. She'll make "paper-crafting" a household awareness....and we'll benefit too!
__________________ "...May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you..."
-Prayer from St. Theresa
I took a look at the new display at our Michaels on the Olympic Peninsula the other day. UGH-LIE! The colors were seemed drab to me and overused. There wasn't anything on the two sided, stand-alone display that I would buy if it were pennies on the dollar. (I resisted the urge to mess it up!)
