Lessons from Liberty's

Actually I agree with everything said here but one thing was also thrown up by the lovely nail varnish lady - Working Capital…it is very hard to move forward without it (especially if you are a (single) mum at home or if you don’t have a partner who is very supportive) and I thought it very generous and inciteful that she was offered paiment up front in order to fulfill her Liberty dreams. I thought this was lovely! Very refreshing and I was thrilled for her!..Sadly Liberty only do tapestry cushion needlework kits!!! Lol!

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I was amazed she was offered payment up front by Liberty’s. When I ran a professional business, I would’nt have had the nerve to expect my clients to pay me up front before I did the work, and the clients would have rapidly gone elsewhere if I had.

Things are obviously very different in parts of the retail sector, but I suspect is definitely not the norm.

Not the norm, but to be fair, Liberty offered, the lady accepted.

I watched this with interest, particularly as I’d had some dealing with Liberty myself with my ducks! I had asked them if they were happy with my using their fabric in this way and they were very happy and loved my ducks. Maybe next time they hold an open event I’ll take a few along LOL.

I love Liberty’s, I love the building itself, I love the arts & crafts design. Right up my street. :smiley:

Watched the prog ysterady. Loved the lady with Nanacys nails, she was sooo happy.
And shame that assistant couldnt wear the outfit he’d made, I thought it looked great.

I understand why a store like Liberty’s operates in the manner they do. As @leathermeister says, their overheads are tremendous. I never assume that I am going to find hand made products in large retailers. That isn’t the proper venue for them imo.

People like us, who hand make items and put their blood sweat and tears into every piece they craft should be paid according to their skill level. I would rather sell one item that I am proud of rather than make a large quantity when I know I am not going to receive either thanks or fair remuneration.

Why bother with handmade if you are going to be competing with factory made goods? I can guarantee you that B&M department stores are not concerned with individual makers. They want goods that can be manufactured inexpensively in great numbers with quality controls built in. They don’t give a fig for the individual.

Handmade is special and should be sold in special places. Small shops where the proprietors have soul. You can make money this way and don’t have to watch the OOAK piece that took you all night to design replicated in a factory somewhere.

My 2p but I feel strongly about it

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But…Liberty do sell items that are handmade. I know they sell Abigail Brown’s birds, which retail from £225 and upwards! I think it very much depends on the product and what they feel their clientele will pay.

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I agree with you there…creating and enjoying it and getting emotional reward are on top of my list.

It was really nice how they helped her first with money and doing her graphics for her nail business :smile_cat:

With the felt crown lady; if she is sewing her logo into each hat then the advertisement cost more than cover the low wholesale price.
I have recently stocked a shop in Kent and have noticed lots of new sales from that area since. Imagine a % of liberties footfall finding your product and remembering your name to look up another time?! worth the low wage maybe? I would certainly do it if I where her.

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That was a brilliant coat!

Slightly off at a tangent - Did anybody see that Boodles program? It was about their million pound jewellery… Amazing amounts of money being hurled about with gay abandon.
“I like that, have you got it in rose gold? You do? Oh, I don’t need to see it… yes, I’ll take the entire suite… No I don’t need to know how much it costs…” £70000!!!

And the final piece that was the basis of the program was the Emerald Suite, I think it was £1M worth of emeralds, over 1000 diamonds, all crafted by hand by one of the best craftsmen in the country, took months to make…
Retails for £2.8M.
I would love to know how much the craftsman gets for his work!

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My hubby and I were chatting about this this morning (I often tell him about convo’s on here!) and he is defo in line with what Leslie @ ManiacalMosaics says - altruistic though the Big Boss sounded, he is in it for profit and the programme is heavily edited!..We agreed that splendid though Liberty is, I would only sacrifice my bottom line at such times as I was big enough to afford to. People tend to forget that only a teeeeeny weeeny fraction of their client base would buy their goods from there and to me, that isn’t worth the sacrifice. I confess, I was rather mean about the crowns (sorry!)…