Michael's is cutting back on classes in its 900+ stores. The surviving classes will be the Wilton (cake and candy decorating) classes.  This is one of those bad news good news stories depending on what side of the distribution channel you are on.

The thing that separates crafts from other hobbies is that we don't have a good education structure set up outside our stores. Children learn sports and can take music lessons in school. They can participate in theatre and choir and auto or wood shop in school. But crafts, outside the minimal introduction to paint, crayons and sculpture in art classes are mostly taught by family members and occasionally a scout group leader.

Simply put, we (meaning members of the industry) have to teach people to craft.

That is why store-sponsored education is so vital to the health and future growth of our industry.

Now, in a chain store's case, managing in-store education is a nightmare, their business depends on things that can be scaled. Unfortunately, you can't scale great people to teach classes. Each store location will have different  ternds and product category strengths. Wilton will continue at Michaels because they have one of the best systems for getting well-trained teachers in store. It probably doesn't require a lot of coordination on the store's part.

So the good news. Independent retailers- here's where you can compete with Chains- through education.

Classes and Clubs... the most successful stores all have them.

Build your classes correctly and you will generate revenue from the class and the product sales. You'll probably need to bring in some outside teachers, invest in some promotion and some class space if you don't have a place in your store.

But just as you invest in advertising, fixuring and product- this is an investment in future profit. Classes and clubs generate store traffic and bring in new customers. They teach customers how to use tools and products. They bond customers to your store.

It's tough to compete against that  weekly 40% off coupon but there are so many products YOU can sell that chains never will. Those are the products you can build classes and clubs around. There's no need to train consumers how to use a tool that they will leave your class and buy elsewhere at a deep discount. But if they do buy it elsewhere you can still generate revenue from teaching the customer how to use a product they bought at a Chain store.

We hope to be presenting a clubs and classes seminar at CHA Summer. In the meantime, classes and clubs are a priority in our magazine content. We welcome your comments and contributions to this topic.

Wishing you a happy first day of spring and for those of you who celebrate it- a joyous Easter. See you Monday-- Beth