The cut-throat world of craft stores and ethics; what would you do?

How childish. Open your gallery and forget the other person. Business is business.

Yes, my other partners are a more firey than me. We talked to the cafe owner and she isn’t upset with us and we cleared the air with her. I said we need to just leave it. This woman needs no help in creating a reputation for herself. She does a very good job on her own.

Sounds like you already dealt with it. How exciting @cazzie! Wishing you all the best in this new endeavor.

I would leave it alone. If you email her and the rest of them, it’s going to start an email war, and for what purpose? Drama that is totally unnecessary. Enjoy the excitement and energy of your new venture! Good Luck!

The aspect of your question that interests me most is the fact that the 3 of you are going to open a shop within spitting distance of your former employer’s place of business. I assume you know what you’re doing, but when launching an enterprise amounts to a declaration of war, you are assuming a load considerably more substantial than those rigors associated with the routine beginnings of a retail shop. You have some serious considerations in front of you that are notoriously unpleasant for those with artistic temperaments. Good luck.

@stanleybmanly She wasn’t our employer. It was a group collective. The area is known for these types of shops and we will be the 7th, (and replacing a glass artists gallery, so she was there as number 7 first) so the location spitting comment has no relevance. There is no declaration of war. If that is how she feels, I won’t lose any sleep over it. She decorates her store with wooden pallets and printed A4 pieces of paper. We will be hanging well known artists and decorate with antiques. They will be very different stores, so we aren’t worried. We just thought her reaction to knowing we were getting together at a cafe and grilling (pun intended) the cafe owner for information was poor manners and we were a bit split as to how to deal with it. In the end, there was no email sent. Me and one of the other owners went around to the shops that we knew and told them that we were taking over the location that the old glass gallery left so that ‘S’ didn’t feel she had to go around and interrogate everyone we spoke to.

I would ignore her. I would tell the cafe owner that what patrons talk about in her cafe is their private business and no one has the right to ask her that.

Thanks for setting me straight. Once again, good luck.

She wasn’t our employer. It was a group collective.
If it is a collective, how did she single-handedly take over?

@Hypocrisy_Central It is rather complicated. She isn’t what I would call a ‘Team Player’. She invested money and got on the board. She convinced two other board members to side with her, so all of her decisions were instantly being implemented by her. Every time we came to the shop, she moved things around so her stuff took up more space and was displayed in the best parts of the store. She then doubled her influence by bringing her husband into the collective, against the wishes of the majority of the members (but it was the board that decided these things.) The products they produced were like things that kids made at summer camp. We tried to talk to her about the issues. She would even go as far as ask us if something was ok or not, but if we said ‘No’, she did it anyway. She also bought products from makers on Etsy and passed them off as her own. (we suspected and investigated and it was confirmed by the Etsy seller) We had a strict, ‘You only sell what you make, no cheap Chinese imports’ policy. When something in the collective was selling well (she was constantly checking OTHER PEOPLE’s sales) she copied the product and brought in her version. If she overheard a good idea at a meeting, she took it. She also was really good at lying and trying to turn people against each other, for a time, until she was found out… then she would deny everything and say we all just misunderstood. We caught her out in too many lies. Then, she had the board put up the prices, demanded more work from the volunteers and took over all the accounting. Because we didn’t trust her as far as we could throw her, we all walked out. Since we left, she has a new policy for the commission sellers. We don’t think it is strictly legal, or at least not ethical. The commission sellers pay a monthly price for space and then a commission on top of that based on their sales. If she thinks the commission artist is selling their things too cheaply, she puts a higher price tag on it and keeps the difference. She has a huge over-the-top, overbearing personality and just talks over the top of people and she was re-writing the minutes of the meeting so they reflected the outcomes and decisions she wanted and when we tried to discuss it with her she acted like she didn’t know what we were talking about. We could have stayed and fought and argued but it is a hobby for us and it just wasn’t worth the effort. Most other members have full time jobs (we three have jobs other than the shop) , but she doesn’t. She actually told a few of the members during the first meeting she attended that her plans were to take over and make that space her shop. Looks like she did just that. One of the founding members left 4 months ago. So, yeah… there’s more, but the whole thing is boring.

The real-estate was in bad shape, cold, chipped cement floor, very little light and the place we have now is cheaper, warmer, more windows and a nice wooden floor.

She also bought products from makers on Etsy and passed them off as her own. (we suspected and investigated and it was confirmed by the Etsy seller) We had a strict, ‘You only sell what you make, no cheap Chinese imports’ policy.
Is this policy and others such as pricing in the bylaws? If she violated points in the bylaws, what does the bylaws say about removing her for them? That is why one has to have bylaws as tight a Tupperware; it can make or break your organization.

@Hypocrisy_Central She denied everything. We decided it wasn’t worth the fight. Two key members of the board decided to side with her and do nothing. Now that she is doing that funky thing with marking up other guest-artists products, I have no idea how far they have decided to let her go, and I don’t care. I don’t have to anymore. That was the point of leaving.