No, Not Beans. . . . . .And Not In California!

For the past few months, I've been alluding to some behind-the-scenes-happenings at WEBS. I've been able to share with you some of the renovations that have been taking place. I know it's hard to appreciate the impact in a few two-dimensional pictures, but the changes are incredible. At the end of the day, I can't blame any of you for not being overly excited about new shipping areas and stockrooms and fancy order pickers and fresh paint and such. There have been some of you that have been enthused for the evolution of my office space into a more comfortable environment (read as: WARM).

Today, I hope I can generate a bit of excitement among you, get the blood flowing as they say. Steve and I are simply bursting like proud parents (no - we are not "literally" going to be proud parents to anyone that isn't already on the proverbial roster). I finally get to share with all of you another of our secret projects. This one came upon us unexpectedly but has turned into what we think is something awesome - a wonderful opportunity.

This morning, Steve and I purchased this:

Beader's Paradise is the local bead store in Northampton and it is now ours. I get goosebumps just typing those words! It's a small store that was founded by two lovely woman, Judy and Cindy seven years ago. Many of you may remember it being located on Pleasant Street, just a couple of blocks up from WEBS. They moved to Main Street and they are currently in a bit of a hidden spot on "the Button St. side of Masonic St.".

Steve and I are very, very excited. We know there is a lot of synergy between our business and beads. We also think there there is a lot of potential within the industry itself. We have a lot of work ahead of us!

How can you not be excited when you look at these:

We'll be re-opening the store within the next week or so and staying in the current location through the end of March. We'll then be relocating to Service Center Road in a space attached to Smith Glass. This means customers can easily walk between the two stores. Now we know for Beader's long-time customers another move is simply making you groan. But look at it this way - we'll be in a bigger, brighter, easier to access space with plenty of FREE parking. Plus lots of new and exciting products and classes and samples and. . . . just lots of great things. We will also be changing the name - we just think the WEBS name has too much recognition to not use it. We will be selling on-line as well, but that probably won't happen until this summer. Hours will be the same as the ones we have at the yarn store (M-Sat 10:00-5:30, Thurs 'til 8pm and closed Sundays).

If you are a beader, local or otherwise and have thoughts on things we should carry, please share your thoughts with me in the comments or privately at kathy.elkins@yarn.com.

Now I"m sure you are wondering about the bean reference in the title.

My mom will be 82 this year and her hearing is less than stellar. She refuses to do anything about it, so we just deal with it as best we can. I called her from California to catch up and realized I had not told her we were going to buy this business. She was quite tickled, which made me happy because as I've said in previous posts, she is not easily excited. A couple of days later, still in California and my sister emails me. She states she hopes there is a job opening at our new California store. I call her back and ask her what the heck she is talking about. Seems my mom told her we were "buying a bean store in California". To say my sister was bewildered would be an understatement. She had been trying to figure out why we would buy a bean store, what kinds of beans we would have, where the beans would be coming from, etc. Between the conversation with my sister and the visual of the conversation she and my mom must have had, I was laughing so hard I was crying. My sister and I will forever reference the store as "beans".

But beads are way more interesting than beans - imho :)

Kathy