How will online retail change?

I've been thinking a lot lately.

With the major recession, people cutting back and making do with less - how will this change our retail landscape?

Certainly we've seen plenty of large brick-and-morter stores fold (Linen's N Things, Circuit City). The stores still standing are clearly retrenching - Macy's is aiming for a "Kohls with nicer stuff" level, Best Buy is scrambling to match Walmart's prices, etc. What we don't hear about are the smaller online businesses, many of which are struggling too I'm sure.

Which leads me to my major concern - can sites like Etsy survive? Will they have to change - adapt - to make it?

I love Etsy myself, both to sell my jewelry on, and to find neat and unique items. But I'll be honest, I've not purchased from anyone there in a while...and my sales have been few and far between lately.

When times were good, and money was flowing, the idea of buying a felted wool bowl, a plush monster robot, or some cute dangle earrings "just because" seemed fine. Neat and cool made for great gifts, until the recipients started to struggle to buy groceries or lost their jobs outright.

Will Etsy change? Will it move to more utilitarian items (DIY supplies, shirts, books) - and lose the whimsy? Will ACEOs and plush monsters disappear? Will the seller community shrink more and more as profit margins are eaten away by bargain hunters?

I hope not - we all need fun, whimsical stuff, especially at a time like this.

(Blueberry hat courtesy of WoolKnitsNBits, monkey pendant from PiecesOfMePendants, and Sparky the Chichilla plush from IckyDogCreations)

This Needs to End

The Great Recession is hitting home...

Thankfully, hubby and I still have our jobs - but our kids are about to be massively impacted. And that really, really bothers me.

See, in Oregon, there's some screwy way they fund schools. Even in good times, they don't get much money (kindergarten is only partially funded, for instance - so we have 3-day-a-week kindergarten, and some PUBLIC schools charge TUITION for the other 2 days). So with the economy tanking, unemployment in the state at 10% and rising...that state income tax isn't generating near the revenue it used to.

So our schools are facing a HUGE revenue shortfall - they've been warned to plan for a 15% reduction.

My lovely little town has just 3 schools - elementary, middle, and high school (all in a row no less). All told, a bit over 1200 kids between the three. Pretty small, huh?

And yet, Monday they are having a community meeting to discuss the need to cut $1.2 MILLION from the 2009-2010 budget. I just can't wrap my mind around that - it's roughly $1000 less PER STUDENT.

How are we going to do it? I just don't know. There's all kinds of rumors - going to 4-day-per-week schedules, laying off multiple teachers, cutting out music and PE. There's even a rumor of combining 2nd and 3rd grade - and that's just what I'm hearing from the elementary school. All I know is, this is HORRIBLE for the kids and their education - but what the hell can I do about it? Not like I could sell my house and move - all the other Oregon districts are in the same boat. And finding another job in another state right now - yeah, right.

I'm so frightened.

A Bit of Politics

"We interrupt the regularly scheduled blog nonsense for this minimally important political message"

I realize that talking politics on a blog is a GREAT way to get flamed - and maybe lose readers - but I just have to cover this topic. I'm a businessperson after all, and this is important.
Today, President Bush said in a speech that "I don't think we're headed to recession. But no question, we're in a slowdown."

Quite frankly, this makes me angry. I've had my small business for over a year now, worked with other online sellers for another 2 years before that - and been in the workforce in general since 2000. The economy is in rough shape. People are decreasing their spending habits - browsing plenty still, but that looking is not converting to buying at the same rate. My costs for everything are going up - not just jewelry supplies, but food, gas, electric. Inflation is definitely rearing its ugly head, and frankly it's having an impact on my bank account.

To have our President say that this is a mere "slowdown" is insulting. Try buying your own groceries, sir. Or running a small business, where every dollar more you spend on gas, every extra $0.02 postage you are charged, all of it eats into your profits, and makes you wonder at what point you just need to stop doing business.

Does President Bush think he's doing anyone a favor by soft-pedalling the problem? Seriously?

Ok, message over. Go ahead and flame me.