by Shelly Stokes, Founder and Creative Mentor
There are lots of things I love about starting a new year, but raising prices is not one of them. Unfortunately, cost increases are a fact of life in the business world. As labor and production costs continue to rise, we need to increase prices on a few products.
We tend to think about higher prices as a bad thing. We all like to save money and get the best possible price for our purchases. But let’s look at the other side of the equation for a minute.
The companies that make and package the products we love all have employees. And those employees, just like you, enjoy getting a raise to cover their higher cost of living. By the way, we are not talking about employees in low wage countries. All of the products that we sell at Cedar Canyon Textiles (with the exception of stencil brushes and PlayColor paints) are made right here in the USA.
The Paintstiks are produced in a factory near Chicago. All Cedar Canyon books, stencils and rubbing plates are produced and packaged right here in Minnesota. (In case you are wondering, PlayColor paints are made in Spain where unemployment is three times higher that here in the US, so I have no qualms supporting that product!)
If you are tempted to think unhappy thoughts about price increases, think again. Is it worth the extra 50 cents or one dollar to support your neighbor’s jobs? Yes? I think so too.
2014 Price Increases
On the bright side, price increases affect only a few products.
- Rubbing Plates will be $12.95, up from $11.95.
- Single Iridescent Paintstiks will be $9.95, up from $9.49.
- Single Matte Paintstiks will be $7.95, up from $7.50.
New 2014 pricing will go into effect on February 1st in our Online Store.
It’s wonderful to hear that most of your products are supporting jobs right here in the United States. I will support the raise in prices, which I believe are more than fair. Thank you for supporting locally made products. Happy creating!
Thanks, Susan. I appreciate your note. When I started this business, I rejected the route of sending products overseas for production for several reasons. I believe in supporting other local companies and I wanted to be in driving distance of my suppliers. When your suppliers are your neighbors, they work through the problems. When they are in China? Good luck with that…