I have been selling my hand-made leather goods to Rings & Things for years, with what I thought was a sound relationship. After working there for five years, and buying for 17+, I developed good friendships and business relationships built on mutual trust and what I thought was respect. I was mistaken.
Recently, I noticed that they took my leather goods, my product samples, my product concept and my designs, made some cost-cutting adjustments, and had them re-made by exporters in China. They didn't even bother changing a few of the leather color names! Denim Blue and Scarlet Red were our color options before I switched to just Blue and Red, thanks to Etsy's search relevancy needs.
As a company that preaches customer loyalty, and buying local hand made, it was shocking to see them import a cheaper product over-seas when a high-quality option was sitting in their American back yard.
I've had a lot of experience with this company, as an employee, I watched them do this to a few other hand made artists, notably, the designer that stared the ear thread surge, makers of ring blanks, makers of chain, makers of beads, and many many resin artists. At the time, my shame in the lack of "honest" business practices was lurking and the stress of working in an environment where dedicated employees making over a certain wage were fired and replaced with cheaper labor took it's toll. I watched as employee after employee were replaced by temps and cheaper labor. I watches as they made one poor financial choice after another, even spending thousands to continue ads in magazines that were going out of print. Money that would have been better spent offering a living wage. I watched as people who'd worked there for decades still qualified for food stamps, could not afford to have running cars, and faced mounting debt that their low paying wages would not cover. My future did not look bright, and it became more than I could bear- so I moved on, and invested my time and money creating my own supply line of leather beading components and cuff blanks, even building a brand, and employing five great people, all making a living wage. My products were selling, and selling well. Rings & Things was purchasing regularly, but I'd also grown a large wholesale customer base on my own, and my products were getting rave reviews at my Etsy store (www.thingumabobs.etsy.com)
I was offering something no other supply house on the beading market was doing, and even the owner of R&T doubted the marketability of leather bracelet blanks and leather pieces.
But over the years, I've handed buyers at Rings & Things dozens and dozens of free product samples and they offered a selection of my cuff-ends and loop end bracelets to their customers. I was offering USA made, eco-friendly products that, due to my successful sales, would surly be best sellers. And they were- for years my product line was in the top 5% of best selling items at Rings & Things. So why then, would they take samples of my new items, and have them knocked off by a cheap importer? Money, of course. Over the years, this company has trashed it's reputation for it's bottom line, hurt loyal customers and vendors, and exported hundreds of American jobs on the backs of the innovation of hand-made artists. I can't keep quiet any longer. I was not the first, and I will not be the last. A company that only cares for it's bottom line- a company that has lost touch with it's customers, and continues to cheaply import products readily available at home, and worst of all, a company that steals from hand-made artists, needs to be exposed. Read more at my blog: http://tafurious.blogspot.com/
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