Handy Crafters Corner Co-op

Date of Incorporation: 1985.
Membership: 10
Activity: Provides a venue for mostly female artists and crafters to seller their work.
Organizational Form: Artist Marketing Co-operative
Area Served: South Peace Region

Introduction

A church basement served as the first home to this crafters co-op started by a group of women from the South Peace region in 1985. Handy Crafters Co-op was established in Dawson Creek in order to provide a venue for crafters, mostly women, to sell their crafts. As the co-op began to increase sales, they expanded and acquired a storefront in the Dawson Co-op Mall in 1991, where they have remained until the present day. Unlike other artists and craft co-ops in British Columbia, Handy Crafters Co-op was not formed for profit. Sticking to their original version, the members of Handy Crafters formed the co-op to provide an opportunity for those interested in making crafts to have a place to display and sell them for a bit of extra money. For the past sixteen years, the co-op has operated in this fashion and has become one of the community cornerstones for many of its rural customers to visit and socialize. Handy Crafters will be closing its doors at the end of December 2001, bringing the crafters to the end of an era.

The beginnings and early days

When the first European settlers came to the South Peace region and founded the town of Dawson Creek at the turn of the century, they brought with them a crafting tradition. Even though spare moments were few, women found time to craft. Succeeding generations of women learned how to craft from their mothers and grandmothers. Today, the town of Dawson Creek and the surrounding rural areas boast hundreds of talented crafters.

By the early 1980s, a network of women crafters had developed in Dawson Creek. These women were active crafters and traveled around the local area looking for venues and craft sales in which to sell their goods. Tired from the amount of traveling and the added work required to pack, unpack, set-up, take down, and repack their crafts, the group of women decided to combine efforts and open a storefront. Soon, Handy Crafters Co-op was incorporated in 1985, and opened a store in the basement of a church.

The original 10 members quickly grew to 20 as the co-op established itself. Strengthening the co-op was important to the members who wanted to increase the co-op's presence and broaden the customer base. During the first few years, members volunteered their time promoting the co-op and working in the store aswell as contributing between $40 and $50 a month to pay the bills and ensure the co-op's success. Gradually, the store became well known to South Peace residents. Crafts were selling well and the co-op became self-supporting. Once the co-op started to make money, members who had invested money in the early days were repaid.

That the original group of women decided to form the store using the co-op model reflects the long co­operative tradition that exists in Dawson Creek. They bought groceries at the local co-op and banked at the credit union. Many of them had been involved with the agricultural co-operatives of the area. The women believed that each of the people contributing to the store had an equal say in what was happening. As one member says, "they felt that the co-op way was the best, that way there was not any one manager, everyone was equal who was involved."¹

Members and Consigners

Over the co-op's sixteen-year existence, there has been relatively little fluctuation in membership; 10 members founded the co-op back in 1985. Membership quickly rose to about twenty members due to the immense time and energy required to establish the co-op. After the co-op developed a customer base and sales were covering expenses, membership gradually declined as the need for volunteers lessened. Since the early 1990s, membership has hovered between eight to 10 members. Even though membership decreased, the remaining co-op members did not actively seek new members because there were still enough people to staff the store. They found that as long as they could keep the store staffed, things ran more smoothly with fewer members. From 1998 to 2001 the co-op has had just six members, which, for a crafters co-op that is open six days a week, is too few. As one member explains, "now we're finding that six [members] is really not enough. We're managing, but just barely because if people have any kind of a family situation or whatever that they can't work for awhile, it puts a lot of strain on the rest of us."²

In addition to members, consigners also participate in the co-op by contributing crafts. Unlike members, consigners do not pay any kind of membership fee to belong to the co-op, volunteer at the store, or serve on the board of directors. In the early 1990s there were as many as 150 consigners who displayed crafts at the store. In recent years the number of consigners has remained steady between 40 and 50.

Board of Directors/ Meetings

At Handy Crafter's, members are responsible for volunteering their time at the store as well as serving on the Board of Directors. When there were more people involved, members would be elected to serve on the board. In the past few years, members have alternated positions except for the treasurer who has served for the past eight years. Consigners do not vote.

An Annual General Meeting (AGM) is held each year. When times were busier, one or two other meetings were held during the year to go over any particular issues that may have surfaced. For the past couple of years, however, the AGM is the only regular meeting held. Most co-op business is taken care of informally on a daily basis. Many members see each other on a weekly if not daily basis. Sometimes all six members are in the store at the same time, which allows for most details to be attended to informally.

Structuring of an artists' or crafters' co-op

Handy Crafters is one of many arts and crafts co-ops in British Columbia. Compared to other co-op sectors, artists' co-ops are a relatively recent phenomenon. In B.C., artists' co-ops did not become popular until the 1970s. Some have remained small, local enterprises, such as Handy Crafters, and others have a province-wide membership. Even though they did not become popular until the 1970s, artists' co-ops are much older. The first artists' co-op in B.C. was established in the 1920s in Summerland to provide seasonal jobs for the orchard workers during the long winter season.

Each artist co-op is structured somewhat differently, depending on the size and clientele of the co-op. However, as mentioned above, most artist or crafter co-ops have both members and consigners. Because members volunteer their time in the store, they pay a smaller fee to the co-op to have their crafts displayed than do the consigners. Each time a customer purchases a member's craft, the member pays a 10 per cent fee to the co-op. Each time a customer purchases a consigner's craft, the consigner pays a 30 per cent fee to the co-op. The fees are used to cover the co-op's expenses such as rent, monthly phone bills, supplies, and other administrative tasks.

Artist and crafter co-ops also have judging or adjudication committees. Again, depending on the size and clientele, each artists' or crafters' co-op handles the judging process somewhat differently. With Handy Crafters, judging is handled somewhat informally "...with one or two of our members seeing [the product] and looking at it for general quality more than anything else."³ Products are rarely turned away because members "...have always felt that because we have a really wide range of customers, we can also afford to have a wide range of crafts...we have a wider range of types of things that are acceptable to us because that's what our clientele wants as well."⁴

As one member points out, Handy Crafters is more of a 'Tea and Bazaar' concept than a high-end arts store. This reflects the original vision of the co-op as being a place where local crafters can display their creations, as opposed to a high-end gallery.

The Co-op as a Meeting and Gathering Place

Handy Crafters Co-op primarily serves rural women within a 100-mile radius of Dawson Creek. The co­op storefront is located in the Dawson Co-op Mall, which contains the co-op grocery store, dry-goods store, and co-op cafeteria. That the customer base of Handy Crafters is primarily made up of rural women also reflects the rural customer base of those who shop at the co-op grocery store. Women from farming families come to the co-op to chat and visit with co-op members or other customers in the store. Many of the rural women also consign at the craft co-op and will bring in new crafts to display as well as check on what has been sold.

The co-op has also served an additional role as a gathering place for the members themselves. In the last few years, three of the members have become widows, and as one member points out, working at the co­op has "...been a good social thing for us, you know, it's helpful to us as we were widowed to still have a continuing place that we could come and spend time with people we felt comfortable with."⁵

Community Involvement and Relationships with Other Co-ops

Members at Handy Crafters involve themselves in the community both by making donations to charitable organizations as well as participating in local community events. Although there is not a formal policy regarding charitable donations, the co-op has managed to either provide cash or the donation of an item to community organisations that come into the store and ask for a donation. Throughout the year, many festivals and events are held in the community of Dawson Creek and Handy Crafters often participates by setting up a table and bringing crafts to sell at these events. Canada Day celebrations are held every year in the nearby town of Pouce Coupe, which Handy Crafters participates in. As well, Handy Crafters participates in a number of activities that the Dawson Co-op puts on. Every year, Dawson Co-op hosts a kids' carnival in which Handy Crafters is involved with.

Most of the members of Handy Crafters, as well as those who consign there, have been raised with a co­operative consciousness. In addition to serving a rural demographic, those who shop at Handy Crafters are usually older and have shopped at the co-op grocery store and belonged to the credit union since they were kids. As in many small B.C. townwelds.Evere4leore annruTenty years ago, the co-op store and credit union was all that there was. So, the relationship Handy Crafters Co-op has with other co-ops is not a formal one, but rather, exists in the fabric of everyday life. Those who shop at Handy Crafters also shop at the co­op grocery store, bank at the credit union, and are involved on some level with the agricultural co­operatives of the area.

In British Columbia, the co-operative movement can often be divided into two waves. The 'first-wave,' or 'Old-Guard' co-ops constitute grocery stores, agricultural co-ops, dairy co-ops, and credit unions and were mainly formed from the 1890s to the 1950s. The 'second-wave' co-ops which include housing co­ops, social co-ops, forestry and fisheries co-ops, artists co-ops, workers co-ops and a whole host of other kinds of co-ops began forming in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Even though Handy Crafters may fall into the 'second-wave' slot, its customers are largely from the 'Old-Guard' co-op type.

Not for Profit...

Over the sixteen-years of the co-op's existence, the members of Handy Crafters have always kept close to their original vision. As one member points out: "...our emphasis has never been on making money. It's been more on having a venue for our own crafts and having a place where mostly rural women would have an opportunity to sell things, to make a little extra income."⁶ Members have never been swayed from this vision, even when they had a couple of other members who were keen on the co-op becoming a money making proposition. But to transform Handy Crafters from a place that served the rural women of the area to a profit-making business, would have required a business attitude that did not mesh well with the rest of the co-op members. Judging would have had to become much harsher and many of the consigners would not longer be able to display their crafts in the store. On the whole, the members could not accept that type of approach: "That wasn't what it was when it began, and that wasn't what people expect of us now."⁷ The founding members never wanted to provide a store that sold high-priced goods, there were other places in town that did that. In the words of one member: "Our place was really somewhere where you could find a wider range of prices and a wider range of things-where the farm ladies can feel comfortable coming in their gum boots, kind of thing. Our basic aim was not to have a business or make a lot of money."⁸

Winding-Up...

As of December 2001, Handy Crafters will have closed it doors and dissolved the co-op. In many ways, the co-op members feel that they have reached a natural ending, but the end was also brought on by a number of factors.

As mentioned, Handy Crafters has a storefront in the Dawson Co-op Mall. Part of the crafters' co-ops customer base comes from those who come to the mall to grocery shop or eat at the cafeteria. In 2000, the grocery co-op confronted a number of difficulties that led to fewer people shopping at the co-op for a period of time. Also at this time, the management of the grocery co-op gave Handy Crafters their notice to vacate the building by the end of 2000. After a couple of months, management took the notice back, but in that time, many people thought the craft co-op had left the mall. To a degree, Handy Crafters depends on customers who shop at the grocery co-op and saw a sharp decline in customers coming to the store when the grocery co-op lost many of its customers for a time. Secondly, the confusion brought on by giving Handy Crafters its notice to vacate and then letting them stay also affected regular business.

Economic pressures on farmers, additional craft stores, and a decrease in volunteerism has also contributed to the demise of the co-op. The late 1990s have proven to be difficult years for many farmers due to weather and other circumstances. Purchasing crafts is not usually regarded as part of the necessities of life. So when people fall on hard times, crafts are usually the first to go which cuts into the co-op's customer base. The co-op also faces much more competition than it did when it first opened in 1985. Within Dawson Creek alone, there were over 12 places that sold crafts in 2001, compared to just one, Handy Crafters, in 1985. The members also feel that there are not as many people interested in making crafts as there used to be. All of these factors are combined with a lack of interest in volunteering: "People don't seem to have the time to devote volunteering like they did a few years back...and I think with the store, it's a matter of meeting people that are prepared to not only put in a day a week but also do a few extras as well...and that's hard to find."⁹ So far there are no plans to be involved with other co-ops or craft stores after Handy Crafters closes. Some may set up craft tables at bazaars or at the Canada Day celebrations in Pouce, but no one is sure what they will do next.

End Notes

¹ Bev . Telephone interview by Laura Sjolie. October 10, 2001.

² Bev . Telephone interview by Laura Sjolie. October 10, 2001.

³ Bev . Telephone interview by Laura Sjolie. October 10, 2001.

⁴ Bev . Telephone interview by Laura Sjolie. October 10, 2001.

⁵ Bev . Telephone interview by Laura Sjolie. October 10, 2001.

⁶ Bev . Telephone interview by Laura Sjolie. October 10, 2001.

⁷ Bev . Telephone interview by Laura Sjolie. October 10, 2001.

⁸ Bev . Telephone interview by Laura Sjolie. October 10, 2001.

⁹ Bev . Telephone interview by Laura Sjolie. October 10, 2001.

Case Study Information

Researchers: Laura Sjolie

Date of research: 2001

Author: Laura Sjolie

Date of writing: 2001

Editing: BCICS editorial team

Supervision: Kathleen Gabelmann, BCICS Research Co-ordinator

Location