Elliot Lake is situated between Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury, Ontario and once a booming mining community, shifted gears after the mine closures and became a “Retirement Community.”
Our town motto: A Jewel in the Wilderness probably describes us best. Beautiful forests, clear, clean lakes and rivers and pure air, have attracted many retirees to relocate here.
While my husband was commuting back and forth to Saskatchewan for his new job, I continued living and working in Elliot Lake as we could not see ourselves giving up “the perfect place to live” for us.
With him gone for six weeks at a time and the last of our three daughters finishing college and going off to start their own lives, I suddenly found I had time to pursue my own interests again. Of course, crafting and art, were the first things I became reacquainted with.
Having no craft store in Elliot Lake and being so far from a major center meant I was wasting valuable crafting time traveling to Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie or even my sisters’ in Barrie, Ontario, quite often to no avail, looking for materials.
So what does a crafter do when she can’t find enough materials to sustain her addiction?
She opens her own arts and craft store of course and with a very low threshold for boredom that meant a multitude of product requirements. Since I do everything from knitting, crocheting, painting, drawing, floral arranging, woodworking and any other type of craft that strikes my fancy, my store has evolved in many product lines.
When choosing a name, I wanted it to embody the atmosphere of the store as well as the concept that doing arts and crafts should be a relaxing and pleasurable time which I believe The Crafter’s Oasis does.
Finding suppliers who will sell in quantities appropriate to a smaller customer base at reasonable prices and with enough variety of product so I don’t have to deal with and unwieldily number of suppliers has been a challenge. There have been suppliers who have been dropped from my Rolodex as they make it quite plain they don’t want to deal with smaller retailers or because they are simply too difficult to deal with but being a member of the Canadian Craft and Hobby Association and attending trade shows has helped in finding some of these elusive suppliers as well as giving me a lot of good advice as a first time retailer.
Time has also taught me not to order for customers without ensuring I have a deposit since there is no reason for them not to pick the item up when a friend invited them to go to Sudbury for a drive if they haven’t given one and to carry only those products that were originally in my business plan and not allow others to sidetrack me.
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With a community now comprised mainly, about 85% of our approximate 10, 500 population, of retired persons, ranging in age anywhere from 55 to 90, it has been an interesting five and a half years.
Some still expect to find products they were using twenty years ago to still be available and when I try to explain that they are no longer available but I have something “new and improved” that will do an even better job, they are reluctant to try it. However, most customers are willing as long as they receive detailed instructions for it use and a lot of assurance.
Classes need to be kept at a slower pace to accommodate their age and physical limitations quite often but since we all live a slow-paced, easy going lifestyle, this hasn’t been too big a problem either to myself, as I simply enjoy sharing my love of crafting with others, or for the other skilled artists and crafters in the community who wish to teach out of my shop.
I also teach a beginner 101 Tole Painting class over an eight week period so all my students have the proper basic skills and knowledge so that their painting experiences are not frustrating because they haven’t learned something as simple as using the proper paint consistency. I started with one class per year and through word of mouth and demand, have had to increase it to three classes this year.
Part time help has been an ongoing problem as we have a limited pool to draw from with the majority of our residents being retirees. Unfortunately, I can’t hire someone who is 65 and have them climbing ladders in the stockroom to restock the store front. The younger generation and even some of the more mature, at least in our area, seem to possess so few work ethics or skills, that I have given up trying to find one who will work out and have settled for a part time cashier just so I’m not at the store twenty four - seven.
My store policy is quite simple - treat everyone like they’re an old friend, always pay attention and listen carefully to what they’re talking about, and always be totally honest in your answers. If I cannot order a product for them for two months as that’s as often as I order from a certain company, we never say it will be a couple weeks. If we don’t know the answer to a question, we say so but then try to find out in a timely manner or will call them and explain that we haven’t had any luck. I feel its very important to leave your customers feeling dissatisfied, even if they’re only looking for an answer. We have had excellent feedback from customers regarding their enjoyment of shopping here and their pleasure at coming in and finding smaller items they thought they would never find of were unable to find in the larger craft stores.
Many of our customers enjoy coming in to be able to just leisurely stroll through checking out all the nooks and crannies we have painstakingly created for just that purpose and most inevitably find something they can’t live without. As we greet every customer who enters the store, they also have the option of requesting specific products if they are pressed for time.
Word of mouth has been our best advertising investment. We even have loyal customers who bring every visitor (and retirees seem to have a lot) they have to “show” them their favorite store. We have many people from across Ontario who travel to Elliot Lake each fall for the Artists’ Deer Trail Tour who consider the store to be a regular stop as well. This type of feedback tells me we must be doing something right.
Sharon Smith, The Crafter’s Oasis
10 Charles Walk, Elliot Lake, ON. P5A 2A3.
Tel: (705) 848-7095
Email: craftersoasis@sympatico.ca
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