I keep hearing bitchy posts about people who sell hand-crafted items for less than...well, less than almost anything short of the sun, moon, and stars.
Usually, these rants come from people who, in any other situation, would laud a fellow crafter on their accomplishment, popularity of wares, and general skill level. But as soon as one hears that a crafter is selling their wares at thrift-store/big-retail-giant prices, all hell breaks loose and the pack swoops down on the unwary with varying degrees of vulturesque ferocity.
One of these will be a harpy extremist, who will often go so far as to curse at the offender, and begin an unwarranted diatribe about how my low cost is not only undermining whatever talent/effort I may have poured into the item, but also deliberatly devaluing their own work, by perpetuating some stereotype that crafted items are kitschy and not worth enough to make a decent living on. "How dare you" will be thrown into the same screeching hiss-fit as buzzwords like "sweat shop", "small business", "living wage", and "hourly rate".
My question is not the obvious "Why are you so angry at this crafter's low prices?" but "Why do you think anyone understands the cost-of-production well enough to comprehend the astronomical fees you suggest?"
Why do we price things so far below their actual cost, in terms of materials, time, and effort? Because that is the purchasing method we use everyday. I pay about $3 for a gallon of milk. I would not pay more than triple for absolute organic 100% green milk. This is because I am purchasing the milk itself. The end item.
The average consumer does not consider the actual production costs of that milk. Stop a moment, and explore what costs are probably involved in that single grocery item. A baby cow must eat every day up to and throughout it's life until it can produce the milk I desire It also needs shelter, and hay for the stall. It may require vet visits, and medication to overcome some illness or injury. After the milk is available, the costs only continue to escalate. Equpiment and wages to milk the cow, special processing equipment necessary to pasteurize, package, and lable the milk, as well as transportation costs and wages to get the milk to the store. All in all, it must be an incredibly expensive endeavor for this one item to arrive at my grocery shelf!
However, once it has arrived, those things do not matter to me. I would not, in any way, consider that absorbing all of these costs into the price of my jug of milk to be fair to me as a consumer. I would undoubtely enjoy my million-dollar milk just as much as the cheap stuff, but I can only afford one of these options.
Knitwear and handcrafts are no different to the consumer. They are not considering the years of training/practice you went through to achieve your skill. They do not consider that you had to scour the world for that yarn/wood that would perfectly complement the idea you had for your wares. They do not include the cost of paint/needles into their consideration of the item itself, and they do not care whether you spent years or days making the item. Why should they?
To justify the prices that some professional knitters suggest to mom-and-pop crafters, you must fight the very system you currently reside in. You as a retailer are not just competing against other local and skilled artizans, but you are asking customers to suspend all of their understanding of how-to-shop just for yourself and your own wares. I can understand your motivation (to get a living wage by knitting or crafting), but really, stop blaming the non-customer who won't pay your prices, and quit hating on the crafter who is pricing their wares according to their own plans.
If I sell for a dollar, and you sell for twelve, then I'm automatically going to be more popular than you. That's not my fault. It's not yours. However, if you consider salesmanship to be part of the process, then my job is harder. I have to sell 12 of my items to equal the success you could make with one of yours. Don't bitch because some local knitter sells dishcloths for 50 cents. Just work harder to either educate your consumer base on the reasons behind your higher prices (and accept that some people will always vote with their wallet), or find another venue for your higher-priced wares.
I think that's really the issue--alot of these more uppity crafters who look down on other artisans, and even their own potential customers, with such high airs aren't thinking like business people. They're thinking like fine artists, that their quarter-sized felted cell phone charm is every bit worth $25 when there's less than $5 in materials and time invested in that singular item. Now, even if this item is sold on Etsy or other online venue, shipping for such an item will be less than $2. Now, even if the person charged $7 to encompass all of that, that still amounts to a pretty darn expensive cell phone charm.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's irritating for people not to understand exactly what goes into crafting an item in whatever medium you work with. But it's equally irritating that some crafters just don't have a good grasp on potential financial difficulties of their potential customers. There are factors of age and location to consider. Younger consumers are likely to adore your item, but not have much money to spend on it because of either being too young to have much more than a weekly allowance or the broke college student who barely gets by on what they do have. And location is a factor because some areas have so few jobs in this day and time that most families or individuals are buying strictly the necessities for life. And the crafter with the low and accommodating price is likely to sell more than another with triple the price for a similar kind of item because of this.
If some crafters spent more time researching and carefully planning their prices around their consumer, rather than just slapping a $100 price tag on something just cause THEY feel it's worth it, then I think they'd probably see a big turn around. If you're gonna be a retailer for your crafts, it's always good to try and work to make your work more attractive to customers in terms of both quality and the price tag. Not enough people in the arts ask themselves "Would -I- pay that price for this?"
Completely agree. I think your last point is sadly lost on these people however. They'll go to the mat for discount/bulk/moneysaving/recycling on almost any item, but when it comes to "handcrafted" suddenly they feel that that shawl/hat/bag IS worth $250, but they'll never buy it. 'Not because it isn't worth it!' they'll plead. 'I just don't have the money it deserves.'
ReplyDeletePlease. Get off your high horse. Admit that the end result is: high price = no buy.