I haven't blogged about the news lately, thinking from now on I am just going to translate my opinions into poems and Monkey Stories. But I can't stop thinking about something in Ian Thomspon's most recent letter in the Chronicle Herald Magazine: "More Exports, Not More Government".
The last time Ian wrote a letter I got so excited that I wrote two blog posts, "The Nova Scotia Pottery Emergency" and another one contemplating more ideas for value-added exports.
I'm not pretending for a minute that craft is the answer to all of Nova Scotia's issues but if we're calling for more exports, figuring out some things that could be manufactured here to export could be a good start.
Being a member of the private sector, I am a big fan of the private sector and concur with the theme of this recent letter. What surprised me, though, was that Empire and Emera are on Ian's awesome-list of companies
To quote his letter:
We should also pray for more Michelins. And encourage growth of a few
more dozen companies like Clearwater, Oxford Frozen Foods, Emera,
Empire, Stanfield’s, Newfoundland Capital, LED Roadway Lighting, Nautel,
Scotia Investments and its offspring, Acadian Seaplants, Protocase,
A.F. Theriault & Son, Tri-Star, Seaboard, High Liner, IMP, Chorus
Aviation, the Shaw Group, Velsoft and Cherubini.
Ian! What's up?
Why do we need more companies like Emera? This is the parent company for Nova Scotia Power, which supplies the province's electricity. Does anyone in Nova Scotia actually like Nova Scotia Power? Haven't they given the boot to Nova Scotian linesmen while ratcheting up power rates, and giving their executives hefty salary increases?
I suppose we could use another Emera-type company to compete with Emera and hopefully lower power rates.
Why more companies like Sobey's-controlled Empire though? This is the parent company to Crombie REIT which has hoofed small-businesses out of their commercial properties to make way for American chains. They've also sidled up to American chain Target, to replace Canadian-owned Zellers. Apparently Target Canada isn't as great as Target in the states, so they haven't been doing so well according to this CTV article.
It seems odd to me that Empire/Sobeys would be supplying groceries and supporting Target, who is now their competition. I'm not convinced that aiding an American big box store is the most efficient, long-term use of a Canadian company's resources.
And if we think things are tough in Nova Scotia here's a recent Salon article about the economy in the states: You Call This Middle Class? "I'm Trying Not To Lose My House"
Not sure Corporate America is the kid in the sandbox I'd want to be playing with.
Over the past couple of months I've gotten the impression from talking to various people that any public critique of the Sobeys in this province is frowned upon.
That's understandable I suppose. There there, Sobeys family. Yes you do make sandwiches, sushi and black forest cakes that are all delicious while employing a lot of people and giving back to the community, and you fund an art award and probably lots of other good stuff for the province.
I just wish that the businesspeople of Nova Scotia would all try to be a bit more altruistic and long-term-big-picture-thinking towards other Nova Scotians; residents and business owners alike.
Maybe Emera could offer better power rates instead of constant rate hikes that are delivered amidst news of executive salary increases.
Maybe Empire and Crombie REIT could run their business in a way that would give smaller, local commercial tenants a better chance to stay in business instead of giving them the boot.
Maybe the entire Nova Scotia private sector could all work together to create a better sandbox for everyone to play in before some Chinese billionaires land here in helicopters and start buying up the whole show like they did in my home province.
After feeling sad about the positive nod towards Emera and Empire, which I reacted to on Sunday by eating a big bag of chips and then taking an 8 hour nap, I got up went online and stumbled across an interview with Frank Giustra on youtube. This completely cheered me up.
I liked the interview so much that then I watched this one, where Frank is being interviewed by Peter Legge of BC Business Magazine.
Maybe what Nova Scotia could use is a few billionaires with ethics and ideas like Vancouver billionaire Frank Giustra.
Frank has done some cool things with his money and time, such as starting Lions Gate Entertainment, an Independent Vancouver Film company that produced The Hunger Games.
It turns out that I'm not the first person to have a hunch that the world would be a better place if more rich monkeys could figure out how to share their bananas in ways that help out other monkeys.
Frank is a fan of the teachings of Andrew Carnegie (1835-1911), the self-made wealthy Scottish-American Industrialist who is responsible for Carnegie hall and a pile of other good stuff. I never looked into Andrew Carnegie's story until last night, but Andrew Carnegie inspired Napolean Hill to write "Think and Grow Rich" (which is a great early book, popular among those who believe in the Law of Attraction).
Carnegie is noted as being a literal 'rags to riches' story and in 1889 he wrote an article called the 'The Gospel of Wealth'. To quote the wiki article about it: "Carnegie proposed that the best way of dealing with the new phenomenon
of wealth inequality was for the wealthy to redistribute their surplus
means in a responsible and thoughtful manner."
It is reassuring to see that some rich guy got to thinking in this way!
On another topic, as with the Fabian Calvo video at the end of my most recent Favourite Things list, Frank Giustra mentions food production as something worth investing in. He's even gone as far as to back this good-looking new magazine Modern Farmer.
Back to Ian's letter, in which he prays for oil...(the black gold kind not the olive kind).
Fossil fuels would be great, who wouldn't love cheaper heating fuel in this province, and jobs of course. But personally I could only get excited about it if the oil
and/or gas were to come out of the ground easily in large quantities
that don't foul up our farmland and water in the process. I'm still not clear on why booty from oil isn't shared more equally among provinces.
The way I see it, if we don't have gobs of oil we don't have gobs of oil. If this is the case then praying for oil
would be as productive as praying for a mountain chain to spring up so
we can have a helicopter skiing industry like in BC, or for residents of
Saskatchewan to pray for an inland saltwater sea to form so they can go
catch scallops and lobsters. Why can't the provinces just get along
and share the diversity of resources our great country has to offer?
Ian, instead of encouraging Nova Scotians to envy
Newfoundland's oil, how about celebrating the rich abundance of good
farmland Nova Scotia has?
We all need to eat, after all.
Our current food supply as we know it has been highly dependent on industrial farming and the trucking of food for long distances. These are extremely oil-thirsty activities. Growing 'organic' food and exploring permaculture would mean we'd need less oil and at the same time be rewarded with healthier food and soil.
Where I'm from in BC much of our very best farmland has been covered over in recent years by townhouses. Nova Scotia not only has a lot good soil, and a decent growing season, it has very good, very delicious freshwater. Abundant fresh water is something I'm sure the farmers in California were coveting with their recent drought.
I think that as consumers grow more conscious of the potential threats of GMOs and more hungry for healthy organic food, the safe farmland, good freshwater, and relatively long growing season of Nova Scotia could turn out to be three of this province's greatest assets.
On that note, here is a shout-out to a few companies that got left off of Ian Thompson's list. Nova Scotian seed companies! Seeds are life and there are a few excellent companies mailing their non-GMO heirloom seeds out all over: Halifax Seed, Hope Seed, Annapolis Seeds, Incredible Seeds and any others I might have missed.
More healthy happy earth-friendly corporate citizens like these, please! Let's all appreciate this province's farmland and protect it from genetic contamination by Monsanto or from fouling by unsustainable development.
I think perhaps what needs to happen is more productive interactions between our elder business types stuck in our old paradigms of profiting via resource extraction, and our younger generations who are evolving to listen to and live symbiotically with the earth.
To be clear, I completely agree with the overall gist of Ian's message. But here is my twist: government get out of the way unless you're going to help. Private sector, take a minute to review "The Gospel of Wealth" full article here , then hop in and let's figure some awesome exports that won't wreck the planet, or our minds or our bodies, and/or some awesome systems to drive more dough into the wallets of hard-working Nova Scotians, that would make everyone richer.
Let's go easy on the earth and work with her rather than against her. If she wants to puke oil or gas at us in a way that doesn't wreck the place, then great, lucky us. But in any case I think if we can get a few of our money wielding elders to invest in more sustainable sectors (eg organic farming and value-added organically grown food products), Nova Scotia could quickly find itself to be one of Canada's richest provinces, in terms of personal, community and environmental health.
Or maybe it won't, but it could be worth a try, eh?
Showing posts with label Ian Thompson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ian Thompson. Show all posts
Monday, March 3, 2014
Monday, December 9, 2013
The Nova Scotia Pottery Emergency (a response to Ian Thompson's Letter in this past Saturday's Herald Magazine)
I love the Chronicle Herald. Not only is it a great paper and Canada's only remaining family owned daily, it is by far the best newspaper I've ever used for papier mache. I hope they never change the actual newspaper they use, the paper is perfect.
This past Saturday I flipped through the paper to the Herald Magazine eager to see what Joel Plaskett has to say. I got stopped by Associate Publisher Ian Thompson's letter which describes all the issues with the Nova Scotia economy. I agree with all of it. He lists off a few examples of "high value goods and services resulting in higher-paying jobs and greater tax revenue" and ends his letter with an urgent plea for more of this.
This got me thinking.
Maybe Ian Thompson would be pleased to know that while folks have been arguing over mink, fracking, salmon pens, corporate handouts and all sorts of other things in the desperate search for job creation, this province has quietly been filling up with potters and other fine craftspeople.
Not only has NSCAD been producing talented grads, professional artists and craftspeople from across Canada and beyond have been moving here attracted by the beauty and relative affordability of land and housing in this province. I'm talking about people far more experienced and professional than myself. West Cote Bell Pottery, for example, comes to mind. This is a business owned by a couple who relocated to LaHave recently from New York State, enchanted by the opportunity to set up shop in a large building, right on the water, with spectacular views. Plus there is the legion of fantastic potters who have been here for varying lengths of time, many are listed on the Nova Scotia Potters Guild website however, there are many great ones that are not. This might be because young, or new, potters in Nova Scotia don't realize that any potter is welcome to be in the guild.
As for me, I set my sights on a move to Nova Scotia back in 2003, when I was living in my native Vancouver and figuring out an exit strategy from my 9-5 life as a conservation biologist. I finally arrived in 2008 to discover there are dozens of other creative types who had the same idea. As noted in Ian's letter, the young of Nova Scotia have had to leave to find work leaving us with an aging population. The result is, as the province fills with artists and craftspeople (a lot of us are "young" by the way), we're all scrabbling around and tripping over eachother trying to sell our stuff to a populace that is increasingly underemployed and/or broke.
I follow "Project Eve" on twitter. It is a great resource for women or really anyone in business. Recently they shared this article:
Ending Poverty One Purchase at a Time
Please check it out. While my husband warned me against comparing crafters in Nova Scotia to crafters in Afghanistan, and I agree, there is a parallel here. I am all for sustainable development, but instead of getting tempted to rush into resource exploitation that could prove unsustainable, how about we work with what we have? What we have is a tonne of amazing craftspeople.
I'm going to talk about pottery as that's my area of interest, though I'm mostly a sculptor. Since moving to this province and seeing how many great potters there are, it occurred to me that, perhaps Nova Scotia Pottery could be branded and promoted outside the province as something as delicious as New Zealand Lamb (bad analogy for vegetarians but hopefully I'm making my point).
I'm on the guild's mailing list, and so far this holiday season, I've counted dozens of potters participating in various group sales, gallery shows, home sales, pop-up galleries, craft fairs, sales from their shops, and more. I listed off a few such events in my last post "A New Venue and It's A Great Weekend for a Pottery Crawl". However this short list of events happening this weekend doesn't even scratch the surface of what else I've seen advertised; apologies to some potters I know and love whose sales this past weekend unintentionally got left off this list, eg Seastar Pottery, there are probably others, it's really a lot to keep track of!
It's a challenge for potters to make a living. The overhead for this craft is quite high, and increases in power bills and other expenses don't help. To get work into consignment shops downtown the consignment rates tend to be as high as 50% (an offshoot of their own high overhead expenses), and space is at a premium in the several small venues that are spread out. While there are great craft fairs in the city, the fees to participate in the more established ones can be expensive, making this a risky way for artists to make money. While many artists I've met seem to love doing markets and find them lucrative, they do involve considerable time for: getting to/from market, setting up, attending the table and tearing down. For potters that live far from Halifax, having to commute or stay over night someplace is an added expense. And, as mentioned above, the artists are all targeting the same dwindling customer base, while more potters seem to move here or graduate every year.
What is the solution exactly? I'm not sure, but I can think of a couple of ways to improve the situation:
Idea #1: Create more consumers of fine craft locally. Perhaps if more people realized that a lot of local fine craft is more durable and affordable than they thought, we would keep more money in the province. I listed off some reasons for 'buying local' in this blog post.
We are social creatures, so my hypothesis is that the more of us who visit each other and get served coffee or tea out of locally made mugs, the more of us who will be likely to seek out handmade pots. In a short time we could see an epidemic of pottery collecting.
No offense to my pottery friends but it seems to me that a lot of them promote their small events via the Potters Guild mailing list (which is mainly potters) and/or Facebook, and a lot of their Facebook friends are other potters. Or their friends and past customers of course, but unfortunately unlike cheese pottery doesn't go off so there's only so much a person with limited shelf space and/or a limited budget can buy.
Perhaps both print and televised media could help by picking up this story and getting the message out to a broader audience. After reading this weekend's paper I nominate John DeMont to write up something (I thought his articles were great), though there are plenty of great writers in town. Perhaps with more public awareness, more people would be inclined to serve those Honeycrisp apple slices and local cheeses on a Nova Scotia pottery plate.
Perhaps the thing to do is bring out Joel Plaskett again, it worked for the recent Herald Magazine cover. Have a close up of him on the front page, holding up a beautiful, colourful bowl (I'm thinking one of Andrew Langille's pieces) that he looks at seriously while above his head is a big bold headline: "The Nova Scotia Pottery Emergency". (For people unfamiliar with Joel Plaskett, "Joel Plaskett Emergency" is the name of his band).
This would be a great start, but I don't think this would be good enough. I'm talking about A LOT of potters. Honestly there are too many to list as I'd be bound to leave some out. I think my count is up to at least 90, many of them aren't part of the guild. And every day I seem to find out about another group of potters hosting an event.
So this brings me to:
Idea #2: Somehow potters and other craftspeople could use a hand-up with getting their wares to larger markets out of province (just like in that Project Eve Afghanistan article I give the link to above). Whether this hand should come from the government or private sector I'm not sure. I know there are some individual craftspeople with excellent business skills, partly due to mentoring from CEED, who are figuring out their way on their own, but wouldn't there be strength in numbers if we all banded and branded together? Perhaps there is a missing link here waiting to be filled?
I think Halifax would benefit greatly from the creation of a large Nova Scotia Pottery Gallery, downtown somewhere within walking distance of the cruise ships. Other provinces have commercial galleries dedicated to promoting and selling their pottery, it only makes sense here. However, unlike existing art venues that have consignment rates as high as 50%, perhaps the government could somehow step in and enable a lower rate, making such a venue more accessible both to the potters and customers?
Or, maybe there could be a venue for more than just pottery.
We could include Nova Scotian made food products, mittens, scarves, printed products, beauty products, furniture, tools, knives, shoes, whatever and call the place "Made-In-Nova-Scotia-Mart" or similar.
Since moving here I've been so impressed by the variety, quantity and quality of locally made goods. I have daydreamed about the evolution of a big-box-store type of 100% consignment venue where the mark up on all things Nova Scotian is only 20%. ( I call this daydream 'My 80/20 Vision'). I think a low mark-up is necessary, as it would keep retail prices low to allow more consumers to be able to afford to purchase items, while still allowing craftspeople to pay themselves decently. My other justification for this low rate is that, unlike other big box stores that deal in foreign imports, there would be no outlay of cash for purchasing stock, no worry about blowing out unsold stock, everything would be delivered to the door by the 'suppliers' rather than having to be tankered, trained and trucked here from far away.
Not only would this imaginary shop support dozens of Nova Scotian makers, it would create decent jobs in the retail sector. To reach markets out of province, it should include a professional online presence that would facilitate the promotion, sales and shipping of items out of province,and even out of country. Surely with all the talented IT people running around town it would be easy to evolve a kick-ass online shopping experience. Imagine the spin-off benefits for the NS economy, as "Made In Nova Scotia" becomes recognized around the globe as a brand that equals value and quality. Take that, China!
Perhaps, if necessary, government could step and greatly reduce the property taxes on this venue, in order to cut overhead expenses. With all the money the NS government has chucked at other privately owned businesses (*cough* *cough* *ahem* Irvings), maybe there's a bit of dough available for a building and a few salaries for this idea if it ends up being a good one.
Instead of having to learn about sales, marketing, promotion and a host of other business skills, crafters could just do what they do best. Make work, drop it off (or even have it picked up!), collect cheques, pay for stuff they need, and make more work. Aside from developing our own brands and web presence, we could leave everything else to the storekeepers, and stick this store someplace that would give everyone easy access to local craft year-round, not just at Christmas fairs.
I think there will always be a need and support for good markets, galleries and gift stores. Hopefully all this buzz about local spending would just help the entire industry, as more people who currently think, meh, art and craft whatever, would suddenly seek these venues out. Not only that, artists and crafters LOVE to buy the work of others, so as they earn more they'll be able to buy more!
But while we're at it, why not recognize and chuck some subsidies or some form of help at the small business owners who have already been slaving their guts out to try to provide good venues for local art and craft. Or, if they prefer, reward those currently on the retail side of things for their hard work with first dibs at good government jobs to do whichever bit of running their business they love the most/excel at.
If competition with existing local venues and markets ends up being an issue, or if the Nova Scotian consumer base is too small, maybe this is a concept that would be better be applied in a suburb of Toronto and/or other large Canadian centres where there are more people with more high paying jobs. Perhaps "Local-Mart" could be a good name for a national chain and they could set up shop right next to the Wal-Marts of the country.
Or not.
Perhaps the entire idea is ridiculous, or just bits of it, but hey, at least I've got my thinking hat on. You asked for it, Ian! Anyhow, it's a start, eh?
*Note, Dec 13 - I've come up with more ideas to build on to this post, in my following post Serenity Doves and Courage to Change*
 |
| Meerkat made from Chronicle Herald newspaper |
This got me thinking.
Maybe Ian Thompson would be pleased to know that while folks have been arguing over mink, fracking, salmon pens, corporate handouts and all sorts of other things in the desperate search for job creation, this province has quietly been filling up with potters and other fine craftspeople.
Not only has NSCAD been producing talented grads, professional artists and craftspeople from across Canada and beyond have been moving here attracted by the beauty and relative affordability of land and housing in this province. I'm talking about people far more experienced and professional than myself. West Cote Bell Pottery, for example, comes to mind. This is a business owned by a couple who relocated to LaHave recently from New York State, enchanted by the opportunity to set up shop in a large building, right on the water, with spectacular views. Plus there is the legion of fantastic potters who have been here for varying lengths of time, many are listed on the Nova Scotia Potters Guild website however, there are many great ones that are not. This might be because young, or new, potters in Nova Scotia don't realize that any potter is welcome to be in the guild.
As for me, I set my sights on a move to Nova Scotia back in 2003, when I was living in my native Vancouver and figuring out an exit strategy from my 9-5 life as a conservation biologist. I finally arrived in 2008 to discover there are dozens of other creative types who had the same idea. As noted in Ian's letter, the young of Nova Scotia have had to leave to find work leaving us with an aging population. The result is, as the province fills with artists and craftspeople (a lot of us are "young" by the way), we're all scrabbling around and tripping over eachother trying to sell our stuff to a populace that is increasingly underemployed and/or broke.
I follow "Project Eve" on twitter. It is a great resource for women or really anyone in business. Recently they shared this article:
Ending Poverty One Purchase at a Time
Please check it out. While my husband warned me against comparing crafters in Nova Scotia to crafters in Afghanistan, and I agree, there is a parallel here. I am all for sustainable development, but instead of getting tempted to rush into resource exploitation that could prove unsustainable, how about we work with what we have? What we have is a tonne of amazing craftspeople.
I'm going to talk about pottery as that's my area of interest, though I'm mostly a sculptor. Since moving to this province and seeing how many great potters there are, it occurred to me that, perhaps Nova Scotia Pottery could be branded and promoted outside the province as something as delicious as New Zealand Lamb (bad analogy for vegetarians but hopefully I'm making my point).
I'm on the guild's mailing list, and so far this holiday season, I've counted dozens of potters participating in various group sales, gallery shows, home sales, pop-up galleries, craft fairs, sales from their shops, and more. I listed off a few such events in my last post "A New Venue and It's A Great Weekend for a Pottery Crawl". However this short list of events happening this weekend doesn't even scratch the surface of what else I've seen advertised; apologies to some potters I know and love whose sales this past weekend unintentionally got left off this list, eg Seastar Pottery, there are probably others, it's really a lot to keep track of!
It's a challenge for potters to make a living. The overhead for this craft is quite high, and increases in power bills and other expenses don't help. To get work into consignment shops downtown the consignment rates tend to be as high as 50% (an offshoot of their own high overhead expenses), and space is at a premium in the several small venues that are spread out. While there are great craft fairs in the city, the fees to participate in the more established ones can be expensive, making this a risky way for artists to make money. While many artists I've met seem to love doing markets and find them lucrative, they do involve considerable time for: getting to/from market, setting up, attending the table and tearing down. For potters that live far from Halifax, having to commute or stay over night someplace is an added expense. And, as mentioned above, the artists are all targeting the same dwindling customer base, while more potters seem to move here or graduate every year.
What is the solution exactly? I'm not sure, but I can think of a couple of ways to improve the situation:
Idea #1: Create more consumers of fine craft locally. Perhaps if more people realized that a lot of local fine craft is more durable and affordable than they thought, we would keep more money in the province. I listed off some reasons for 'buying local' in this blog post.
We are social creatures, so my hypothesis is that the more of us who visit each other and get served coffee or tea out of locally made mugs, the more of us who will be likely to seek out handmade pots. In a short time we could see an epidemic of pottery collecting.
No offense to my pottery friends but it seems to me that a lot of them promote their small events via the Potters Guild mailing list (which is mainly potters) and/or Facebook, and a lot of their Facebook friends are other potters. Or their friends and past customers of course, but unfortunately unlike cheese pottery doesn't go off so there's only so much a person with limited shelf space and/or a limited budget can buy.
Perhaps both print and televised media could help by picking up this story and getting the message out to a broader audience. After reading this weekend's paper I nominate John DeMont to write up something (I thought his articles were great), though there are plenty of great writers in town. Perhaps with more public awareness, more people would be inclined to serve those Honeycrisp apple slices and local cheeses on a Nova Scotia pottery plate.
Perhaps the thing to do is bring out Joel Plaskett again, it worked for the recent Herald Magazine cover. Have a close up of him on the front page, holding up a beautiful, colourful bowl (I'm thinking one of Andrew Langille's pieces) that he looks at seriously while above his head is a big bold headline: "The Nova Scotia Pottery Emergency". (For people unfamiliar with Joel Plaskett, "Joel Plaskett Emergency" is the name of his band).
This would be a great start, but I don't think this would be good enough. I'm talking about A LOT of potters. Honestly there are too many to list as I'd be bound to leave some out. I think my count is up to at least 90, many of them aren't part of the guild. And every day I seem to find out about another group of potters hosting an event.
So this brings me to:
Idea #2: Somehow potters and other craftspeople could use a hand-up with getting their wares to larger markets out of province (just like in that Project Eve Afghanistan article I give the link to above). Whether this hand should come from the government or private sector I'm not sure. I know there are some individual craftspeople with excellent business skills, partly due to mentoring from CEED, who are figuring out their way on their own, but wouldn't there be strength in numbers if we all banded and branded together? Perhaps there is a missing link here waiting to be filled?
I think Halifax would benefit greatly from the creation of a large Nova Scotia Pottery Gallery, downtown somewhere within walking distance of the cruise ships. Other provinces have commercial galleries dedicated to promoting and selling their pottery, it only makes sense here. However, unlike existing art venues that have consignment rates as high as 50%, perhaps the government could somehow step in and enable a lower rate, making such a venue more accessible both to the potters and customers?
Or, maybe there could be a venue for more than just pottery.
We could include Nova Scotian made food products, mittens, scarves, printed products, beauty products, furniture, tools, knives, shoes, whatever and call the place "Made-In-Nova-Scotia-Mart" or similar.
Since moving here I've been so impressed by the variety, quantity and quality of locally made goods. I have daydreamed about the evolution of a big-box-store type of 100% consignment venue where the mark up on all things Nova Scotian is only 20%. ( I call this daydream 'My 80/20 Vision'). I think a low mark-up is necessary, as it would keep retail prices low to allow more consumers to be able to afford to purchase items, while still allowing craftspeople to pay themselves decently. My other justification for this low rate is that, unlike other big box stores that deal in foreign imports, there would be no outlay of cash for purchasing stock, no worry about blowing out unsold stock, everything would be delivered to the door by the 'suppliers' rather than having to be tankered, trained and trucked here from far away.
Not only would this imaginary shop support dozens of Nova Scotian makers, it would create decent jobs in the retail sector. To reach markets out of province, it should include a professional online presence that would facilitate the promotion, sales and shipping of items out of province,and even out of country. Surely with all the talented IT people running around town it would be easy to evolve a kick-ass online shopping experience. Imagine the spin-off benefits for the NS economy, as "Made In Nova Scotia" becomes recognized around the globe as a brand that equals value and quality. Take that, China!
Perhaps, if necessary, government could step and greatly reduce the property taxes on this venue, in order to cut overhead expenses. With all the money the NS government has chucked at other privately owned businesses (*cough* *cough* *ahem* Irvings), maybe there's a bit of dough available for a building and a few salaries for this idea if it ends up being a good one.
Instead of having to learn about sales, marketing, promotion and a host of other business skills, crafters could just do what they do best. Make work, drop it off (or even have it picked up!), collect cheques, pay for stuff they need, and make more work. Aside from developing our own brands and web presence, we could leave everything else to the storekeepers, and stick this store someplace that would give everyone easy access to local craft year-round, not just at Christmas fairs.
I think there will always be a need and support for good markets, galleries and gift stores. Hopefully all this buzz about local spending would just help the entire industry, as more people who currently think, meh, art and craft whatever, would suddenly seek these venues out. Not only that, artists and crafters LOVE to buy the work of others, so as they earn more they'll be able to buy more!
But while we're at it, why not recognize and chuck some subsidies or some form of help at the small business owners who have already been slaving their guts out to try to provide good venues for local art and craft. Or, if they prefer, reward those currently on the retail side of things for their hard work with first dibs at good government jobs to do whichever bit of running their business they love the most/excel at.
If competition with existing local venues and markets ends up being an issue, or if the Nova Scotian consumer base is too small, maybe this is a concept that would be better be applied in a suburb of Toronto and/or other large Canadian centres where there are more people with more high paying jobs. Perhaps "Local-Mart" could be a good name for a national chain and they could set up shop right next to the Wal-Marts of the country.
Or not.
Perhaps the entire idea is ridiculous, or just bits of it, but hey, at least I've got my thinking hat on. You asked for it, Ian! Anyhow, it's a start, eh?
*Note, Dec 13 - I've come up with more ideas to build on to this post, in my following post Serenity Doves and Courage to Change*
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