Back Story

This is a long story. And if you didn't read my last post, you'll likely be confused. Otherwise, get a snack and some knitting and here we go....

I've kept quiet about my backstory knowledge for a long time. There's been so much flak here about the whole thing and J has been more then gracious about it. Certainly more gracious then I would ever be capable of - but y'all know me! She's wanted to avoid the whole mess and just concentrate on running her business and providing a good, solid yarn shop. She's never said a bad word about K or her shop, only nice things. I know she'll probably be very unhappy with me telling all that I know but it's not fair that the other side isn't being told. It's not fair for people to judge J when they don't have all the facts. I've kept quiet as long as I could. These are the facts as I know them to be true....

So there I was....

Dave and I were looking to buy a business and leave Tucson. We started that search in 2005. One broker told Dave to figure out what our interests were and call related businesses. Even if they weren't listed as "For Sale", sometimes a business owner has it in the back of their mind that they want to sell and just needs that little push of outside interest to pursue it.

We went to YarnArts the first time we came to Parker, CO (November 2005). It was a nice little shop, well stocked but in a really bad location. On the outskirts of Parker in this sort of rundown shopping corner. I went in and looked around while D waited in the car. I picked out yarn for a scarf for D's aunt and when I went to pay, the nice, lovely older women running the store realized they hadn't even turned on the register! It was 2 in the afternoon. Not a particularly good sign, but it was a Tuesday so no worries.

After that bit of advice from the broker, I would call YarnArts every now and then (when we were still in Tucson) and talk to the owner, K. After explaining the business broker's advice, I would ask if she was interested in selling and she would laugh and say, "No, we only opened less then a year ago!"

A year later, D and I moved our family to Parker when D bought the FedEx route in town. I went to visit YarnArts again and found that it had moved. It was in a much better location and a much better space. Very spacious and open and at least twice the size of the previous location. I was surprised to see that with all that extra space, she didn't have much more yarn then before. A bit more but the shelves were never quite full. I introduced myself in person and joked that I was the vulture calling every now and then to see if she wanted to sell. She laughed and said if I'd asked her a month earlier she certainly would've! She'd just installed a new computer system and was having nothing but trouble with it. I gave her my info, sat and knit awhile and then left.

I went in the shop several times and liked the place just fine. A few months later, K put out an email to her entire email list of people that she was considering selling. I went over there to talk to her about it and it turns out she wanted to talk to me about it first but had lost my info. So she put this email out there and hoped I would see it (and also to put it out there to others in case I'd changed my mind).

I talked to D about it and he said to get her info. I went back to K and we talked for several hours over several days. Then weeks. Then months.

When she and I talked initially, she wasn't sure if she wanted to bring on a partner or just sell outright. The first time we talked, it was for 2 hours. At first I was all for a partnership and if she wanted to phase out after 6 months to a year, we'd put in the contracts to revisit these issues at that time. After our initial talk I knew there was no way I'd partner. In her own words, K is "very scattered". I'm not Joe Businesswoman by any stretch of the imagination but K was telling me crazy stuff that I couldn't get behind. She had an employee that was double billing her - billing her for both a teacher pay during classes and employee pay in the same hour. You're supposed to get one or the other, not both. K said she didn't catch it for a couple of months. She also told me this, "You know the little finger-walking symbol associated with the Yellow Pages? Well, it's not trademarked and people send out scam bills. I paid these for 6 months before I finally called Yellow Pages and asked why I was getting a bill every 2 weeks or so. They told me about the scam bills and I stopped paying them." ????? 6 months??

I told here that in our yearlong search for a business, D and I had some pretty decent experience as to what we needed to see on paper. Buying and selling a business is a ton of paperwork and some of those papers we'd be needing were things like her FFE's (list of fixtures, furniture and equipment and their current worth), her tax returns since opening, her P & L's (profit and loss statements) since she opened, and her inventory list.

I asked her for these papers forever. It took her over 5 months to get them together and get them to me (around August/September last year) and the stuff she gave me (as far as P&L's) were only through April, not to date (i.e. August/Sept). During this time, she'd had 2 big yarn sales. Her store was really bare bones and she wasn't restocking because, as she told me, "I don't want to restock in case the new owner wants to take the store in a different direction and carry other things." Well that's all well and good if she was ready to sell right away but she wasn't. As I said, it was months (and 2 big sales) before she got me any paperwork. I know there were other parties that were interested and she told me they hadn't gotten anymore paperwork then I. So now she's actually losing clients - I mean she's gotta be, right? With very little in stock, the same little stock, why would you keep coming back? And the new owner will have to spend a significant amount of money right off the bat (I'm talking between $5K - $10K) to bring the shop back up to the level one would expect to find in a yarn shop, particularly one of that size.

She finally got all the paperwork together and gave it to me. I was looking through it and asking her what price she was going to put the store up for. She said she had a lawyer who specialized in pricing businesses. When she finally got all her stuff together and called the lawyer, the lawyer told K that it was going to be another 2 weeks before she could get to it as she (the lawyer) was going on vacation. K lost it. She was almost in tears when she told me this and she said she was just going to give the papers to her landlord and he would help her. She swore he was a great business man. I asked her if she really thought he'd be working in her best interest and what made her think he was a "great business man"? She said, "Well, he owns a couple of places here in town and he's really nice. He's always telling me I can get out of my lease at any time because he has 2 other businesses lined up that want my spot as a restaurant and he can charge them more." Again, I'm wondering why she thought he'd have her best interest at heart since it seems like he'd be just as happy to have her out of there.

OK, so he gives her a price. $100,000. One. Hundred. Thousand. Dollars. After seeing her tax returns and P&L's and stuff I knew what our answer was. Being open less then 3 years, she wasn't losing money per se but she wasn't clearing more then $6,000 (six thousand) a year either.

Just to be fair and get a more impartial opinion, we took the paperwork and the price to both our business broker and our accountant. The accountant said he'd slap us silly if we bought it. Our broker was more charitable and rational. After he stopped laughing, he said, "No way." He simply asked what were we getting for that price? For that much money, he posited, couldn't we open our own place and make it look like we wanted, carry what we wanted? "In fact," he asked, "Couldn't you open your own, the way you want, for much less?"

Indeed.

So, of course, we passed. Towards the end of our dealings with K, we started the process of buying the business I currently have. She didn't sell it (shocker) and she moved it again. I'm on her email list but I never got any notice of her moving. Apparently, neither did most of the people who frequented her place. We all thought she just closed her doors. It was until a couple of months later, when she sent out an email about her latest sale, that I knew she even still existed! She moved to downtown Parker in this little upstairs side shop. It's smaller then her original space but, still not as well-stocked as you would think.

One of the other interested parties for K's shop, J., did just what the broker asked us about. She decided that, for the money, she could open her own place and make it what she wanted. It was a very Fate oriented thing for her. She talked to a friend (who owns a shop in northern Denver) and others about the ethics of opening another shop in Parker (population about 40,000) and everyone told her to follow her heart and live her life. She found the perfect spot that she wanted but it wasn't really available. Someone else was looking at it for something else but the landlord said it wasn't a done deal and they were in "escrow". J said to herself that she'd give it until a certain date and if it didn't work out for that space, then that was that.

On the morning of J's arbitrary final date, the landlord called her and offered her the space. She opened her shop (late Dec? early Jan?) and it's fabulous!

If she'd waited a year or whatever to open, she wouldn't have been able to get this space that she wanted and if, by chance it was still available, there's no way she would've been able to get it for the same cost. It's near the movie theater and there's now plans in place to build a Brunswick Zone (giant bowling alley/fun center) in the open field in front of the theater. Upping the traffic significantly - also upping the price for new tenants in the area.

I was still going to both shops but eventually stopped going to K's place. I couldn't stand to listen to her. She would complain to anyone within earshot about the new store. She would bad mouth and spill bitterness in your ear every chance it came up. And believe me, if it didn't come up, she'd bring it up. I asked her why she was so mad at J in particular and K told me that J had her P&L's and used those to open her own place. With the dealings I had with K, trying to get paperwork out of her was like pulling teeth and I'm pretty sure whatever J might've had, wasn't all that accurate (if it's anything like what K gave me) and like I've already said, for the price K was asking? I would've done the same thing J did if I'd had the resources.

The last time I went into K's, she was at it again. Bitter, bitter, bitter. Complain, complain, complain. I couldn't take it anymore and finally told her, "K. Stop. You have to stop this! You guys aren't that far apart physically [about 2 miles, but in Parker, it's a world away] but you have completely different styles and Parker is only growing so there's plenty of business for everyone! You don't even carry the same stuff."

K: Well, well...she's carrying Berroco and Lamb's Pride. And she has Rowan and I don't know how she swung that since Rowan has territories. The Berroco guy told me she straight up lied about where her shop was going to be.
Me: OK. Let's be reasonable here. Every yarn store carries Berroco and Lamb's Pride and the Berroco yarns she has are completely different types then what you have! Rowan hasn't had territories in over a year now and like the Berroco, she has different Rowan yarns. And as far as the Berroco guy "lying", he's just covering his ass (or trying to avoid confrontation). I mean think about it, K, he had to ship that yarn somewhere and I'm sure he's got access to MapQuest. You have to stop worrying about her and run your business like a business.

After that, I stopped going to K.'s except for sales. The next sale I went to was a month after the conversation I'd had with her. I went because I wanted to get some Rowan (the only time I buy Rowan is on sale!) but it was all gone. I asked her where it was and she said she'd sent it back to Rowan - she didn't like the way they did business. She was always doing stuff like that. It seems like shooting yourself in the foot to me.

K closed her doors last month. Here's the letter she sent out about her closing:

Dear Friends of YarnArts:

As many of you already know, I have for quite a while been wanting to get out of the retail business to spend more time with my wonderful supportive husband and three children whom I adore.

So many people have asked me not to close because they love the cozy atmosphere and friendly, caring social aspects. But I stayed open mostly for the fantastic loyal friends that have helped me out at the store these past three years.

Sophia, Hanny, Pixie, Nancy, Kristina, Kathryn... I can't say "thank you" enough. I feel I have been truly blessed with their support and integrity of these trusting and honorable "gems" as one customer called them. You are all op-notch ladies with so much talent and willingness to help others, I could not have done it without you. Now, for the first time in three years, I will have some free time to actually learn from your awesome knitting and crochet artistry teachings.

Over the years I have met many wonderful customers, whom I now consider friends. Thank you for your patronage, it has been my honor and pleasure to serve the "commuKnitty". It's been an exciting and interesting ride, and I have learned many lessons about business (including how cutthroat it can be at times). I'm simply not competitive enough to play like that, it's not in my nature, nor do I have the desire to be like that. Many people have asked me what I want to do next. That's easy, I wish to take a walk to remember and smell the roses with my family and friends.

All my best wishes to those of you who have supported YarnArts. Thank you so very much.

It makes me sad that she had to get that last little dig in. "Cutthroat"?? "Competitive"? Really? J is the least cutthroat or competitive person I've met. When people would come into her shop and say that they were sad that K's place had closed, J would say, "Oh she's not closed! She just moved!" and would tell them how to get to K's new location (which also means that roughly 3 months after K moved, people still didn't know she'd moved and not closed). J would also refer people to K's (or any other store) for things K carried that J didn't have.

So, yea. She's closed. I'm sure she blames it on J but from what I've seen, she wouldn't have survived the year either way. I only say she blames it on J because to hear K tell it, that's how she feels. And don't get me wrong - I do understand how it can be frustrating and disappointing when you're trying to sell your business and then someone goes and opens competition close by.

I have very serious, very valid reasons for believing K wouldn't have survived the year either way. I've seen K's paperwork, I've seen how K runs her store - both behind the scenes and as a customer. If you've been open 3 years and you're not carrying knitting magazines? Why?? It wasn't until her final location that she finally got knitting mag's to sell. Ever since that first sale after her first announcement to sell last year, she hasn't replenished her addi turbo needle stock. At. All. She never fully restocked her yarns after that first sale either.

I went to her final sale (who can pass up a good sale?). I was there right when she opened that first day of her last sale. There were 2 yarns that had enough skeins to actually make a sweater (one had 2 colors with enough and the other had 3 colors with enough). That's how it always was with her place. One of the things K told me was that she learned to knit only about 6 months before she opened her shop. She saw a need in Parker and decided to fill it. Her shop had all kinds of novelty stuff and tons of felting wool. That's what she makes - scarves and felted bags. Once you were past the scarf and felted bag stage of knitting, there was really nothing else there for you.

So K and her "loyal" fans are completely poisoned against J. But my thinking is, a) they only have one side of the story and b) why not find out for yourself? Why be bitter about something that didn't even belong to you and why listen to someone who clearly couldn't see the other side? If K was honest with herself she'd admit that J's opening had very little to do with K's closing. At her second location, when I was talking to K about buying, I'd come to see her and she'd be laying down on her couch in the store, dozing. The couch was towards the back but still - you can't do that sort of thing! So unprofessional! And she was always telling me she didn't have time to do half the things she wanted to do with the store (like making the phone call necessary to have knitting mag's to sell) but, again, can't get much done if you're napping.

If you read all the comments on knitmap (the last of which, as of my last post, was asking about broomsticks), you read Marly/YarnThing's comment. She's so much more eloquent and diplomatic then I. I adore her! If you don't like J's shop or are unhappy with her opening or whatever, then don't go. Waste the expensive gas to go to shops that are 15 - 20 minutes away. But don't play little, bitter, sabotage games. It just makes you look small.

Which brings me to String in Highlands Ranch. WTF is going on out there? At one point, there were 63 snotty, mean comments on knitmap. Well, not all 63 - some were good. But whenever a person left a good comment, the mean girls would shred them. Then all the comments were gone and 3 new comments were left. One good, 2 mean. Erased again and already 6 mean comments (which may all be gone again, not sure). Let it go people! Why so bitter? If anyone has the backstory on that, I'd like to know (on your blog, not on mine - linky, linky). But either way, why try to sabotage the only game in your town? If you don't like it (policies, inventory, staff, whatever) - go somewhere else! If there's legitimate complaints (like how they never used to answer their phone. They do now.) fine but I just don't think knitmap should be the venue to be able to vent personal issues.

If knitmap were mine, I certainly wouldn't allow anonymous comments. Step up people, leave your name and if you have something bad to say then say it - don't hide behind a computer screen. And if there were obviously personal issues coming through, I wouldn't allow those comments to be published. That's just me though. When I rule the world....

I've linked to this backstory in the Purls of Wisdom comments section of knitmap so I'm fully expecting a vicious sh**storm. And I'm sure most of it will be anonymous. Bring it on. In fact, my personal email is under my pic on this blog. Let's have coffee and discuss it like adults.

Ready to weather it, Ruth!

P. S. Warned you it was long! Next week - yarn, I promise!