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My Love/Hate Relationship with Michaels, Pt. II

There's a lot to like, too.

by Anonymous (December 20, 2004)

(Note: In the Dec. 6 edition of Designing Perspectives, a Michaels employee complained about the company. In this edition, she talks about what she likes about Michaels. She remains anonymous, though, for obvious reasons.)

Michaels is a craft store and I love crafts. And it's all crafts; it's not a fabric store or a discount retailer. It's not filled with acres of cheap home decor. (Sorry Hobby Lobby, but those ceramic roosters just crow tacky to me.)

I love to walk down the aisles and check out the new products, the books, the magazines, the clearance aisle. I love to see the endcaps with beautiful displays of products that invite me to create. I love to see the new seasonal merchandise and all their possibilities.

And at my local Michaels I like the employees. They're hard working, they're friendly, they're funny. Before I worked there I didn't really know them because they're too busy to get to know the customers.

And I like the customers. There are the regulars who come in every week with coupon in hand, the young women planning their weddings, and the kids who can't wait to get to the classroom. There are the men who come in alone, with that air of desperation that just makes you want to help them. (And they do appreciate it.) There are the new moms who ask, "How do you do scrapbooking?" and depend on me to show them. There are the non-crafters who come looking for a solution to their household problems. And finally, the really creative crafters who amaze me with what they can do.

So the place and the people are why I stay, but the employees are leaving one by one and it's not the same store that it was a year ago. And it makes me frustrated that corporate looks only at these stores on paper, and not the people that run them.

(Note: To read previous columns, click on the titles in the right-hand column.

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