The Million Dollar Question

What a paper chat fest I have had over the last 24 hours. As many of you know the Dallas based manufacturer, Cross My Heart, closed their doors yesterday and is filing bankruptcy. This could be a direct effect of the money that they were owed by Swoozie's and declining sales for the company over the past few years. I knew that once Swoozie's filed it was only a matter of time before this started to happen. Last year was a tough enough year for manufacturers and then top it off with your biggest customer closing... disaster. CMH closing really makes me sad for all the people who have depended on this business for so many years. Stores have depended on them for great designs and to be their "go-to" line when a customer needs an item that is not on the shelf. Rosanne Beck, the owner of Cross My Heart, had some of the best hand drawn invites out there- and those are going to be very very missed.

Last night I was chatting it up with a Stationery friend about the recent events with Swoozies, Sweet Pea, Prints Well, and now CMH. After speculating who is next in line, she asked me, "The Million Dollar Question" which is "What can good people (manf./reps/retailers) do to help each other out?" I have now had about 12 hours to really think about this question and I think it is a valid one. When all this crazy Swoozie's trickle down is over there are going to be some big players out of the game and how do we move forward from here being better and stronger than before? The only thing that I keep thinking about is The Golden Rule. If you treat others how you want to be treated shouldn't you come out on top? Stop and really think about that. I could list 1,000,000 reasons how this should apply to certain people in this business (I like my job too much to name names!) I just think that everyone has to think more about their business and their customer relations. Oh times they are a changin'!!!