What exactly happened?

Five years ago, the paper crafting industry was a two and half billion dollar business. Now, thousands of scrapbooking stores have closed. Why? What really happened? What's your spin?

I think the market became over-saturated. So many companies, so many new lines each year and our scraprooms can only hold so much. As I look at what I have hoarded, my shopping has trickled down to fewer purchases. Yet I could still scrap for the rest of my life on what is stored in this room.
Just my 2 cents worth.

A friend of mine said the same thing. Everyone got to a point where they had too much!!
But some of the companies are making a comeback. Creative Memories came back and their new stuff is awesome.

I think the scrapping fad grew quickly, creating a new niche for vendors. Then, as those who hadn't gotten addicted moved on to the next fad, there wasn't enough business to support everyone. It makes me sad to see so many companies go out of business.

Hello ladies,
I agree.
This is my spin, actually the industry is booming, it never really stopped.
What happened was, the big companies shut, as Allan
Jackson's song, The Little Man.
The big Corps. Shut the little man down...
They can buy and sell cheaper in many quantities, where small scrapbook stores and smaller names can't keep up with the overhead...
Thanks for first asking your great questions

I agree with all the above, plus we have to consider time, or the lack of time.
There have been a lot of small stores going out of business. My take on that is; they were destined to fail when they started. They knew the hobby part, but not the business part.
Is there a Scrapbook Store Owners Association anywhere in the country? There should be. Every trade has an association, they all have or have had the same problems. They learn from each other, set trade and business standards.
I was a self employed carpet cleaner. I knew it all because I worked for a large cleaning company for 6 years, before I started mine. One of my equipment suppliers asked me to meet with a group of other owner/operators. I didn't want to sit down with the guys who wanted the same job I did. They are my competitors. He said "Suzy Homemaker has $100 of discretionary money. She can get her carpets cleaned or she buy a dress at Macy's. Who is your competitor?'
I learned so much from the Carpet Cleaners Institute of the Northwest, enabling me to run a very successful carpet & upholstery cleaning business for 20 years.

Independent physical scrapbooking stores would have been hard to keep in the face of economic decline.
The first thing that people cut when the wallet becomes smaller is the "unnecessary" things (travel, hobbies).

Shop owners have likely also discovered that it will cost them less to keep a shop online: it will let them reach a larger audience and keep down costs for shop space.

I'm thinking the same things as "Don1". A person may have a love of scrapbooking, but no real business sense. Trying to compete with the big stores is impossible on the exact same products. I would go to a local scrapbook store and see that they have the same product for sale that I could buy at Michael's with a coupon. They really can't compete with that. The successful ones, the ones still open, offer something/products the large stores don't.
Also, online business has very little overhead. These businesses are working out of their garage or empty bedroom, not renting space elsewhere.
Finally, since it is a hobby business, seeing it shift seems pretty normal to me. I can't even keep up with all the different styles and ways to make a layout!! LOL

Maybe the fad is declining people are on to new stuff like digital los etc. I've even noticed on here after returning to the site the forums aren't as busy as they used to be. At one time if you posted something in an hour it would be on the second page already. Now it seems I see the same posts for longer periods of time

Love everyone's thoughts and ideas.
I know everyone here is supporting scrapbook.com. It is so important to keep this wonderful online store going. I love the convenience of laying on couch ordering my favorite products.

My opinion is that they keep their pictures in their phones and hardly ever think of them and if they do they whip it out and scroll thru it. We used to print our pictures and had to have a place to put them so we could see them.

• Kel3 Said:

I've noticed that too.
I was on a scrap-hiatus for a couple of month due to lack of mojo, and now that I'm back the boards seem so much quieter...and that's only after 2 months! ... Makes me sad actually!

My opinion is that part of the hobby was just that: a hobby... and also a fad.

What will keep scrapbooking alive is the purpose for it: telling stories, remembering events, sharing them.

The scrapbooking might change in its shape and format (think Pocket pages, think digital scrapbooking) and businesses that are "stuck" on the format only and not on the purpose will have a harder time.

Back in the days, people had boxes filled with photos, physical printed photos. They could SEE them. Now, they are on the computer, on their phone, their tablet, and the photos are not "in the way" anymore.

Also, i think that the fact that people can take hundreds and thousands of pictures for every day or every event, makes those pictures somewhat less "special", so people might not care for them AS MUCH.

Those are just my random thoughts.

• southgirl Said:

Great observation!
I know I don't print pictures like I used to, I only print what I feel like scrapping at that moment.
It's the abundance of photos we take these days...
Which you think would be better, but it's worse, because the stress of organizing, uploading, printing, etc... is there.
Easier to just keep in your phone.
I know because when I think about doing all the other work my anxiety levels rise, LOL!
But I will eventually get them at least to my flash drive, and have already started doing so, even if I don't actually print them all.
I know friends who have like over 1,000 photos on their Facebook or Instagram but have never printed any of those photos and I'm pretty sure aren't storing them anywhere else either.
If they decided to print them I'm sure they'd go w/ those digital photo books you can order through an app.
Although to be fair "those people" I speak of aren't exactly the scrapbooking type anyway, LOL

I guess my point is technology is making it easier to stray away from the hobby

Doreena - Yes, you're right, the boards are quieter. Partially, I think, because they were made more difficult to find. It took time for all of us to find our way through the maze, and new customers probably won't even know these boards exist!

Donna, really a great question with many different answers.
I agree with all that's been said.

• NMscrapper Said:

UGH yes, I hate the extra step to find my favorite forums (and just the forums in general)!

I think this is a problem world wide. I live in Australia. When I first started there were lots of scrapbooking shops around selling only scrapbooking then they started selling beading supplies alongside their scrapbooking stuff. Next thing I knew they were all starting to close down. One of the reasons may have been they were trying to cater for two crafts and should have stayed with one. I now have no scrapbooking only stores nearby.

It's all true, scrapbooking is less popular, on-line is easier to buy (but you can't really see the colors) and bigger variety and the easy storage of pictures. A factor with the easy storage and volume of photos is that pictures are taken then never looked at again. Sorting them can be overwhelming and who knows if we will have the equipment to look at those photos in years to come. I print the ones I want to scrap and still enjoy the process.

I really don't think it's less popular either, every time I go to a scrap weekend or convention-I cant believe how many people are there! It was hard for the little guy to keep up with the new stuff-the big box stores don't have everything either but a lot-enough that you can always find what you want-and with their sales and coupons-it is just plain cheaper! Online is where to go to get the great new stuff--plus there is a surge of scrapbook collection/kit companies. The pool of vendors/companies/choices is huge--so how far can a person spread????-I also have enough that if I never set foot in a store again, I could scrap the rest of my life!!!

As far as it being quieter here, yes, it is much more hidden and difficult to find-I wrote to sb.com about my feelings on it......it is what it is!

I think that many of the reason some have said are true. we had 17 lss in my city since about 1998 & now we have 1 left I think lots of people love online shopping too now
my beautiful mother taught me to scrapbook when I was a kid. I adore all of the supplies now but I will still scrapbook the rest of my life... I can decorate the pages if there are no stores left

I just had another thought; how many, like me, have moved on from actually scrapbooking to other crafting such as smash books, altering, rubber stamping, and all the other crafty things going on.
Brings me back to the point of doing business versus doing a craft. I remember a closing statement at a seminar "It's your business, perpetuate or liquidate". The hobbies are changing, but the small stores are not.

I thank you for bringing up this topic. There are many companies that I loved and was so sad to see them go. Little yellow bicycle was amazing. Basic grey several others that disappeared. Some were bought out by big companies others closed. I travel far to go to a small store and I love to shop here on line. I also have too many supplies but I love this site and the lovely community. I hope it will keep up the great community. Sad to see some go... hope it will keep up forever.

My two cents.....
On the forum being quieter, I am not so sure that is indicative of a declining industry as perhaps we have other places to get information. You tube, blogs and periscope are filled with scrapbooking related posts.

Personally, I think scrapbooking is thriving, it's just changing. It seems like what used to be separate interest ( stamping, card making, mini albums, smash books, party decorations, home decor etc.) are combining into one paper industry. We use all the same products, it's just the next phase in the business growth cycle.

Jill - I really hope you're right!

As for me, I still love traditional scrapbooking. However, I am always interested in adding new things, like mixed media. Never been much into the whole digital thing.
I think that youtube and pinterest also serve as new sources of information, but still love reading posts on tried and true websites like scrapbook.com

I am a scrapbooker, but I also love making Pocketletters, tags, etc. it's all paper crafting. I am buying paper and embellishments like crazy!!

Great comments !!!
I agree.

I grew up and was raised on a farm, hard working generations in my family line.
We learned enguenty at a very young age, I'm so thankful for that lesson, easy, it was not!

I have always loved to create, and for me, it's truly about taking those VERY SPECIAL MOMENTS, or truly a great picture and creating a lasting layout, to pass down to my family, those precious grandchildren of mine, will someday cherish the memory:)

Also, such a great stress release, getting lost in the scrapping world, that's to me, why I love paper crafting!

Some great observations,and right on target! Having spent 10 years in the industry as a Manufacturer's Rep, I believe it's a combination of several things.

1. I do still believe there are thousands of creative people who still find this a gratifying hobby.

2. Out of the 28 stores I used to service, I'd say 4 of them had any business acumen. They were hobbyists who saw opportunity in this new market.

3. Same story for vendors, a lot of them were hobbyist, who started companies in their garages with family and a few friends. In the hey days there were over 350 scrapbook companies.

In general, Brick and mortars couldn't compete with coupons from Big Box stores. I do think there were opportunities that were missed in Marketing and Advertising (brand building). Most store owners started out on shoestring budgets too. Most stores,featured an owner and 3 -5 part time positions. In today's market, an owner, 3 full time positions (one of which is totally devoted to blogging, and other social media platforms, and one to run a Design team, coordinate classes etc) and a few part timers. This Industry is still about building community!

And to answer someone's earlier post, yes, Scrapbook Retailer was an awesome Industry publication!

What I observed in stores also was a distributor called, Notions, started electronically telemarketing stores. Owners, thinking they were buying smaller quantities at a better price bought into the idea, which essentially cut out the rep. We were the specialist for our Manufacturer's. There are 2 stores left in East Tennessee, both of which took advantage of the knowledge a rep can give them, booked classes, took inventories, introduced new products monthly in person and worked side by side at trade shows. I really think Notions kind of dumbed down the industry, which turned out badly for independent stores!

I've dreamed about owning a store for about 14 years. I haven't let it go yet! I do think it would take a lot more now to make it work, than ever before!!

My $ .02 worth!

A friend shared these statistics with me the other day.

-53% of people have not printed a photo in 12 months
-70% of people don't have photo albums
-42% no longer print photos at all

I think much of this explains the decline in many scrapbooking stores. We have a generation coming up who stores all their photos on digital devices and don't believe in the tangible, the holding of a photo or the turning of a page in a photo/scrapbook album.

It's the same reason for the decline in CDs, DVDs, and books. Everything is going digital, so many brick and mortar stores are closing shop. It makes me sad.

• joshuaminh426 Said:

Wow! Thanks for sharing...

Three kinds of lies; white lies, darned lies & statistics.

Digital photography. Ease of making photo books. It is no longer a trendy hobby.

Well we need to start recruiting people into scrapbooking!!

• bonprof Said:

Yes indeed@!

Yes, I agree! We need more scrapbookers! Most of my scrapbooking friends don't scrapbook anymore. I still enjoy scrapbooking and doing other paper crafting very much. I don't get to do it as much as I use to, but I'm still at least making cards or small projects for presents at some point during every month. I only have a small space to keep my supplies so I am finding that I am running out of room to store my large albums, maybe that's why I don't do 12x12 layouts much these days...hummm! When I first started scrapbooking many moons ago my surrounding area had some awesome shops now they are mostly gone which is kinda sad, although we do still have one wonderful store left and the lady who runs it will do her best to order anything in for you.
Anyways, these large stores do seem to push the small stores out...and that's not right!!

The title on this interested me and I like all the comments.

Personally, over the past 8 years MANY people lost the higher paying jobs they used to have. Now many in my age group are working two (some 3) lower paying jobs to make those ends meet. This leaves less time for hobbies and less money for frivolities.

My position finally got hit this February so even I have gone from a couple hundred every quarter to 20.00 every other month and a good sale.

For those of you that save digital - please consider printing your favorites:

1. The first cloud crashed this year and it was a severe hardware fail. NOTHING was able to be recovered.
2. More people lose their valuable photos each year than a decade of house fires lose.
3. Those who back up on external drives forget to go back to those external drives and update software so their pictures can still be access in 5 or 10 years.
4. When they're in our phones or laptops we just don't enjoy them as much (ok that's a personal comment as I don't enjoy them as much)

I dont' think the industry is dead, just changing. I think the eventual evolution to online shopping makes it harder for the local scrapbook stores to be physically viable

The title of this post intrigued me being that I am literally re-entering the world of scrapbooking after taking a 4 year break to pursue a career in nursing. I must say upon my return, I have found A LOT of changes. I had no idea manufacturing companies were closing and kit clubs were closing ect. I have even found many online forums to be gone or empty. I have such a passion for scrapbooking that I have found this really disheartening.

Jenifer Evans

I think it has run it's course. It was really trendy for awhile then the market just got saturated. I love the process but also gave it up for many years. Just par for the course. How many hobbies have their own dedicated stores? They are few and far between. The big box stores can carry the latest and greatest for lower prices. Sad for those of us who still love to create beautiful layouts with real live photos