Last winter, Anything Joe's Personalized Gifts for Kids, made the big decision to close their retail locations in Myrtle Beach, SC to focus on serving customers through their website,  and return to their roots, doing regional craft shows and "market shows" with the Junior Leagues across the south with a few Southern Womens Shows thrown in the mix.

"Closing a brick and mortar retail location with a twelve year history was a big decision, but with the economy soft, we felt it was a great time to take a break from the twelve hour days, seven days a week we had found ourselves trapped into being in the high traffic tourist resort town of Myrtle Beach.  Instead of re-signing our expensive lease option for another five years, we found a great space for our studio with enough room for a 'Showroom' so our loyal customers can still come in person to see the product, what's new and order just as they always have.  We are supplementing our online sales with the summer craft appearances while at the same time, continuing to market our web site, http://www.anythingjoes.com."

At the summer craft shows, more emphasis is placed on "crafty" gifts, so the artists spend extra time painting canvas artwork, bulletin boards and canvas door signs which can be personalized right at the craft show.   Many of the 1000 plus items we feature on the web site are not a fit at craft shows.  At these shows we focus on our hand painted canvas items.

The early spring was filled with at least two weekends a month at Junior League Spring Markets in Louisiana and Alabama and the Southern Shows, Southern Womens Shows took them to Savannah, Raleigh, Charlotte and Nashville.   This summer they are only doing about one large outdoor craft show per month.   Owner, Joe Bushardt says, "I love crafting, it is how I began when I was a teenager and I still love connecting with the people, painting on the spot, seeing kids smile!  But while the outdoor craft shows can a lot of fun, they are taxing due to the long day and heat.  It's worth in though because we also are telling folks about our web site and we always see repeat orders online from an area we have done a show.  It's all a part of building your brand however you can."

Summer shows are as follows:
 June 19      Ridge Peach Festival, Trenton, SC
 July 3-5      NC Fourth of July Festival,  Southport, NC
July 9-10     NC RibFest  Ashville/ Fletcher, NC
July 15-25  Water Festival  Beaufort, SC
August 6-8, 2010 Craftsmen's Classic™ Arts & Crafts Festival Myrtle Beach
August 13-14  Snead's Ferry Shrimp Festival  Snead's Ferry, NC  

The fall will begin another round of Junior League Markets and Holiday Shows in Raleigh, NC, Fayetteville, NC,  Columbia, SC, Florence, SC, Charlotte, NC to name the highlights.  The full fall schedule will be released soon to be available on their website, www.anythingjoes.com

As our new operation continues to develop, we are looking to see if considering a home party plan direct selling program is of interest to our customers.  We can envision friendly home parties where our loyal customers who love what we do become our first home party consultants.

Our customers have asked us for years to consider shop at home party opportunities.  We are doing one ourselves this weekend in Charleston, SC to see just how this could operate for Anything Joe's.    We will keep you posted, but please post a comment on this blog or click on our Facebook Page to pass on your thoughts!

We have been on the road all spring, mostly doing Junior League Markets and the Southern Women's Shows.  These are more "market" than craft shows.   This summer we are in search of outdoor craft shows until our JL Market season starts up again in the fall.

For the first time in our lives as Anything Joe's we have heard the comment, "You just aren't crafty enough".  As you know, all of our gifts are hand painted to order, but we do not make every thing we paint on.  Sometimes we paint on plastic lap trays, sometimes a wooden jewelry box or a storage box.  To the promoters of many craft shows, these items are considered "buy/sell" and while our customers love them we cannot get into these  "juried" arts and crafts shows because of this.  You would think that our gifts would pass because to our artists a plastic tray or wooden plaque or box is our canvas.  The designs are hand painted and original artwork.  VERY FEW artists make their own canvases, and I don't know of a single photographer that makes photo paper.  But still it is their show....

So we have developed a new line of products, completely hand crafted.  We will be presenting these items at the Arts and Craft Shows this summer.  So as not to confuse the promoters of these events, we have a brand new web site:  www.AJADesignWorks.com  The items featured there are artist canvases that we are painting with acrylic paints on canvas board.  Each one done from scratch with brush painting and they will be personalized at the shows.  If you are interested in ordering these, you must call to order.  The process to do this is listed on that website.

If you have leads on shows that we could attend this summer, or ideas on marketing to craft show promoters, please let us know!

Sad but true, the Barefoot Landing location is closing after almost 12 years!  BUT WE ARE NOT GOING OUT OF BUSINESS!!!  Quite the contrary.  We will be focusing on our web site, still offering you the best in Personalized Gifts for Children.  We will also be "returning to our roots" by going on the road, doing craft, Holiday and Women's shows from here to Florida, and all the way out to Texas!!  As you may know, this is how we began.

 Soon we will be posting information on a North Myrtle Beach location for local drop off and pick up too, so please make sure you are part of our Email family.

We feel this will be a sad surprise for many, so we wanted to have a post for you to share your comments!