What Does It Mean to Us to Be a Boutique Bead Store?

 Hello Everyone!

Many of you have probably heard us say that we consider ourselves a boutique bead store. But, what does that mean? 

Well, being a boutique store can mean a lot of things. To us, we use this term to mean that we specialize in customer service, product quality, and community. For example, when you email us, you’ll always get a reply from one of the owners. We don’t outsource our customer service or have others who take care of it for us. We (William and Andrew) handle it ourselves. It’s important to us that we keep in touch with what’s happening and with your needs. 

We also source our own stones, beads, and supplies. We travel the country going to shows and building long-term relationships with vendors who we can trust. That means we hand-pick nearly everything we sell. If it’s not good enough to use in our own creations, we don’t sell it to you. 

We buy in small quantities. We’re the place you come to when you’re looking for something unique. We’re not out there buying 700 of the same strand and selling it to everyone. We pick the best 3-4 strands of most styles that we bring into the store; this means that we evaluate and only pick the best of the best from our vendors. It also means that you get the most unique styles in the best quality. 

It doesn’t mean we’re expensive. When people hear boutique anymore, it brings to mind something like “expensive”. To us, it means that we cater to building the craft and hobby. We are here for all levels whether you’re just starting out or you’re looking for that extra-special something. In fact, most of our weekly in-store classes cater to beginner and intermediate makers! 

It means we try to offer a lot to our audience. Whether you’re local to our brick and mortar or you’re on the other side of the world, we try to make sure we reach out to everyone. That may be through our live broadcasts on Facebook and YouTube each weekday or our Saturday Morning Tutorials to help get your weekend started off creatively! We have a number of different Facebook Groups that you can join to hang out with like-minded people, and we hold virtual hang-outs on Zoom nearly every month where everyone can make things together! Community is the most important thing to us, and we do our best to build and foster those relationships. 

That’s a little bit about what we mean when we say we’re a boutique bead store. We think it’s something that the world is seeing less and less of, but we’re still here holding down our little fort (in our fort town). We believe it’s important. We believe service to the community is important. We believe quality at all prices is important. We know that sometimes we can’t match the pricing of the big stores. We can’t buy as low as them to sell as low as them. But, we think we offer something that’s equally, if not more, important—trust. You can trust us that we’ll go the distance for you. That’s what we believe being a small business should be. It’s about a family making a living. It’s about working to help our neighbors and community members. It’s about reaching out and making sure people don’t feel alone no matter where they are. It’s about the strength of spirit and the love of the craft. It’s about doing things right and doing them together. That’s what we strive for each and every day. 

We hope you’ll join us on this journey. We can’t do it without you—nor would we want to. 

Your friends,

William & Andrew

PS…For all the groups and events we mentioned, please visit the Links page and Calendar of Events page on our website.