2 Florida Woodcraft Closings

[tmaddi]

Our local Sarasota Woodcraft closed about a year ago, so I thought while I was heading down to Ft.Myers I would stop in the local Woodcraft. Checked their hours online and found out that they closed their doors for good on Friday. Looked around and saw that the Pompano Fl. store closed its doors Friday also. Just thought I would get the word out so no one wasted a trip.
Tom

[Northwest29]

How unfortunate. There is always something I didn't know I needed until I walk into a Woodcraft store.

[rcurtism]

That is to bad. We only have one Wood craft in Minnesota and I would hate to see it go. We have a ton of Rocklers but they do not have the selection in carving tools And to be totally honest they seem to be more intrested in selling thier house brand stuff then the quality brands out there. I guess the internet is killing a lot of these smaller franchise stores and it is a shame.

[richipper]

I was just in Buffalo NY and the WC store there closed this month. The local Rockler was open and fairly busy.
We have 3 WC in Colorado and two are owned by the same people... I think one or both are for sale... looks like a bad time to get in with all the closures. Not that I have that kind of money.
Richard

[davidinsarasota]

Thanks tmaddi, you probably saved me a wasted hour trip to Ft Meyers. Since the Sarasota store closed I make the occasional trip to Clearwater, but had considered changing it up for Ft Meyers soon. Won't be doing that. I wonder if there is one in Tampa?

[Paul_Guraedy]

Curt, I agree that the small franchise stores seem to be going through a rough period; but, only part of it is the fault of the internet. These type stores depend on a lot of walkin traffic. I shopped one when my position required several trips to Denver each year. I bought some items, but not much because they were usually higher priced than the on-line stores that I had to use in the interim. In fact, I would have had to use the on-line stores anyhow to get the items that Woodcraft stores did not carry.

I used to go to a small non-franchise store in Omaha, NE when I visited there. They cater to woodworkers more than woodcarvers but had a nice selection everything but tools where the selection was limited. Had a large selection of wood. They also had their own website and I ordered that way several times. Especially carving wood of unusual species. They are doing quite well I believe. So I suspect part of the problem is the franchise aspect.

[carvingbarn]

Sad. They lost the Woodcraft store in Mobile about a year ago. There is really nothing but the big box stores in this area now. No where to buy carving type supplies.

[Gulf Coast Handyman]

Originally Posted by davidinsarasota

Thanks tmaddi, you probably saved me a wasted hour trip to Ft Meyers. Since the Sarasota store closed I make the occasional trip to Clearwater, but had considered changing it up for Ft Meyers soon. Won't be doing that. I wonder if there is one in Tampa?

None in Tampa Dave, I make the 1 hr trip to Clearwater every so often. I wish they had a better selection of Pfeil. Sad to hear about the closing of the other stores.

Dave

[Eddy-Smiles]

Dave.... If Woodcraft nationally is anything like Woodcraft locally, then it's not hard to understand why they are losing stores. Personally I think that any demise of Woodcarft stems from poor management and lousy marketing but that's just my own opinion!

[davidinsarasota]

I agree about the local managers/owners, Eddy. The ones I've observed seem to treat the customers like they are the enemy. Woodcraft owners ought to be out front, shaking hands, remembering names, etc, instead of acting like we (the customers) are delinquents in a video game arcade.

Nationally, I think Woodcraft does an excellent job. I believe they are a sponsor of this site. I get a full color ad every month, and it always has some woodcarving products on sale. The magazine is excellent. It sponsors a "Tips and Tricks" contest every month (which I won one month--$200 gift certificate, bought a Foredom TX), and they give you 10% your entire purchase on your birthday.

One policy that may push a lot of dealers over the edge is that they require their franchisees to carry full lines of their products, but that policy benefits us customers quite a bit.