Thoughts for the Makers

As you may have heard, Etsy sellers have seen an increase in their fees this week. I haven't spoken to our Maker Members with Etsy shops about the increase to know their thoughts (I just heard the news this morning), but I might just have some thoughts of my own...

Fun Fact: I had an Etsy shop, myself, back in the day.

That day was some years before The Loop and try as I might, it just wasn't for me. I came to realize that I really just wanted to knit cool things and have people magically see them and say "hey, that's cool, lemme buy that".

It turned out that having an Etsy shop didn't absolve you of all that behind-the-scenes work of owning your own business as I'd hoped it would. Aside from all the planning and supply shopping and making of the stuff, not to mention the picture taking and description writing and bookkeeping and other business-y things, you still had to get out there and hustle to be found!

And that, my friends, is why I love having makers in The Loop - so that all of you can easily find local makers worth supporting.

Now, I'm not here to say anyone should boycott anything because, frankly, it's the makers who would suffer the most. But I am here to say that we have makers in The Loop with Etsy shops or with their own online shops or with their stuff out and about in some local shops (and one farmstand), and each and every one of those makers hustles like you wouldn't believe.

So if you're understandably squeamish about makers having to give up more of the income they hustle so hard to earn, go ahead and check them out anyway. They might just have other options, and they deserve to be found.

See for yourself in the sampling from all our Maker Members below, then find them in The Loop to learn more!