Bead Box-ing

Bead down

I speculated earlier that Off the Beading Path, the bead store (yes, they exist) at 18th and Douglass might be headed toward closure.  Sure enough, a week or so ago signs went up announcing the final days of the store, and the closing countdown started.  Last Wednesday was the last day of the clearance with the markdowns topping out (bottoming out?) at 75% off.

(Although sadly those swank Swarovski martini glasses that were something like $600 for a pair only went to half off.  At 75% off they still would have been about $150, which is certifiably insane for 2 glasses, right?  But somehow when you say 75% off it seems like you can't say no... Fortunately I didn't have to suffer that temptation.)

What's up next for the site?  Well, beads -- a frivolous, decorative, cheap item -- didn't last in this low-foot-traffic area, so what would you suggest instead?  Well of course, it has to be music boxes -- a frivolous, decorative, but expensive item!

Just your neighborhood snowglobe shop

Signs are up saying that the new resident will be The San Francisco Music Box Company, which in spite of its name is not a local store but a mall chain store which sells not only music boxes, but waterglobes, jewelry boxes, and figurines.  They specialize in mass-produced heirloom-ish kitschery, often with pop-culture tie-ins such as "I Love Lucy" and "Phantom of the Opera," both of which are highlighted in the posters up at the store.  In my mind I associate The San Francisco Music Box Company with the false, prefab sentimentality of Thomas Kinkade and the lowest-common-denominator appeal of "Parade" magazine.  (Interestingly, a Thomas Kinkade carousel is the feature item on the SF Music Box web page.)

I'm not sure, but I think the new store is owned by the same guy who owns (owned) Off the Beading Path, which had been moving in a very music-box direction for a while, with more figurines and such all the time.  At one point the owner shut down OtBP for a week or so as he opened another store on Pier 39.  A quick check of the SFMBC website shows that they have two stores on Pier 39 (how many "Wizard of Oz" trinket boxes do these tourists need?!) so I wonder if one of these is run by the bead guy, and now he's just streamlining his business by combining concepts for the Pier 39 store and the Castro store.  Just speculation, but it seems reasonable.

If it is the same owner, he seems like a nice guy, and he did try hard with the bead store.  The bead store went through a notable revolution in its presentation and merchandising, making the store and the product much more attractive and customer-friendly over time, so I always applauded him for trying hard and apparently learning how to do retail better.  I wish him well with the trinket-slinging, but I have to admit that I'm pessimistic.  It seems like you need a lot of foot traffic to sell a single $130 music box, and this is just not the site for that.