BUSINESS OF THE WEEK: HOUSE of CRAFTS

0 Comments | La Crosse Tribune, Jul 22, 2002 | by Cahalan, Steve

A dozen years after they started the business, Dan and Robin Kohls have completed a major expansion and remodeling project and expanded product lines at the Ben Franklin Crafts store at 2442 State Road in the Village Shopping Center.

The project, which was completed in the spring, involved expanding to the west into the space that was occupied by the Great Army-Navy Outdoor Gear store until it closed last fall. After taking over the 3,600square-foot space, Ben Franklin Crafts has about 12,000 square feet of sales area.

The store opened in April 1990 in part of the former Woolworth store and added 4,000 square feet of space (the rest of the former Woolworth's space) in 1995.

"We needed more space," Dan said of the latest expansion.

The store has added a few employees because of the expansion and now has 12 full-time and about 20 part-time employees. It will add about eight more employees for the busy fall and Christmas seasons.

"We have a friendly, knowledgeable staff," Dan said, adding that has been a major factor in the store's success.

The Village Shopping Center has been a good place to do business, said Dan, who also is president of the Village Merchants Association. The shopping center underwent a $1 million renovation in 1999 and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2000.

"We've seen the center grow in strength and traffic count after the years," Dan said. "It's a neighborhood shopping center, but yet much more than that. We have people from at least a 100-mile radius that shop in our store," including customers from Iowa; Rochester, Minn., and Eau Claire, Wis.

Ben Franklin Crafts greatly expanded its scrapbook and art rubber stamp departments, which occupy most of the space that was added in the spring. It also expanded its seasonal merchandise (such as lawn and garden statuary and floral bushes), gifts, quilting fabric and supplies and kids' crafts areas.

"It's the hottest new trend out there," Dan said of scrapbooking and art rubber stamps, which often are used in scrapbook projects. "We have thousands of choices in paper" for scrapbook projects, he said.

The store has offered scrapbooking classes for a few years, and the number of people attending them has increased since the expansion.

Most scrapbook supply sales are to females. "They're all the way from teen-agers to grandmothers," Robin said.

The store also has added some specialty yarns with the expansion, she said. "College kids are getting into knitting and crocheting," she said.

The store's gift area has been enlarged and has more items with more themes. Soy candles that burn longer and without producing soot are a popular new product line.

"Mothers are coming in and looking for crafts to do with their kids," Robin said of the increase in the kids' craft area. It has such items as puzzles, paint-by-number sets and foam material that can be used to make crafts.

Sales of crafts that the entire family can make together have increased since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Dan said.

The store also offers custom framing, as well as such things as greeting cards, home decor, painting supplies, a floral department and a bead department.

The Kohls buy items from more than 500 vendors and travel to five national merchandise shows each year to buy products for their store.

"We're able to bring a very unique variety of merchandise to our store," Dan said. "It keeps us different-it's our niche."

Dan, 44, and Robin, 43, both were raised in Sparta, Wis. His parents, Bud and Sally Kohls, operated the Ben Franklin store in Sparta from 1970 until they sold it to Dan and Robin in 1985. Dan and Robin had worked at the store before they bought it.

The couple closed the Sparta store in 1992.

Dan said he and Robin opened the La Crosse store in 1990 because, "We wanted a market to open a complete crafts store."

Their sons, Brent, 19, and Tyler, 16, occasionally help at the La Crosse store.