2016 UPDATES!! Please take a look! Shipping, Low Dollar, Store....

Happy New Year everyone!
I thought I would do a quick update to all of you about that is new for us at Metal Designz in 2016!

Shipping Rates --January is the nasty time of year that Canada Post jacks up all their rates. Luckily they left our stamp prices the same at $0.85, and therefore all letter prices should stay the same. Unfortunately this doesn't include oversize padded mailers that we use for jump rings and kits. So we will be working carefully over the next couple weeks to make sure the new rates are working correctly with our website site. It's always our goal for the shipping you pay to be exactly what it costs us to ship to you.  We do not want to profit on the shipping and if there is ever an overage, we apply it right back to you as a store credit so you can use it your next order automatically.

Price increases appear to be a couple of dollars on light packets to the USA and Internationally.  They also changed the weight restriction on the packets- Pricing used to start at 0-150g.. now they start at 200g - so I have already adjusted that with our website... we will continue to tweak and make sure it's working perfect!

Canadian Dollar -- At a 12 year low - $0.69 to the US dollar. I know some of you are tired of hearing me talk about the low dollar.  What this means for us as Canadians is that it costs us $1.45 in our currency to spend $1USD. So prices are increased 45% for us just in currency change. This means as I restock tools, beads and other supplies that we are buying from a US dollar source, our prices will have to go up to cover these extra expenses.  We have a big plan to add a new line of colours in Anodized Aluminum.  But unfortunately the anodizer we use is in the USA - so the costs are now 45% higher, as is the shipping!! So it really doesn't make much sense to make that move until our dollar stops free falling.

This really is a good time for American customers to order from us! As your strong dollar goes 45% further on our website than our competitors! Postal shipping does take 1-2 weeks on average, but the savings should be worth the wait.

BIGGEST CHANGE - We are closing our Broadway Store front in March when our lease expires.  We are not going out of business!! We are simply changing our game plan, and responding to the events around us.  We tried to negotiate with our landlord, who wouldn't give us a real rent number, other than our rent was going to increase by at least 33% -- but our building manager wouldn't even discuss it.  We gave our notice to leave in March and began searching for a new location. Unfortunately the commercial rent costs in Saskatoon are still ballooning even though there are many vacancies all over the city.  We decided it made more sense for our business, our family, and our sanity to revert to being an ONLINE BUSINESS ONLY.  We are really excited about this upcoming change.  We will be saving a ton of money that was spent on overhead once we close the store, and because we won't have to deal with repackaging stock to hang on the walls, we will have more time to update the website, make new kits and designs, and concentrate on new product lines.  We worked 6 days a week, and sometimes 7 for about three years until we decided to close on Mondays.  This means we can go back to Monday - Fridays and we will have our weekends to spend with our family.  We thank our local customers that helped make our store and classes successful.  We feel badly that we couldn't find a store front solution, as we know our store will leave a gap in local shopping options, but we hope our locals will make an account on our website!!  Local shipping options will be very reasonable, as most orders can go letter mail and will take a day or two to be delivered.  Our phone number will remain the same, and we will still attend many of the local shows we always have. SALES ARE ALREADY STARTING IN THE STORE! We are selling out all gift items from the front of the store - PURSES, PHOTOS, HATS, SOAP STONE KITS, Back Issues of Beading Magazines!!! We have even brought in some fantastic stone items... Mortar and Pestles, Salt Lamps, book ends, we are clearing out everything on sale!  We have lots of Grid and hooks, as well as all our display cases for sale as well!Be sure to stop in soon!!

Website additions- We are always tweaking and working with our website to make it as user friendly as possible. We are hoping to implement a customer rewards program in the near future. We are also looking at adding a Featured Artist type promo where we help share tutorials and kits from that our customers create. We will have more time in the spring after the store closes to work on these new exciting plans!!

Thanks for reading! Stay warm and keep your pliers busy!
Shelley & Joseph