Monopoly - The Craft Game

Holy Crap - I thought monopolies were against the law! Isn't that why they forced Ma Bell to break up? isn't that why we have so many different cable companies/phone services/gas stations?

here's one they missed:

DRG History
"DRG is headquartered in Berne, Indiana and owned by the Muselman family. The Muselmans started the business in 1925 with the founding of Economy Printing Concern in Berne. EP Graphics, as it's known today, is still owned by the family."

I mean, great for them -- I would love to have a company that lasts for three generations.

but this family has been quietly buying up our choices ... the own: House of White Birches, The Needlecraft shop, Annie's Attic, Clotilde, and the American School of Needlework

Have you been wondering why that patterns offered out there seem to have stagnated or are beginning to look pretty much alike?? THAT'S WHY.

One company has nearly cornered the market out there.
I was really surprised when I saw that they acquired Clotilde - it is a company that if I can't find it anywhere else I will look there, so obviously I don't check it out too often ... but this year when I went to just glance around I found they had totally changed - they had hardly anything compared to what I was used to.

It was like walking into the Kmart of sewing stores - 'if they don't look hard enough they won't know we're going down the drain' - it was awful! Maybe it was just that they didn't have what I was expecting ... maybe they were just updating the site ... but it certainly wasn't anything like it was when I first ran into the company.

Annies Attic too -- now when AA was purchased from White Birches back in the 90's I found a big change in their services, in fact to the point to where I had stopped ordering from them. Which was really too bad because I loved their patterns.
kept their Crochet Newsletter as long as I could ... although I started noticing that most of the patterns would wind up in pattern books within a year and it got to the point of 'why spend $ on a subscript if I can get them in a book for cheaper?' ... they whole point of the subs is to get EXCLUSIVE patterns that you can't get any where else.

But if you have noticed the dullness of the crafting world lately -- now you know why. One company is running the majority of it all.