Hi everyone,
Just wanted to give you fair warning that there will be a print ad (our first, woohoo!) for Hyena Cart in the “Home Delivery” section of the March / April issue of Mothering. It will look something like this:
I was originally going to make it a surprise, but then I decided you all might like some advanced warning so you can make sure to have some items in-stock. I believe that issue will hit the newsstands on March 1. We’ll see what happens 🙂
In addition, I’ve posted some buttons and banners on the HC Marketing page. Please consider posting these on your websites, blogs, forums, etc.
So how does all this marketing activity square with our fears regarding the CPSIA? Here’s my personal opinion (not official HC policy or anything — just my take as a shop owner): I am doing the due diligence to ensure that any products I sell are lead-free. The more research I do, the more I realize that cloth, wool, thread, etc. are as lead-free as it gets. These materials just don’t contain lead. Nor do any of the commonly used acid dyes (Prochem, etc.) contain lead. Thus, I will continue to list my items as I always have. Maybe with a little extra information explaining why they are lead-free (I mean, that’s always good to know, right?) But I am not going to let a poorly written law render my perfectly safe items illegal. Law makers and the CPSC are realizing the flaws in their document, and, I believe, are working to correct them. But in the meantime, I am going to continue with business as usual, whether they correct the flaws before Feb. 10 or not. Here’s a great link that was posted on the HC Forums a little while ago. It is a letter to the CPSC from the House of Representatives. In this letter, the House urges the CPSC to add an exemption to the law for “… children’s books that have no unusual components or materials beyond those of an ordinary book,” and “… children’s apparel that consists entirely of dyed or undyed fabric that is unlikely to contain excess amounts of lead and does not include metal, plastic, or painted components that may contain amounts of lead in excess of the law’s limits.” This would be in addition to the already proposed amendments which would exempt gemstones, untreated wood, and natural (undyed) fibers.
Thanks everyone!
YAY!!!
I added one fo the banners to my blog.
Oh this is awesome! I’m so glad to see HC in Mothering!
Fantastic!! CONGRATULATIONS to all you HC WAHMS!!
Awesome!! I hope the ad brings TONS of traffic to everyone!
Thank you Karen!
Way to go! This will certainly help serve as a reminder to myself, not to miss out on theses great WAHM products! Technological advances rock! Haste makes waste, better get those mommy fingers moving now!
Well, continue to sell without following the law, but do it at your own risk. At least you know the consequences.
WOOHOO!!!! I hope that it generates tonnes of traffic to all the very deserving WAHM!!!!!!
Thanks Karen for continuing to make this the best place to shop and sell on the web! I agree with your stance on the CPSIA and will be following suit as well. I think 2009 will be a great year for us!
Well, I wish you luck in your act of commercial disobedience but there’s tons of people who’ll be newly unemployed who won’t hesitate to mention it. Jennifer Taggert (an attorney, thesmartmama.com) says businesses who ignore the law also risk being sued by their competitors for unfair trade practices.
As owner of Hyena Cart, you should know you’re exposed to even greater liability beyond that of your own products. I know that both Etsy and Ebay are toeing the line because they know that there’s people waiting with bated breath to sue for injury; the lawyers are already lining up waiting for 2/10/09. Lawyers don’t care about the individual vendors who don’t have any money but the platform that failed to police those sales. Iow, you could be on the hook for just not only your products but all of Hyena Cart. While you’re willing to risk yourself on your own products, would you have the same level of confidence in everyone else’s products on HC? I hate to say it but in a manner of speaking, you’re a victim of your own success -meaning you’re big enough to be a target. In your case, as a platform, Etsy and Ebay could sue for unfair trade practices.
whatever happened to community spirit? civil disobedience in the name of a good cause? fear of corporate america and their attack-dog lawyers will cripple us all in the end.
i think karen has the right attitude. 🙂
love the ad and looking forward to seeing it in Mothering!
Karen,
Thanks for being so smart and informed. Thanks for not being alarmist. Thank you, thank you, thank you for putting on your thinking cap and thinking this through logically. And thank you for being a tremendous mountain of strength while chaos swirls around this issue.
“Personal leadership is the ongoing process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with those most important things.”
Stephen Covey
How wonderful!! Mothering will be such a fantastic match! *skips off to put a button on my blog* 🙂
Yippee! How exciting. Thank you for the advance notice too. Love the ad, beautiful. That is very nice of you. Now off to plan to stock my store, lol.
Very very well said Kathleen!
I hate for them to have this big ad in Mothering then the whole thing shut down because of Karen’s disregard of the law. It’s not like Karen can retract it, it’s been copied all over the internet and easy to find in the future on the WayBack machine. http://www.archive.org/web/web.php . It’s not really fair to her sellers to open her site to this sort of thing. I’m glad I switched a long time ago.
Thanks for the ad in Mothering!!
To those naysayers, you can say anything you’d like. You may follow whatever way you choose. Everyone has the right to make their own choice. N one is critisizing you for yours. And if you aren’t apart of HC, why even be here?
Some of us used to be members here Valarie. Karen has gone over the line so far and so many times we couldn’t stay. We don’t shop here nor sell. Maybe the ad will help her. I hope so. She really should take better care of her sellers though.
No seriously, if you USED to be a part of it, why are you still here? Obviously she isnt that bad! You are not banned from signing in and putting in your 1.25 worth (cant really be considered 2 cents now can it?) and that would be up to her right?
Karen has never done me wrong, so far she has always helped me and been supportive.
Furthermore, all of your carrying on about how she and everyone else will be sued by all the do-gooders, oh look, we have a stay! So wow she might not be sued. It could be that like Karen said, the law makers are adressing some of the possible issues in the law, that maybe all senators and congressman are looking again. That maybe the government isnt all bad, and they are listening.
I mean is it possible that Karen being positive was a good idea as a leader? And even before the stay, the law stated that we had until aug 14 2009 to be compliant with unit testing. Between now and aug, and now until next feb, we are supposed to have “reasonable proof.” For many mamas, that means getting certs on their components that they use from either companies that sell components (IE Fabrite) or taking samples for lab testing themselves. Karen isnt saying, “Hey all, be stupid.” She has stated that these things are inherently lead free for the most part. And she is correct. I have been a part of a testing group that tested over 40 commonly used fabrics. Have been in contact with a popular snap store that I personally use who is testing/has tested. I know what I am using is lead free BECAUSE I did the work the law required/requires through feb 2009. Reasonable proof. So what will be sued for, if component testing and reasonable proof does follow the law for now? And has been the law for some time, the stay is new but the aug 14 date isnt.
So I guess I shouldnt argue back with you, because you seem to hold a grudge and I DONT want to be on your grudge list. If you dont hold a grudge, why are you here, angry and arguing with Karen if you are not a part of HC anymore? If you do hold a grudge, I apologize if I have made you angry bc once again, its wicked boring and time consuming in most cases to be on someone’s grudge list!
Why am I argueing with you when that could put me on your list? Because once, a yr + ago, I was put on someones grudge list. Someone became angry with me, said some untrue things about me that escalated until a lawyer was involved. I didnt do anything to deserve it. I didnt know Karen well then, but Karen along with many coop mods and other larger WAHMs stood up for me, had my back though that risked them being on a grudge list. I was a LITTLE TINY WHAM. They could have left me out to dry and instead they stood up for what was right. If you dont belong to HC, by YOUR choice, why come back to pick a fight? I dont see it as right, so there is my answer. That is why I come on here, to my turf, to Karens turf, to a lot of other mamas homes for selling, and argue.
Oh, post script here is the link for hte stay. http://cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09115.html
These paragraphs copied from that link- these are the paragraphs that prompt me to stay in business while taking care as this site tells us to do:
“The stay of enforcement provides some temporary, limited relief to the crafters, children’s garment manufacturers and toy makers who had been subject to the testing and certification required under the CPSIA. These businesses will not need to issue certificates based on testing of their products until additional decisions are issued by the Commission. However, all businesses, including, but not limited to, handmade toy and apparel makers, crafters and home-based small businesses, must still be sure that their products conform to all safety standards and similar requirements, including the lead and phthalates provisions of the CPSIA.
Handmade garment makers are cautioned to know whether the zippers, buttons and other fasteners they are using contain lead. Likewise, handmade toy manufacturers need to know whether their products, if using plastic or soft flexible vinyl, contain phthalates”
And yet, I feel as though I was rather inflamatory in my first post. I apologize if I was, I feel it was a bit sarcastic and it came out wrong. I was feeling irritated that Karen is trying to be upbeat and that is a good thing, but I guess many people do not realize that they actually DO have to take action IE XRF testing, compontent certs from companies they buy from, something. Because I know I have to do these things from other groups, I reacted badly. There was no call for me to be ugly just because I disagreed with some of you. I disagreed with the postings here so I escalated it and I dont think that was professional so I apologize. I do not know the reasons behind the arguement here because I wasnt there.
This has given me the kick in the butt that I needed to get my store updated graphics and more frequent stocking. Thanks for the heads up.
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