Artist And Craftsman Supply

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OPEN NOW - Closes at 7:00pm

I opened Artist & Craftsman?s first store in July 1985 because I was going to get even. My girlfriend worked for an art supply and the owner unjustifiably accused her of stealing. Leah was upset and I was angry. At the time I was a small time building contractor who bought old structures in Maine, fixed them up and sold them. I earned little more than minimum but also was such a lousy bookkeeper, I didn't?t realize how unsuccessful I was. One of the fixer uppers was vacant so I started an art supply in the small town of Yarmouth. I was going to get even. Leah picked the name Artist & Craftsman Supply. I didn't?t really care about the name. Vengeance is a poor reason to start a business, but that?s the way it was. We were one store for about 10 years. Artist & Craftsman moved to Portland and I was content to make my living locally. Then Sanford, the Sharpie marker people bought two pencil makers, Berol & Eberhardt/Faber. The little art supply industry was beginning to attract big money. So I figured that to survive I had to grow. The second store was in Seattle. That was a difficult learning experience. As an east coaster I had to learn how to speak Seattlease (every paragraph should begin with a ?please? or/and end with a ?thank you?). This new language hasn't?t hurt me but it took a full year for me to become proficient. Learning how to manage a store 3000 miles away in a foreign country was difficult. At one point I almost gave up and sold Seattle to a competitor, Utrecht Art Supply, but a Chinese fortune cookie advised against that proposed sale. I take fortune cookies seriously. And now 26 years after Leah named Artist & Craftsman Supply we are opening our 15th store in Los Angeles. It?s been a fun ride. ~Larry Adlerstein P.S.: I have sold 49% of A&C to my employees. We are now an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan).