The Death And Life Of Great Pen Stores

[SharkOnWheels456]

Sadly, these types of stores are disappearing at a rapid pace. Being a fairly new fountain pen user, I was actually planning on going to Art Brown's to poke around since I had heard very good things about the shop. To my dismay, I planned on going during my lunch break two days after it had closed.

 

So it goes.

 

 

[Florida Blue]

FP, cigars, wet shaving, all attract the same kind of crowds

Why is there not a shop that encompass these and more?

 

Why can't there be a B&H of fountain pens? (competitive pricing AND a B&M?)

There is Holt's Cigars in Philly, which I think is a great idea too. Their primary business is cigars, but they also realized that many cigar aficionados also appreciate fountain pens.

 

It is interesting that there is a cross-over of fountain pens with other pursuits. Badger & Blade wet shaving forum has many FPNers and I noticed that people who are interested in fine timepieces, knives and firearms also love fountain pens.

 

I guess it is the love of mechanical things or maybe the love of doing things the way they used to be done.

[Garageboy]

It's less of doing things they used to be done and more of slowing down and doing things with higher quality. For me at least.

Pens, high quality cutlery, high quality shaving gear, leather goods, clothes, firearms, watches

 

Boys and their toys/tools

[SteveE]

I think that the combination shop model may work well for the mid-range shops. I know of two in the Indianapolis area. One is a combo pen and jewelry shop in Zionsville, the other a combo pen and tobacco shop in Broad Ripple. Both are well-stocked. I have developed an acquaintance with the proprietress of the shop in Zionsville, and have been going there at least once or twice a year for the past 10 or 12 years - even though I live about 150 miles away in Chicago. My point? That the specialty B&M stores make an impression on us and we, as retail consumers, respond to a good impression. (P.S. The Paradise Pen store in a nearby mall closed a couple of years ago. Not enough business.)

 

I make it a point to visit any B&M shop I can find in my travels, and have enjoyed each and every visit. I also buy from the internet sellers, and feel a connection with them as well. The ones I don't feel "connected" with are the ones where there is no individual who is the contact point. Case in point - Richard and Barbara Binder versus xFountainpens. I have purchased things from both, but I find myself regularly visiting Richard's site to see what is new there. Both companies do a good job in their markets. It is just my preference - and that is what makes or breaks a retailer no matter whether they have a B&M presence or not. If they cause me to want to return and buy again, and others to feel similarly, then they prosper. If not, well. . .

Edited August 14, 2013 by SteveE

[queenofpens]

PapierPlume in the French Quarter in New Orleans seems to be doing ok and they only opened about 4 years ago. Of course, this may be due to the ferocious amount of tourist traffic that visits the French Quarter.

 

In addition to that, they carry a limited selection of brands, focusing on those that are not sold elsewhere in the U.S. - Cleo Skribent, Parafernalia, for example.

 

And they do sell over the Internet, too.

 

So maybe instead of traditional locations, a shop needs to be one of the sights to see in a high-traffic tourist area and offer something unique.

 

There's also, in another area of the French Quarter, a tea store with psychic readings and fortune-telling supplies that has been in business since 1929 through many cycles of other tea stores going out of business.

 

Same formula, tourist area, one of the sights to see, and something quirky and unique to offer.

[Mhawke7894]

I think a lot of the recent B&M store difficulties in the US now and days comes from a problem with snobbery of owners and workers. As a young person (college student) who has been collecting for five years, I could accurately estimate that 50% of the physical shops that I have gone into to try and purchase wrote me off as I gawking tourist not worth their time as soon as I entered the store.

 

For example, last summer I was in Washington D.C. looking at a couple of colleges I had applied to, and took the time visit Fahrney's Pens because I had heard great things about them. I went in and was the only customer in there. The two employees looked at me, and the proceeded to go to the opposite end of the store and start examining random shelves. I waited patiently by the display of Bexleys I was interested in for about five minutes without them even making eye contact with me. Then two older men in nice suits came in and the two employees were tripping over each other to pull out anything they could think of to show them. The two men left without buying anything and again the two employees went over to a corner and ignored me. My mother came in to see what was taking so long, and the employees ran over to wait on her. It was only after she directed them to assist me that I was helped, and they spent most of the time trying to show me Lamy Safaris instead of the Bexleys I was interested in.

 

And the thing is this is not unusual for me.

 

In contrast, a few years ago my dad and I were driving to a Boy Scout camp near Fort Madison, and we stopped Pendemonium. The staff was kind and generous with their time, helpfully pulling out several pens for me to examine, even though I must have looked ridiculous in my beige Boy Scout fatigues. Even though I didn't really see anything I liked or wanted I bought a Parker Frontier from them for $30 to repay their kindness.

 

If B&M stores made a greater effort to reach out to customers who might appear to fall outside their usual demographics I think they would be far more successful. I think this might actually be the secret to their continued health in Europe, as I have never had any problems over there.

 

Places like Fahrney's who only want to sell to middle-aged businessmen deserve to fail for their arrogance. Place like Pendemoniun run by good people who show basic kindness and respect to all of their customers deserve to flourish, and I think actually will.

[MrsGouletPens]

This is an interesting thread to me!

 

The trend is definitely moving toward online shopping. Shopping malls are declining. Large department store chains offer online catalogs, place an order on line from a central warehouse and pick up in a local store within 48 hours. Amazon is the largest growing site for ordering any item one desires, along with free shipping over $25.00, which is a big incentive for armchair shoppers.

 

Think of the advantages, overheads are minimal, no rents, no staff to pay wages, sick pay and vacation time, no utility bills. Free from the worry of shop lifters!

In theory, yes. Rent for a high-end retail storefront is definitely more expensive than our office/warehouse space (we have 12,000sf, in a somewhat rural/suburban area). But don't necessarily think of all online shops as just a single person in their bedroom, though many are like that! Some of us do have staff with wages and benefits to pay, utilities, insurance, all that fun stuff. We have 15 people on staff with us now. The bigger we get, the more our overhead goes up. The only difference between us and B&M stores is the rent and the write-off of products used for display/testing in a showroom. Then you keep growing and get into the Amazon beasts that we're also competing with, and they just have economies of scale that we can't compete with (like free shipping at $25, or same-day delivery). Sigh.

 

The issue of rent was key, because she told me that she believes FPH hospital owns the building they are located in (which means they can also supplement their income by renting the top floors as office space).

I have heard this too. That makes a huge difference! I'm not as concerned about FPH going out of business. They seem to be on much more solid financial ground.

 

The Paradise Pen shop where I live is so successful that they moved to a bigger store on the main drag of the toniest mall in the area. The layout is like a jewelry store. They have glass cases and carpeting everywhere. Also, the Paradise Pen at Tyson's Corner in Northern Virginia moved to a 50% larger space so they could stock more inventory.

Paradise Pen is no Mom and Pop operation, but it is an example of a B&M business model that works. My only objection is they can't adjust pens for customers. Most new pens need at least a nib adjustment, even the higher-end pens. If a buyer needs a pen adjusted, the store sends it to the manufacturer to have the work done. They can't even do basic tweaks in-house.

I had a blah experience at the Paradise Pen in Tyson's Corner. They barely looked at us, wouldn't engage, didn't know the answers to our questions and didn't take us seriously as FP buyers. I guess because we weren't wearing suits? I don't know... I had the same experience with the employees at Levenger's, they didn't know what size nibs their pens had, what type of converter it used, etc. Everyone raves about the personal customer service in B&M stores, but I guess it's more based on the individual employees encountered. No doubt good ones exist, I just haven't had the luck of encountering any knowledgeable helpful folks yet.

 

Look at how a business like Goulet operates (no affiliation). Brian is all over the place in positive ways - online, video, attending shows to learn, asking for help, being a "master packer" and I don't mean Green Bay. I would wager (and invest if I were able) that if Brian Goulet ever decided to open a B&M in addition to his online presence he would be successful!

Thanks! As for the B&M store, honestly I'm not sure! It would be a complete diversion from our business model, and we just aren't in a heavily populated area to justify it. Add increased rent and overhead, I don't know. I've seen so many B&M stores close up, even with a strong online presence (i.e. Swishers), it just isn't tempting. At least not in the foreseeable future. I know Brian has no interest in it.

 

Goulet could open a storefront, but they probably wouldn't see much of an increase in sales unless they diversify even more. And even then, they'd have to hire more people. They're doing well for themselves now, sure, but opening a storefront is a whole different animal from an internet business.

Yep. We have 3000 products but it's way too much of a niche to support a physical store... pretty much you have to be a FP enthusiast to shop with us, unless you like the paper. We probably wouldn't need to hire too many more people, but yeah... it's definitely a different beast.

[welch]

- Issue for Art Browns was the rent. Plain and simple. They were in midtown Manhattan, and sold to people who work in the luxury office towers all around. Customers walked in.

 

- FPH is downtown, at the intersection of the financial district and the City Hall area. Look at the size of the buildings: you will see that midtown is much more built-up. Furthermore, Manhattan's downtown suffered after the World Trade Center attack, partly because there was so much damage and dust to be cleaned, and partly because banks decided to spread their offices. I'm working on a project for a customer with staff in London, Dublin, Delaware, Maryland, Colorado, and Arizona.

 

- Both Art Browns and Joons Grand Central shop did well throughout the '90s partly by selling expensive ballpoints...Cross Townsends and Parker Sonnets and such. Joons also sold Mont Blanc. I think the prestige ballpoint business has fallen off. People now seem to use throw-away ballpoints (Papermate Profile, for instance) rather than a refillable ballpoint.

 

- Art Browns sold everything: every ink from nearly every company; all types of ballpoint refills; just about all fountain pens except for Mont Blanc; roller-balls; fiber-tip throways; many types of paper and journal. Into the early '90s, midtown had many smaller stationery shops, something like Class-B Art Browns. In the mid-90s, I bought the last box of Eberhard Faber Blackwing pencils at Wall Street Stationers...a store that threw nothing away. The smaller stationers died in competition with Staples and the other big-box office supply stores. Art Browns was steady until they were hit by a giant rent increase.

 

- I've never been to Fahrney's, but if you went into Art Browns you were helped by a smart staffer who had probably 20 or 30 years in the pen business, backed by Dave, backed by Warren and Marion.

 

- While FPH issues a catalog, Art Browns sent an email every week. Their on-line service was good, and their phone service even better.

 

- By losing Art Browns, we have lost a large part of fountain pen memory and knowledge. The closest you might find on-line is Richard Binder, where you can read but you can't talk with Richard (except at a show).

 

Could a shop like Art Browns have survived with a heavier web-presence? I don't know. They might have found a shop in a less-expensive part of Manhattan, but those parts have a lower concentration of people who want to look at a pen. The walk-in business would have suffered.

 

Could Art Browns have packaged Marion and put her around on you-tube? Maybe, but a you-tube Marion would lose the interaction. You could not casually ask, "Hey, what's BIC doing with Sheaffer?"

 

I'll shift entirely to FPH for whatever they carry.

Edited August 15, 2013 by welch

[rumbleroar]

 

My rule is that if I try a pen in a particular store then I buy the pen in that store. I have been quite happy with Bromfield Pen in Boston (as I have mentioned in other posts), and I have been treated fairly in the purchases that I have made over the years. I only wish that I could get into Boston more; I no longer live in the city and I cannot get into Boston very often.

 

As you state, it is not fair to use a brick-and-mortar store for testing pens and inks as that is the equivalent of stealing. Such behavior does not support the store and, in turn, can run it out of business.

Today I tried a Pilot VP in Bromfield Pen Shop, and I was very pleased with the service, and I purchased it on the spot. While I was trying it out, a girl and her mother came in to see what fountain pens were all about (the girl said that some of them looked pretty and wanted to check it out), and it was really cool seeing someone become first acquainted with fountain pens. As for the shop itself, I only wish they carried Diamine inks!!

 

I know what you mean about it being hard to get to; it's a twenty-minute drive to the T, and then another 45 minute ride to Park Street to get there, so it's a bit of a hike, but it's worth it. I'm in the area(ish) a lot anyhow, so I'll definitely be back.

[CaptainDan]

Today I tried a Pilot VP in Bromfield Pen Shop, and I was very pleased with the service, and I purchased it on the spot. While I was trying it out, a girl and her mother came in to see what fountain pens were all about (the girl said that some of them looked pretty and wanted to check it out), and it was really cool seeing someone become first acquainted with fountain pens. As for the shop itself, I only wish they carried Diamine inks!!

 

I know what you mean about it being hard to get to; it's a twenty-minute drive to the T, and then another 45 minute ride to Park Street to get there, so it's a bit of a hike, but it's worth it. I'm in the area(ish) a lot anyhow, so I'll definitely be back.

 

I also sort of know what you mean - I have to take an hour-long trip on the Long Island Rail Road just to get into Manhattan (Penn Station to be exact), and that's not counting the subway ride downtown to FPH. It's worth it, though - not even the most detailed, high-resolution photos can compare to holding a pen or a bottle of ink in your hands and being able to examine them closely. I usually make the most of my train ticket and subway fare by spending the day in the city, only buying my ink and such when I am getting ready to go back to Penn Station.

[proton007]

Most of the B&M stores I've been to :

 

-- Have been too expensive, the same pen can be purchased for less online.

-- Were focusing more on the gift buyers, those who want to buy expensive pens as gifts for weddings etc.

-- Treated me like a kid, as if I didn't know anything about a FP. I remember this one time a salesperson asked me if I had ink at home. This one I can understand, and it also tells a lot about the kind of customers they deal with.

-- Didn't know much about FPs. They were more interested in selling pens as retailers, once you buy the pen, its between you and the FP company.

-- Have limited stock. Waiting is hardly justified given the amount of options online.

 

I've certainly enjoyed the experience that B&M stores have to offer, but I also feel that the days of taking things for granted are over. Slack on the experience part, and the customer will buy from an online store.

Edited August 26, 2013 by proton007

[bleair]

I'm a complete newbie. I've started using my fiancee's Pelikan and I've learned a tiny bit from reading things online and watching videos online (I think gouletpens is so smart this way), but I don't have enough practical experience to know what I want to buy just yet.

I'm in San Francisco and we have an art supply store called Flax. They are great for art supplies. They also sell fountain pens - fancy glass cases, etc. So I went into Flax in the hopes they'd show me several options, explain alternatives and then I'd buy from them. I thought that this would be a perfect fit for a B&M store as contrasted to buying online. My plan was to hopefully spend $150 (or upto 250 if it turned out to be warranted) and I didn't mind if I was paying an extra 20-40$ over online prices.

 

They were not, in a word, .helpful... I was told to try out a noodler's Flex pen, and that was neat and all, but I couldn't get them to engage me. Amusingly, another person came up while I was writing and also explained he was new to fountain pens and wanted to get one. He was far far more assertive and just kept on asking questions, though at every step he got maybe 1 word answers or shrugged off. He knew models and names though so he more or less forced he way to finding a pen to buy :/

 

My other experience was at Maido stationary and gifts, and this one might have been mostly my fault due to a language barrier,.. Maido sells lots of cool Japanese stationary and gel pens and some fountain pens. I tried to explain my interest and budget, but In this case I ended up with a pilot varsity fountain pen and after a few attempts at explaining what I was after and not getting anywhere I kinda gave up.. :/

Luckily, this past weekend my area's pen posse had a meetup and that was fantastic.

Reading through this thread, and thinking about my experiences over the past 2 weeks makes me think that maybe what we are looking for in a shopping experience is a fair bit different from what B&M stores want to offer.

 

I have no first hand sales / demographic numbers from B&M stores, but my theory is that like any business they hope for transactions that don't "cost" them a lot, which is totally fair. By "cost" I mean in terms of time or in their effort to achieve a sale. For example, say someone comes in and they let the clerk on staff recommend a purchase in their budget, and bam, done e.g. someone looking for a present for someone else. Another example - a customer who comes in, knows exactly what they want and aren't dissuaded by the price and bam, done.

 

My impression of many FPNers is that we are looking for something a bit different than that..

 

Part of the appeal in fountain pens to me is the "experience" in using, holding, just looking at them and hearing about their history. Many people want to know a lot of details about each pen (see the copious details people enjoy in reviews). I'm not sure if all this translate into a viable business for a physical store... at least not until you get up to the jewelry-price margin levels.

It seems like the fountain pen shows do well, at least this crowd seems to like them and they appear to be more or less economically viable.. but maybe shows are about the scale that will work for what FPNers generally want. I'm not sure a B&M store can provide what we are after...

 

I could be way wrong about all this though.

 

One last thought, and this might be SF only, but I do see that notebooks (moleskin, rhodia, etc.) are selling well and are available all over the place. I hope B&M fountain pens shops continue, but I'm not sure they will.

Edited August 26, 2013 by bleair

[proton007]

^^

You're right about the expectations of FP buyers. A FP most of all is an instrument. It needs to be tuned and perhaps repaired occasionally. B&M stores have had the advantage in that regard, but nowadays it seems they don't care.

Think about how you'd feel if a musical instruments shop didn't offer any tuning or re-stringing.

[vondauster]

Wow, what an interesting thread. Amid all of the suggestions for continued viability of BM pen stores, there is, in my opinion, one thing missing.

 

Handwriting itself.

 

If I owned a pen shop, I would be offering class - almost free - on calligraphy and perhaps even just an "Improve your penmanship" class focused on Palmer or D'Nealian. Spread the craft, and that is what writing is at its most basic, and you spread the demand for the tools of that craft. This is especially important for younger people who may not have been taught cursive to begin with but have an interest in it, and before you laugh I am asked constantly about my pens and complimented regularly on my writing by millennials. The treatment our young commenter received at Fahrney's is not untypical, and simply foolish on the part of the retailer.

My two cents.

Will

 

[proton007]

Wow, what an interesting thread. Amid all of the suggestions for continued viability of BM pen stores, there is, in my opinion, one thing missing.

 

Handwriting itself.

 

If I owned a pen shop, I would be offering class - almost free - on calligraphy and perhaps even just an "Improve your penmanship" class focused on Palmer or D'Nealian. Spread the craft, and that is what writing is at its most basic, and you spread the demand for the tools of that craft. This is especially important for younger people who may not have been taught cursive to begin with but have an interest in it, and before you laugh I am asked constantly about my pens and complimented regularly on my writing by millennials. The treatment our young commenter received at Fahrney's is not untypical, and simply foolish on the part of the retailer.

 

My two cents.

 

Will

 

 

Will,

I agree on the promotion of calligraphy, however, I just feel its a bit unprofessional for the shops to offer classes.

Maybe its the approach thats been tainted by other sellers (automotive, health etc), trying to lure in customers by offering free lessons or checkups, and then asking them to upgrade their equipment etc.

However, it'll be great if they can just sell calligraphy related materials.

Edited August 27, 2013 by proton007

[CaptainDan]

Finding some way to promote cursive and overall penmanship is an absolutely brilliant idea - in a way, it is a "razor-and-blades" model where the craft of handwriting is the "product" and the fountain pen the "instrument," albeit one that is well-engineered and artfully crafted.

 

Though a Millennial myself, I was taught cursive in the third grade and used it exclusively for four years after that, only recently having taken it up again for my (our?) FP hobby. Despite the proliferation and dominance of the Internet and the various electronics platforms it serves, there is still something of an unspoken admiration amongst my generation for a well-crafted handwritten note, including the quality of the handwriting. It is publicly derided as quaint and obsolete, but silently prized for its unparalleled authenticity. I personally think that this is indicative of a growing appreciation for the real and the permanent over the immediately-gratifying and the ephemeral.

[vondauster]

You know, I'd be the first to admit that - though not easy - it is perfectly possible to say something profound or even brilliant in 140 characters or less. Still, I wonder what we will retain, culturally, of twitter streams over the next 200 years, in contrast to, say, something like the handwritten letters of Benjamin Franklin.

 

All in quite legible English Roundhand cursive, by the way. Saw an exhibit of his letters at the Huntington in San Marino a few years back. Very cool.

 

Will

[vondauster]

 

Will,

I agree on the promotion of calligraphy, however, I just feel its a bit unprofessional for the shops to offer classes.

Maybe its the approach thats been tainted by other sellers (automotive, health etc), trying to lure in customers by offering free lessons or checkups, and then asking them to upgrade their equipment etc.

However, it'll be great if they can just sell calligraphy related materials.

 

Good point, though that's kind of why I said for a nominal fee, as in not free; not a "loss leader." Beyond the basic course materials - I would use Lamy Safaris, for example - I would ask my instructor (actually, it could be me) specifically to not promote other writing materials or instruments in classes. If students have questions of that sort, it would be dealt with afterwords.

 

By the way, some camera stores are equally notorious for using their "Free classes come with every camera purchase" deals to hawk high markup accessories. This is most certainly not what I have in mind here!

 

Will

[welch]

The description of new fountain pen buyers in DC and SF is why we lost such much when Art Brown's closed, and why we -- who have been there -- treasure Fountain Pen Hospital.

 

Browns and FPH want to sell you the right pen, and their staff -- including people who have been in the business 50 years or more -- ask questions, answer questions, know the answers, and don't simply repeat advertising baloney. They know flex nibs because they sold the real ones. They behave as if you have come to the store to buy a writing instrument...not to engage in a quaint hobby.

 

That's why Browns carried pens of all types and prices. It's why they carried every possible ink and ink cartridge, as well as ballpoint refill. It's why FPH carries repair supplies.

 

Sure, you can buy a pen about $10 cheaper on-line, but miss the interaction.

 

It's a sad thing when Flax -- in NYC they are an art supply store -- can't afford expert staff.

 

The solution is to keep buying from the real pen stores.

Edited August 27, 2013 by welch

[markofp]

 

 

Could Art Browns have packaged Marion

 

Marilyn.

 

 

Art Browns sold everything: every ink from nearly every company; all types of ballpoint refills; just about all fountain pens except for Mont Blanc;

 

 

And there is something that I think may have hurt them. I know that the store had a real problem with MB, there was some real bitterness there over God knows what. I was in Art Brown's probably once or twice a month, and the vast majority of times some other customer was asking to see Montblanc items. I can't tell you how many times I saw David or Pete or Warren go through the same routine, sending them up to the MB boutique on 57th, and by the way, can we show you this Sailor, this Pelikan, this Visconti? And it was always no, no and no. Last Christmas season I saw this probably five visits in a row, and I almost asked Warren if he was worried that he was cutting off his nose to spite his face. I don't know what MB is like to deal with on a retail basis, but it is a hugely popular and well established brand, and their lack of any MB product aside from a small amount of refills can't have done them any good.

Edited August 27, 2013 by markofp