[Moo] Tandy Leather store OPEN and the manager is a wanna-be SCAdian!

[Jaine]

I just got off the phone with Debi, the manager of the new Tandy store in
Richmond. This is sort of an ad for the new shop, but you'll understand why
if you keep reading. If you aren't into leather, armor, fencing, shoemaking,
glove making or slashed (pinked) garb you can skip this message.

Debi and I talked about different ways that she can support us SCAdians in
Atlantia. She is motivated for two reasons, her shop will benefit and she
kinda wants to play SCA for herself. I'm gonna get her in touch with the
chatelaine of her local group. I expect to see her at events next year.
Probably Ymir.

In short, she wants to customize the selection in her store to meet the
needs of the folks that she knows will patronize it. If we tell her what we
want, she will try to get it. Tandy is a job for her, with a big company, so
she will not break rules for us. She will work with us and wants to meet the
needs of the starving student as well as the die hard shopper. We've got a
SCAdian friendly leather store in Richmond!!!

She told me about the Wholesale Club that Tandy runs. It is an annual fee to
belong, but you are entitled to about 40% off all of your purchases and
there are monthly sales for further discounts. It is a card membership, but
a card can be shared. Perhaps a Barony could share one, or a group could
pool resources to get a one year membership and stock up. If she gets to
know you, just showing up and letting her look the name on the card up in
the database would probably be enough. She couldn't make any promises
because she had her manager hat on. But she made it clear she would do what
she could to make it easier to share a card as long as it was not being
abused. Her definition of abused is pretty broad, but she's a nice lady and
we shouldn't take advantage that might cost her her job.

She has Barge cement available, but you must show a tax ID number to
purchase it. Once it's purchased, she doesn't care what happens with it. I
couldn't give her much guidance on shoemaking, she will need more.

She's willing to order special punches to make pinkings in garb in pretty
shapes. Glovers, she's been clued into the Glove book from Lacis and is
eager to get her own copy. She's got kidskin and some not so nice patterns
for gloves. She wants to upgrade her book and pattern selection for gloves.
I gave her ISBNs.

Armorers: She is able to knock the price down on leather if you are making a
group purchase, or even just a big purchase, perhaps 10% to 15%. She will
order special findings and has already stocked the store with the ones that
she knows we like to use. She's savvy about leather and some of the types
needed for armor. She is interested in learning more about making leather
armor. She is a leatherworker herself.

Fencers: she's looking for specs on how durable a fencing doublet has to be.
She's got some leather that is machine washable! If it were quilted with a
bit of batting, it might meet the standard, but she needs to know what the
standard is. A washable leather fencing doublet, how spiffy is that?

We need to share this with the rest of Atlantia, but I didn't want to put it
on the Merry Rose yet. I wanted to see what response this information got in
a smaller group first. Moovians, please speak up! Positive or negative, I'd
like to know your thoughts. Pontoons, I know you'll have something to say.
;)

Jaine