About those Hallmark Cards layoffs…
Unlike former Star publisher Mark Zieman who preferred to blame the newspaper’s massive layoffs on the economy, Hallmark head David Hall correctly blamed the card company’s flagging fortunes on “changes in consumer” spending.
That’s calling a spade a spade.
Because people weren’t running around broke, unable to afford newspapers, they simply no longer wanted or needed them and moved on. On to the internet mostly, where a wealth of news and information is mostly free of charge at the tap of a keyboard.
Unfortunately for Hallmark there are factors beyond the internet.
Once upon a time – not that many years back – Hallmark and fellow 800 pound gorilla American Greetings ruled the greeting card roost.
Today however far smaller card companies like MikWright – who specialize in “outlandish, provocative humor” – are thriving while Hallmark continues to struggle, shuttering operations and laying off staff.
Which is kind of ironic, given Hallmark’s long history of being accused of poaching ideas from the smaller, hipper card companies.
In the 1970s local retailer Middle Class Values accused Hallmark of ripping off ideas for its cards from a line of cards the store sold called Paper Moon.
“Hallmark wasn’t even close to being in the edgy card business back then,” says Whitten Pell, the son of Middle Class Values founder Virginia Pell. “And she put a sign in the window of the store that said Hallmark workers were not allowed there. My understanding was that Hallmark was directly using Paper Moon as the influence for Shoebox. And John Stossel from ABC’s 20/20 flew in and did a story about it.”
Virginia Pell wasn’t the only one to accuse Hallmark of stealing from other card companies.
In 1986 tiny Colorado card company Blue Mountain sued Hallmark after being stunned to find cards nearly identical to ones it had designed in Hallmark’s “Personal Touch” line. Blue Mountain prevailed in its epic David versus Goliath lawsuit with the judge writing that Hallmark’s Personal Touch had been created “with the intent of displacing Blue Mountain.”
So just how difficult is it today for mainstream greeting card makers?
“American Greetings — the largest publicly traded maker of greeting cards in the country — announced this week that it was pulling out of the stock market to return to life as a private company,” the Huff Post reported in 2013. “The Cleveland-based card company closed many of its retail store locations over the last few years and is worth almost 65 percent less today than it was at its peak in 1998, the Wall Street Journal reported.”
According to the US Post Office, the number of greeting cards mailed in this country declined by 24 percent from 2002 to 2010 and was continuing to drop.
Since Hallmark’s privately owned we don’t get to look at its balance sheet, but from what’s been reported, it’s a safe bet its greeting card biz is in a tailspin as well.
Unless of course you buy into Greeting Card Association claims that Americans buy 6.5 billion cards a year.
That’s slightly more than 20 cards a year per person.
And with me at zero, at least one of you guys out there must be buying 40 cards to make up the difference.
FYI, the most popular cards are today – in order – birthday, sympathy, thank-you, wedding, thinking of you, get well, new baby and congratulations. The top seasonal cards are Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, graduation, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and – drum roll, please – St. Patrick’s Day.
Which of those occasions are greeting card musts to you?
Because while not surprisingly 80 percent of card buyers are women, 70 percent of card buyers supposedly considering them essential.
And while I remain skeptical about the future of greeting cards, a strong niche market remains.
“I have a hard time keeping up with my card sales,” says Nancy Pell, the owner of Perfect Scents at 5010 Main in the former space of Middle Class Values. “I still carry tons of greeting cards – half my business is greeting cards – and we have everything but Hallmark.”
don’t buy many these days, like most I suppose. m-day for the wifie, from the bassett’s of course. and her birthday because i’d be dead if I didn’t. I might buy a couple of b-day cards, too. so maybe five or six a yr. and I can’t recall the last time I actually went to a Hallmark store.
all that said, it’s still nice to get them in the mail.
You’re way ahead of me, mike…
I’m more of a present guy – maybe flowers/candy for Valentine’s Day.
If my mom was alive, guess I’d look for a card. I know where you’re coming from; the old ways die hard for some of us. But increasingly, those old ways are becoming extinct, I think
I think that 20 person number must have been arrived at by counting Christmas cards.
You may have a point, Lydia…
However, once we stopped sending pics of the girls when they were young, Christmas cardsbecdame a relic of the past.
The Star used to print and supply Christmas cards for employees to send to advertisers or sources. I did it for several years, but had it not been set in front of me never would have happened.
Now a hypocrisy alert: I did enjoy getting them and displayed them prominently in my office.
I’m as old school as it gets when it comes to cards. I think they are important to people who are important to you.
That said, I agree with Lydia, no one I know, including me, buys 20 a year. It has to be skewed with Christmas numbers just to make you feel like a heel!
True confession by the Paul Wilson-formerly-known-as-columnist…
He’s totally old school
Greeting cards: Even the name is a misnomer. Receiving a card is not the same as a greeting, and yes, I still send Christmas Cards, pretty much for the tax deduction. However, with postage where it is, perhaps the sender feels like it is a mini Christmas gift. I am sure the receiver doesn’t. For marketing, it is a touch. Hallmark also had ownership of crayola and a few other incidental businesses. The market has changed. From “Send Out Cards” to “Leaning Tree”, Hearne is right, Hallmark is no longer the very best. Even my “Printshop Gold” monicker, “Haulmark Cards”, not fit for postal distribution, rivals the king of cards, as the message is personal, like the crayon picture on the refrigerator. Times have changed. Newspapers, greeting cards, and the American Royal are gone or going. However, we lose the memories too. Dallas, Missouri died a long time ago, and the Dallas oil field that came with it is little more than a memory. The world of dinosaurs and relics, like cowboys, are leaving the world a little more bland.
Geez Cowboy…
Thanks for making Stomper and everybody tear up!
Thanks for the mention, admin.
“I still send Christmas cards, pretty much for the tax deduction.” Got to remember, admin, Cowboy is a republican.
🙂