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 pissed.
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 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 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 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).
