[Tweeters] Help wanted/Job offer: Keeping Birds and Wildlife at the Pike Place Market into the distant-future

[Ed Newbold]

A part-time job for a young person that—conceivably! —could morph into saving andultimately owning a biodiversity-oriented business at the Pike Place Market


Dear all,
I believe this is in keeping with Tweeter guidelines solong as I only come to this well once every four decades. 
I’ve had a store at the Pike Place Market for 40years. It’s been a great 40 years! The store is still going strong, but I am makingplans to walk away from it as soon as Fall of this year. I’m 72, I don’t wantto miss out on experiencing a retirement, and my partner loves to go birdingand going to her late parents’ conservation-ranch in the bootheel of NewMexico.

There will be sadness for me in the quit for a varietyof reasons. One could conceivably concern members of the Tweeter community orany biodiversity-oriented-environmentalist or birder.  After I quit the Market--which gets visited bythousands of tourists from all over who are forming their first impressions ofSeattle--there will no longer be a single retailer there whose product line isprimarily devoted to Nature, Wildlife, Birds and Biodiversity.

I am a wildlife artist (I work in acrylic) and mystore sells prints and posters of my paintings. Although some of the biggest-sellingprints at the store are simply celebrations of the Market, pretty mucheverything else is a bird or other critter in Nature. The store includes apanel explaining Shade Coffee as well as what I call Biodiversity posters suchas Seabirds of the Salish Sea, Warblers of the West, Rockfish of the Northeast Pacific and Butterflies of Puget Sound. There are prints of critters as far from Madison Avenue as Wilson's Warbler and Common Nighthawk.

I have a hope, perhaps just a fantasy, that a young personwith a strong commitment to biodiversity and also an entrepreneurial interestin business might see a future here. It could begin with a one-day a week job atthe store that could eventually expand into managing the store and eventually,in a transition as I age, becoming the new acting-owner, at which point theywould be paying me at reduced-below-wholesale prices for the products the storeneeds. At the point that I inevitably become uninterested or unable to beinvolved in painting and publishing, they would assume full control over allaspects of the store, including its future creative direction.

Here I should point out two things, First, it’s noteasy to get a crowd-facing space at the Pike Place Market—I worked the craftline 16 years, got yanked up to the Economy Arcade in 1999, where eightbusinesses failed in the neighboring space until 2012, at which time mine wasexpanded to have 17 feet of aisle frontage.  

Second, any ownership change is by charter a concern ofthe Market Managers. However, my feeling is they would be relieved to have thestore continue, even if it morphs somewhat (The Historical Commission also hasa role in what can and can’t be changed. I have found both the Commission andthe PDA to be totally reasonable in the past.)

Though it’s mostly unseen by tourists, the store ownedby Birds Connect Seattle, formerly known as Seattle Audubon, immerses its customersin biodiversity-related products and could provide ideas for directions to go if/whenmy prints become less a part of the store’s cash-flow.

I should also note that I am not looking for anyonewho has aspirations for a career as a visual artist. I have worked with artistsin many instances over the last 40 years and although I love them and respectthem I don’t want to go into business with them. 

Anyone who might just want to work a day at the Marketand not necessarily devote the rest of their lives to the business or who isn’tyoung is also welcome to contact me. Anyone who recoils at the thought ofworking in sales should know that the sales style I advocate involves absolutelyno “selling”—no up-selling, no hard selling. The hoped-for outcome is for thecustomer to walk out of the store with a smile on their face, regardless ofwhether they are carrying anything we sell. Pay is based partly on percentage butis guaranteed to be north of 20/hr. Absolutely equal opportunity employer.

 

If anyone is the slightest bit interested or knowssomeone this could possibly fit, drop me an email. 

Ednewbold1 at yahoo.com

 
Thanks, Ed Newbold
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20230627/b9ca4021/attachment.html>