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About Us
Scrapbooking
Moments in Time, in Bound Brook, NJ, opened it's doors on November 4,
2000 after a little bit of planning and a little bit of luck. Pat and
Doug Rex, owners of the only scrapbooking store in Somerset County, both
worked full time jobs and had little time and less knowledge to venture
into the world of owning their own business. But that didn't stop them.
Back in 1974, Pat Rex took all of the candid shots from her wedding, cut
them up, rounded corners, added cutouts from wedding cards and put
together a sixty page magnetic album. In 1978 she started the baby
albums for the first of her three children and continued doing photo
albums until January 1999 when she discovered the Creative Memories
method of Scrapbooking. As a consultant, she became "acid free" and
spent an enjoyable year meeting new people, teaching scrapbooking
classes and learning some of the skills necessary for running a small
business. Pat and her husband of twenty-five years also took a
community college class on starting your own business even though they
had no real plans of doing so.
Fate intervened one Sunday in July 2000. Pat and three friends went to a
scrapbooking store's Goin' Out of Business sale in a nearby town and
talked to the owner about how she always wanted to go into retail. They
discussed the store's successes and the personal situation that forced
it's closing. Pat left her phone number and also a list of items she was
interested in buying. Two days later the storeowner called and asked if
they would like to buy the entire contents of the store. So……. Pat went
to Doug and said, "Honey, can I buy the whole store? Please?" After a
week of investigating, figuring, calculating, agonizing and negotiating
they made an offer to buy the contents and it was accepted. Pat, Doug,
their children, Tim, Emilie and Caroline and many friends helped to
count and dismantle, pack and transport the inventory to the family's
living room. where it stayed until a location for the store was found.
Bound Brook, New Jersey had been victim to devastating floods from the
1999 Hurricane "Floyd". The town, which had water as high as 14
1/2ft on East Main Street, was slowly coming back to life. Many
businesses did not return and there were several storefronts available.
Finally, they found a 2,000 square foot store in a prime location next
to Stan's Shoe Shack, a well-established store in Bound Brook.
One month after their grand opening the Rexes hosted their first charity
crop to benefit Batten's Disease. A family friend's son Christopher, had
been recently diagnosed with this rare, always fatal disease and that
motivated them to raise money for research. This crop has become an
annual event that runs consecutively with the store's anniversary.
Two years ago the store started out with a newsletter to announce
classes and to update customers. Then the list reached 2,000 + and
communication moved to E-mail. Customers receive two to three e-mails a
month, reminding them to visit the store's web site for more information
and coupons, which is designed and maintained by their son Tim.
The store is set up into departments: Wedding, Baby, Holiday, Heritage
and Disney and Travel, School and Sports, Albums and tools. Customers
are encouraged to think outside of the box and shop all of the
departments, as many themes might have interchangeable products. Each
department has a full compliment of theme-related stickers, papers, die
cuts and embellishments.
Rubber stamps and stamping supplies have recently been introduced to the
store's inventory to encourage product crossover from scrapbooking to
card making to paper crafts and back. The stamp inventory was hand
picked to compliment both card making and scrapbooking.
A point of sale system was recently installed to handle the
ever-increasing inventory and to provide more detailed accounting
information. Entering every item into the system seems like an
overwhelming task but the Rexes are approaching it one step at a time,
knowing that once the system is in place it will provide valuable retail
and customer information. Their only regret was in not installing a
point of sale system from the day the store opened. |
View
photos of the store.
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Friendly,
knowledgeable, customer service is what makes this store a place you
want come in to. The atmosphere is homey, usually with music reminiscent
of the sixties (especially if Doug is manning the cash register) and
there is always someone to help you with products or ideas. Showing
customers how to use the tools they already have is one of the store's
specialties. With four major chain stores within twenty minutes of their
store, the Rexes feel that customer satisfaction is their greatest
priority. "Anyone can sell product, but in the craft business the
customer needs to know what will give them the best value for their
money, how to use the tools they are buying, which tools do exactly the
same thing, and what will maximize their creativity."
The Rexes are constantly striving to keep their store on the cutting
edge of the industry. The growth in their customer base led to the
hiring of Lori Mattheiss, the store's first employee, in January of
2002. The professionalism and talent that Lori brought to the store,
along with the additional hours of operation that she provided, prompted
an increase in revenue and additions to the customer list. So much so,
that the Rexes found themselves hiring their second employee, Dana
Tuskey in February 2003. Dana's previous experience as a demonstrator
for EK Success, owner of her own company, CropAlong, and master
scrapbook designer makes her a perfect addition to the staff.
Pat and her daughters' Emilie and Caroline, who take turns going with
Mom to the Hobby Industry Association shows, are basically the buyers.
Actually, Doug sends the girls along to keep Pat from maxing out all of
the credit cards. Over spending is a real hazard. The scrapbooking
industry is growing by leaps and bounds and the market is spilling over
with innovative products. It becomes very difficult to choose.
Scrapbooking
Moments In Time customers have come to appreciate the store's honest
approach. Customers know that only tried and true products will be
offered through the store. The Rexes address differences in taste
through the CALL ME WHEN list. If you want it, put your name on the
list, and if they can get it they will call you.
There is great satisfaction in bringing this hobby to the public.
Everyone takes pictures! Everyone has pictures filed in boxes or
envelopes. We help people to re-connect with their past, to relive those
moments that they preserved forever through that special photograph. We
have combined that with paper crafts to come up with "scrapbooking". We
now have a hobby that is "creative", "meaningful", and "practical".
There is great satisfaction in reducing that unwieldy and costly pile of
photographs and producing beautiful, personal works of art to pass on to
future generations.
An unusual request to make a memory board for a friend's deceased
mother, brought home the importance of what scrapbooking is all about.
Gathering pictures to depict the memorable and poignant moments of a
family member's life can be a comforting task. People start to reminisce
and the healing process begins. The person that is gone has left a
warm and loving legacy behind……..Memories!
Driving through East Main Street, Bound Brook, New Jersey you would
never suspect that the floodwaters had been as high as the street
lights. The Rexes joined their local Bound Brook Chamber of Commerce to
help rebuild the town's downtown retail section - post Hurricane Floyd.
Federal flood control projects have been started and slowly the downtown
area is revitalizing. The Rexes hope that in some small way, their
store will help.
When something is meant to be it happens, usually without too many
glitches. The Rexes, with their very limited retail experience found
this to be true. From the day the owner of the closing store offered it
to them to the present day, the progress of Scrapbooking Moments In Time
has been upwards. They are living the American Dream.
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