Paper/invite/stationery industry is actually booming in the digital age, but it's more of a boutique/independent market, which I think is hurting Hallmark.

I was horrible at proofs in HS but I'm thinking if the first statement is true the 2nd half should be making bank...

I know a couple guys that worked there several years ago. They thought that it was a pretty good place for the suits, and nothing but an entry level meat grinder for the creatives. The trick was stifling every creative urge long enough to become a suit.

People who spend a lot of money on paper/stationery/invites want to spend money in personalized ways withi their local paper boutique, not at national chains like Hallmark.

But that's why, from what I understand, Hallmark is updating their image and storefronts. Moving from this:

http://staugustine.com/sites/default...20hallmark.jpg

To this:
http://static1.squarespace.com/stati.../1415738745058

The store on the plaza looks like that one now. I remember when my wife and I went in there it was an interesting place but we had no idea what store we were in until we realized all the products were Hallmark products.

Yeah. I think that picture is from the plaza store, actually.

While that layout clearly looks sad I don't see any future in anything about Hallmark.

Good or bad, Hallmark is only important to grandmothers today.

Who sends a card when you tan text/tweet/im/facebook that person with any pic you want to send?...

There's a backlash against the impersonality of e-media. It may just be a fad or trend, but the tactile paper market actually seems to be improving in some demographics with a lot of people feeling that e-vites and such are kind of trashy and impersonal.

The problem is that the demographic who considers evites trashy and impersonal likely have similar feelings about Hallmark, seeing it as akin to Wal-Mart.

They're kind of stuck in a bad place as a company because they're too big to capture niche markets, but the overall market is decreasing.

I agree with all that.

I don't own a cell phone and never will.

I also see no point in buying a paper card and paying more to ship said meaningless card...

Hallmark is way more than cards so I don't think they are going anywhere all of the sudden like a Blockbuster. But even the cards seem to sell well out of the grocery stores still.

Right. And that's also a part of the problem. Hallmark is basically known for cards (even though they do more), and that's a shitty market. My wife sells a lot of cards, but even the high end cards she sells for $6 only represent $3 profit. That requires a lot of volume to make any kind of money from, and cards are Hallmark's brand.

Contrast that with a single wedding appointment for invites. She can clear $3000+ off one sale, if it's the right customer.

Hallmark doesn't do custom invites and such, though. So being relegated in the public's mind to just cards screws them, as people who buy cards now really want clever/profane/witty and printed by small letterpress printers. None of which is represented by HMK at the moment.

I have had a friend that has worked for them in their Point of Sale Support / training or something - He is very proud of his company and seems to love what he does.

And they do more, I get that as well. They do sell collectables. But even that is a down trending business model. They sell 2nd hand $3it and cute dogs and angel figures.

And even if they suddenly changed tomorrow and sold Batman figurines it would only hasten their demise and isolate the very small market they do have.

So even the people that do buy cards don't tend to buy them there. And they have almost nothing in collectibles. No exclusives other than cheap trinkets...

Are they wanting her to run a store or something corporate?

If it's just a store I have a hard time seeing it be better than what she has.

Oh no. It would be corporate if she were to do it. She's just looking at options. Time for some kind of stretch and she can either do it with someone else or stretch her existing business. The grind of that is wearing us all down though. And scaling it will take even more that we aren't sure we can give right now.