Name of business:  Niles Scrapbooking, Etc.

Name of owner:  Teresa and John Herman

Address of business:  2830 S. 11th St., Niles

Date business opened:  March 31, 2007

Where are you from originally?  Southern California, just north of Los Angeles

What type of business do you operate — what you sell, services provided? Niles Scrapbooking, Etc. is a scrapbooking, rubber-stamping and paper-crafting store. We sell scrapbooking albums, paper and cardstock, stickers and other embellishments, inks, rubber and acrylic stamps, punches, dies and other tools. We carry paper and embellishments for our local schools as well as Michigan, Michigan State, Notre Dame and Purdue. Products are available for a variety of subjects including Christmas and other holidays, sports, school days, travel, baby, 4-H, fair and wedding.

What sets your business apart from similar ventures? We try not to duplicate the products that you can get at the big box craft stores. This allows us to carry unique brands and items like Flower Soft and Little Yellow Bicycle.  For the products we do carry in common, quite often our prices are lower. We know that no one can carry everything, so we are happy to special order — our distributor carries products from almost every scrapbooking or paper crafting company. We also special order larger quantities for use in making wedding invitations or programs. There is no extra fee, as long as we are allowed enough time to get the shipment here with regular ground shipping. We hold crops at least once a week, including evening crops on alternating Fridays and Saturdays.

Friday nights are Pizza Crops and we order from Pizza Transit.  We also hold special event crops that last as long as two days and include meals.

Many of the complaints I hear from our customers is the lack of customer service in the big stores. We do our best to know our customers and carry the products they want.

Twice a year we hold a “Garage” sale. Customers sell their gently used scrapbooking or stamping supplies and keep the money they make. It’s a fun, hectic event.

What customers do you reach?  We have customers in our database from as far away as California, Texas and New York. Our regular customers come from all parts of Michiana — from LaPorte, Ind., to Kalamazoo, Mich.

How does the future look? The scrapbooking industry has been seriously damaged in this economy. According to trade magazines, 10 scrapbooking stores a month are closing in the U.S. Most scrapbookers are moms — gas and groceries come first, and mom’s little luxuries come later. We are the only store left within an hour in any direction. We are doing our best to stay open until the economy improves and our wonderful, loyal customers are doing their best to help.

Recognition: We have been named “Best Arts and Crafts Store” by the Leaders’ readers every year since we opened.

Telephone number:  (269) 683-3008

Hours: Summer hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday; noon to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday; and closed Monday and Tuesday. We are also open for shopping when we are open for crops.