Don't shop at Bed, Bath & Beyond anymore!

NPR : Artists Take Up Fight Against China Knockoffs: "Some New England crafts artists are claiming their works have been copied in China and are being sold cheaply in nearby stores. They've filed suit against the Christmas Tree Shops, a New England houseware chain." which is owned by Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Go and listen to the broadcast (its not very long) for yourself. The gist of it is that Xmas Tree Shop's buyers went to Cape Cod artists' shops and found cool, handcrafted items, bought them and then sent them to China to be replicated EXACTLY. Now, they are sold in the stores, in the same towns as the artists being ripped-off, for less than the cost of materials to the original artist. The buyers never mentioned to the artist that the shop would like to replicate the item, nor were they presented with an option to sell that design for some amount of money to the Xmas Tree Shops. One (1) item was bought retail and now thousands are being sold for only a few dollars.

I could rant on about this for pages, but I won't because I have to figure out how much SteelDeck we need for a job. Maybe I will post again later. Tell all your friends, link back to the npr page and don't shop at BBB anymore, because this sort of business practice should not be rewarded.