Campbell, California Since 1999
City Beat
Heading Online: Linda Leong is closing her Rubber Stamp Outlet shop on E. Campbell Avenue after six successful years and taking her business online. By Moryt Milo Rubber Stamp Outlet owner Linda Leong sat at a long craft table addressing 2,000 copies of the store's final newsletter. With the store scheduled to close on July 12, Leong wanted to stick all the labels on herself. "This will be the last time," she says. "I didn't want anyone else doing it." Although the store is leaving its E. Campbell Avenue location, the business will continue operating online, and Leong still plans to offer a full range of artistic stamping merchandise, which will be priced lower than it currently is in her store. For Leong, evolving her business into an Internet-based operation was the next logical step, a change she had been mulling over for some time. "There will always be people who need to touch and feel things, but going online is an opportunity to reach an entire community without physical boundaries," she says. The store has had a successful six-year run, and for that, she credits her husband, Clay, who encouraged her to take a chance. Prior to opening the store, Leong was operating a home-based rubber-stamping business but had reached a plateau working out of the house. She had a limited client base and felt "caught" having to run classes out of her home two days a month. "I am a conservative when it comes to business," she says. "So I was concerned about committing to a store." In September 1996 an opportunity arose for her to lease the store at 411 E. Campbell Ave., and the timing was fortunate. Within six weeks of her grand opening, a large rubber-stamping show, Rubberama, was scheduled in one of the large convention halls in downtown San Jose. She worked out an advertising arrangement with the show's sponsors, and it brought a large amount of traffic into her Campbell store. Six months later Leong needed to increase business inventory and build additional display cases to hold new products. "I never expected the business to expand so quickly," she says. An integral part of the store's success was the offering of evening and weekend classes in artistic rubber-stamping, a major customer draw. Clients came for classes on greeting cards, home decor, fabric tattooing, jewelry making and a variety of other subjects. Levels ranged from beginner to advanced, and the classes continually filled up. The craft's allure is that it offers instant gratification, Leong says, and that is why it is considered the second most popular hobby, next to scrapbooking. Longtime friend and class participant Tina Starling agrees. "If you can hold a steady hand for a second while making an image of something, you can create art. From there you discover endless ways to embellish the work - with glue, glitter, embossing, and so much more." Offering classes and seeing familiar customer faces is one aspect of the business Leong will miss, and she does plan to investigate the feasibility of renting space at the Campbell Community Center or the Oddfellows Hall on an annual or semi- annual basis. "It will be sad not having the classes because they are lots of fun and social," Starling says. "We were always learning something new." But a confluence of events helped steer Leong to her final decision to close the store. Leong wanted greater flexibility in her work hours - a difficult task with a store that is open daily - and she began talking with her husband about spending more time together as a family and with their two young children, Justin, 9, and Raegan, 6. At the same time, she began noticing a shift in her customer base and a reduction in foot traffic because work on the coming light rail extension had eliminated parking spaces near her business. Her decision was pushed into high gear during the closure of A Little Something Special, the store located next door to Leong's. 
Stamps Online: The colorful 'bricks and mortar' home of the Rubber Stamp Outlet in downtown Campbell is no more. As A Little Something Special was closing, Leong learned that the property owner, Bob Dodge, had a potential tenant expressing interest in the vacated space. But this person also required additional footage that would include Leong's store. The proposed business, a restaurant, was looking to utilize Leong's space for the bar and part of the open kitchen area, but Leong had a guaranteed lease for another seven years at a low, locked-in rate. "So I began wondering about the next seven years and how difficult it might become with the light rail taking up half the parking spaces and customers calling in more orders than coming in." She decided to negotiate a lease buyout with the owner, and in the end, Leong says, it was a win-win situation for everyone. "I was treated and compensated fairly; the owner will have a higher-paying tenant; and the tenant will have an opportunity to open a restaurant in downtown Campbell, something he is eager to do," she says. Because a lease has not been signed with the prospective tenant, the tenant did not want to be named or interviewed for this story. Leong thought once she committed to leaving, packing up would be easy, but as she was emptying the office space in the back of the store, she discovered that it was a struggle to say good-bye. Several of her employees were also feeling emotional about the decision. Jessica Bradshaw worked part time at the store for more than 2 1/2 years. "I have an accounting job," she says. "But I thought this job was really cool. It was like a play job. I understand Linda's decision to close, but I am sorry to see it go." Kara Falcon agrees. Having started out as a customer, she transitioned into the position of fabric instructor and is sad the classes won't be able to continue. Customers like Starling also think that with the departure of Leong's store, another small piece of downtown Campbell is lost to the community. "Whenever I go to Trader Joe's on my way home from work, I swing by her store and see what the latest stamp is, and now I won't be able do that. I like Campbell. My mom moved here from Illinois when I was a tiny kid because she wanted something more homegrown. The quaintness of Leong's store is what makes the downtown special, and I would rather see that than another restaurant. It is going to be missed." |
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