The New American Dream
Role:
Creator
Producer

SKEEDA - Pilot 1
Mary Beth Sieminski, Suzanne Creurer and Sarah Coburn
New York, USA
written by Kristin King-Ries

When three sisters in Canton, NY, population 4000, started a business selling reusable
canvas grocery bags they didn’t apply for a loan, seek venture capital or pay a
consultant for market research. They took the idea to their knitting circle. The
oldest, Mary Beth, always wanted to run a business. But when her sister Suzanne called
her a year ago with the reusable bag idea, Mary Beth was skeptical. She’d seen the
canvas bags from the local library or PBS, and wasn’t impressed. “I’ve seen those
tree huggers use them in the grocery store.” Then Suzanne gave her some facts that
blew her away. For starters, plastic bags are made from petroleum oil. Only 3% of the
billions produced every year get recycled, and those don’t break down anyway. This got
her thinking about her kids, and her legacy to the next generation. They came up with
the name Skeeda using the first initials of the names of their kids. Mary Beth was
sold on the need but she knew they needed to find a way to make the bags fun. She
kicked around ideas and decided to turn the bags into a fashion accessory. The sisters
took polka dotted canvas and created a product modeled on an actual grocery bag, and
their knitting group loved it.

All three sisters are very close and the third sister, Sarah, knew she’d get dragged
in to the business no matter what. At some point everyone in the family—mom, dad,
husbands—has been tapped to help. Mary Beth’s husband came up with the motto
‘Paper or Plastic Never Looked So Bad.’ And mom set up several retail accounts for
them. But Sarah hesitated at first. “It sounds silly but I’m short and the handles
seemed kind of long.” Little by little she got involved. Once she started to use the
bags, she was converted.  You can wear the bag on your shoulder, that’s what the long
straps are for. The bags are so easy to use and fit so much.

Suzanne sewed. Sarah came up with a business plan. Mary Beth spent hours on the
internet researching fabric suppliers, manufacturers and online payment options. “Ten
years ago I wouldn’t have been able to make it work. Now I can sit in my living room
and get things done.” But even with all the sisters on board, getting Skeeda going has
been tough. Mary Beth works as a health care professional. Suzanne teaches high school,
and Sarah works for St. Lawrence College. Between the three of them they have six kids
under the age of five. Mary Beth is expecting another child in a month. They do what
they can during the day, and work at night after the kids go to bed. Weekends too. The
nice thing about having three sisters is they can trade off child care. They hope
someday the business will be big enough that they won’t have to juggle that with their
day jobs. One of the early hurdles they faced was a fabric supplier in Chicago decided
to stop printing one of their signature fabrics. “Sometimes you just have to beg,
” Mary Beth says. She learned he was a big Black Hawks fan. Her husband worked in NHL
for years and knew the general manager of the Hawks, so she resorted to bribing him
with tickets to a game. Even though she ended up not getting tickets, the supplier
appreciated the effort and decided to reprint.

Their first sales were to a network of family and friends. Then they sold the bags at
the local farmers market, rotating who ran the booth and who watched the kids. People
in town embraced the product and sales were good. The website went up in July which
helped them reach a much broader audience. A student group at a local college sold
the bags as a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity before Christmas, and when students
went home for the holidays they took their bags with them. Skeeda helped out a good
cause and got great exposure at the same time.

Right now they run the operation at Mary Beth’s house. Suzanne no longer does the
sewing. The sisters wanted to manufacture them in the US in spite of extra costs.
People advised them to manufacture in China for far less, but they wanted to do it in
the US, and they found a manufacturer in Tennessee. They set their price of $14 a bag
not by doubling manufacturing costs but by charging what people are comfortable paying.
This means smaller margins, but they are making it work.

It seems the reusable grocery bag as fashion statement is an idea whose time has come.
A town is considering legislation to ban plastic bags, and they contacted MB about
offering Skeeda as a high end option. Internet sales keep growing and they continue to
add retail accounts. Skeeda was chosen in 2007 as an MTV celeb gift choice, and is
being mentioned on blogs. Spreading awareness about what plastic bags are doing to the environment is what makes Suzanne especially happy. For Sarah it’s the little things,
like when friends come back to buy more, or the first time they sold to a stranger.
It’s evidence that people aren’t buying them just to be nice. Recently a woman in the
grocery store looked enviously at Mary Beth’s Skeeda and said, ‘You have one of those
bags!’ They look forward to a time when the answer to the question ‘paper or plastic?’
is ‘No thanks, I’ve got my Skeeda.’