OH DEAR, HOW DO I START this off without sounding like I'm coming off like a jilted lover? I was a vendor at the Painted Tree Boutique locations in Glen Allen, VA for about a year and it was underwhelming to say the least. I've had artwork/prints at multiple boutiques through the years (Stuff RVA, RVA Antiques, Medianoche) just to name a few.
What I quickly learned (I think maybe 6 months into my contract) was that Painted Tree was a lot like PaintNite. Does anybody remember the old PaintNite social painting company? If you don't, they were one of the first to start up back in 2013...ish. It was a great place to come out with some friends, have a drink, a few snacks at a bar or restaurant and paint a cheesy painting. It was a lot of fun and was all the rage for a few years. In fact, I think I may have posted about it on here. As an artist it was great because I met a lot of fun people, friendships that I still have today, and learned a TON about entertainment and how to paint fast. Two years after starting in 2014 I was commissioned to do my first live wedding painting and had it not been for PaintNite, I would've never been able to do a live wedding painting.
The problem with PaintNite was that they focused more on growing their brand and expanding franchises that they didn't focus on growing each franchise. They would excite franchisees with how you can grow your own business with the idea, but once you bought into it, they kind of moved on to the next one...and then the next one and multiple business owners talked about how they felt almost abandoned. With dozens of social painting companies popping up (there were a few that were there before PaintNite but PaintNite dominated with quick growth) competition was crazy. By 2019 the craze had kind of died down and PaintNite, instead of focusing on the franchisees, decided to change their name to Yaymaker...a shitty title that everyone in the industry thought was laughable. A friend I hadn't talked to in years even texted me out of the blue "hey, did PaintNite change its name to Yaymaker?" When I told them I hadn't worked at PaintNite in years but it was something we were all aware of, they said, "okay that name change is fucking stupid."
Why am I saying all this? Because Painted Tree is a LOT like PaintNite in the sense that they start a new location, pour a ton of advertising into that location, and then pull back and leave it up to the vendors to bring in the advertising. In fact, they expected vendors to post about Painted Tree on their social media accounts. This would hopefully bring in people to Painted Tree, but not necessarily to your booth. At the Glen Allen location, the former store they occupied still had the original name on it (I think it was Christmas Town or something like that). They did a large grand opening and then..........nothing. Supposedly they had a large social media presence, but there was very little engagement. The old rule of social media applies, 'if you have 120,000 followers but 2 'likes' on each post, most of your followers are bots.' Painted Tree would make a post and less than 10 people on average would comment or like the post.
What we were told was that they did a rigorous application process for all vendors, but walking through the aisles it was clear to see that the bulk of the vendors were not producing their work but ordering chic items from Wish or Temu and reselling them. Tumblers with 'Live, Laugh, Love' and other cheap, Made in China products were common. I honestly felt bad for the real vendors who were making their own items and selling them. My best friend and her wife created designs and either screen printed or sublimated every single shirt they sold.
I think a lot of the vendors were sold on a bill of goods that quite frankly did NOT add up in the long run. Imagine for a moment you're talking to a person, and they say all the right things. They present well, and you imagine a future with them. You meet them and they wine and dine you, and life is great. Then they take you back to the hotel, fuck your brains out and give you the ride of your life. Best. Sex. Ever! "OMG, I could get used to this!!" you say to yourself. And then they rarely text you, call you, and flake out on you. You feel like you've been had. But you got an STD from them, so you're stuck with a shot you have to take on a monthly basis. That's what it was like with Painted Tree. They had an impeccable marketing team and a few success stories. But once you got in the store, you realized that marketing to get more vendors was really all they have going for them. But you're stuck with a contract that you pay for...almost like an STD.
In the creative industry, it's not uncommon to produce products that don't sell, or don't sell well. But at the boutiques I've been at, on average, 9 of 12 months I make a profit - January, July and August are traditionally my slowest months and at those boutiques, I generally don't make enough to cover rent in the slow months. Again, that's to be expected. But at Painted Tree, I made a profit 2 out of the 12 months I was there. If I have low sales in a month, I always wonder if there's something I could've done different. In this case, there was nothing I could've done. Vendor after vendor complained online about low sales and zero marketing and sometimes the only sales they made in a month was from other vendors. If vendors complained on the social media page (corporate rarely responded to emails) their posts were quickly removed. I guess it's easy to brag that no vendors are complaining if you delete all their comments. Anyway, I saw the writing on the wall and once my contract was up, I pulled out in February 2025. I had several friends that were still vendors at Painted Tree and they talked consistently about low sales and vendors leaving. One of them told me that almost half the store had no vendors.
Once their contracts were over, they pulled out one by one. Only one of my friends was still a vendor there, waiting for their contract to end in May when the crooks at Painted Tree corporate declared bankruptcy. I personally feel like they were dishonest about their vendor application process and they preyed on gullible, new business owners. When I terminated my contract with Painted Tree, one of the marketing personnel said, "If your first year sales are low, that's to be expected. On average it takes business owners with Painted Tree 2-3 years before they generate a profit." To which I responded, "I'm in multiple stores, galleries and boutiques, Painted Tree is the only location that I don't sell enough product to cover the booth space every single month."
It was a shitshow, and I hope a massive lawsuit follows. Of course, if anything happens (which I highly doubt) the lawyers will be the ones who walk away with the money. Anyway, below is a mural that I painted at my space at Painted Tree.
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