The above popped up in my email inbox from Dick Blick along with a 20% off to celebrate Blick's official announcement of the acquisition of Utrecht.
I don't know that I actually think this is a good thing or not. I mean... I like Dick Blick and I really REALLY like Utrecht but if it comes down to picking a brand that I would be fiercely loyal to I would actually pick Utrecht all the way because from my experience they have a higher quality than Blick does for artist grade materials and at a very reasonable price point. Don't get me wrong, Blick brand is pretty solid and reasonable for my school's supply budget but when it comes down to it I have time and time again been able to really trust Utrecht to deliver some very high quality products.
Does this new acquisition mean that Utrecht brand will end up going away because Blick brand is the bigger brother now? That makes me sad because Utrecht brand is REALLY solid for brushes and oil paints and all sorts of other things that I use beyond just for my own art education and instruction purposes.
I guess time will tell how this will work itself out. It would be nice if some of the Blick brand bowed to the Utrecht brand and then phased out the Blick stuff over the Utrecht stuff even if the Utrecht stuff ends up being called Blick brand. (That was a mouth full but hopefully you get what I was trying to say!)
Thanks for sharing -- I hadn't heard about this development. We just had a Utrecht go in really near to where I live and I was worried that it might not get enough business to compete with Blick (that's about 7 miles away). Now I won't have to worry about that!!
ReplyDeleteWow! You are so close to a Utrecht and a Blick! I just have Michaels and AC Moore and the closest Utrecht is smack dab in the middle of DC. I go there about once every three months if I am lucky. Still, I just placed an order from Blick today. I got free shipping so it was a sweet deal on top of some really awesome clearance items I otherwise would have bought anyway.
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