I recently discovered that OneWayStreet was closing, but being taken over by a new company Creative Ministry Warehouse.  Dale and Liz VonSeggen are the owners, they were the previous owners of OWS I think???  I thought they retired, but I guess not.
Anyone else heard anything?

Nothing on their web site about it. You could email them and ask, or ask on the FB page.

Dale and Liz sold it to Todd Liebenow (SP?) and part of the agreement was they would act as consultants, etc.  They own the building where OWS is located.  I know numbers have been down at the festivals, the Houston fest was way down this year. 

I toured the facility last year when I was in CO. It was impressive, much smaller than I expected it to be.  I guess I assumed it was a bigger place with a lot more employees because the festivals and I-fest are on a large scale.  I know a lot of their stuff is cottage type industry, with people making puppets from home for them.

The way I found out was I placed an order on the 26th, I got the usual e-mail confirming, then another that said one of my items was on backorder.  The e-mail said at the bottom that they would hold all items and mail then all at once to save shipping, but if you wanted them to ship separately, to call.  I really didn't want to wait so I called, the voice mail is what I heard I believe it was Dale's voice stating that OWS will no longer be in operation as of August 30th, but they would honor all previous orders or tickets. The new website creativemin.com would be up and running soon and Creative Ministries Warehouse would be opening Tuesday 9-6-11.  I was shocked to say the least!  I had just placed my order because of a sale they just notified of by e-mail.  I just wonder what will change, will the fall festivals still happen? 
I sent and e-mail and left a voice mail to just cancel my order.  I really hope I get a response.  They haven't taken the money out of my account yet.
I am really sad, but I know that God is in control and even if the festivals are down for them, I know that puppet teams are growing at least around here anyway.  Maybe it's just time for a change.

Dale and Liz are taking it back and it will have a new name. The Liebenows will still work for them. Some things will stay the same but I think there will be some changes too. I believe the change was effective Sept. 1. We were all shocked! They are still planning to hold workshops and festivals and sell merchandise but I think things will look a little different. I am sure you will still get your items if you still wanted to place the order - they are just having to go through the change over.

I know that there is a lot going on, but I really hope I hear something this week.  If I can't get the order soon, I'll have to get my paint somewhere else.  I ordered a few things but the thing I need the most is the black light paint.  I could have ordered it elsewhere, and cheaper actually, but I like to help another ministry when I can you know?  And they were having a sale, so it seemed the right time.

This is where I get blacklight paint:

http://www.wildfirefx.com/black-light-paint.html

I wish them well in this new venture. Von Seggens have devoted many years to puppetry.  I am so thankful they are doing this the right way, not like Puppet Productions did a few years ago, where many people placed orders, waited and waited and lost money, etc.  Then it was reopened under new owners, new name, same products, and old orders were not honored.  Just did not seem like it was handled in a real Christian way.

I wish them well in this new venture. Von Seggens have devoted many years to puppetry.  I am so thankful they are doing this the right way, not like Puppet Productions did a few years ago, where many people placed orders, waited and waited and lost money, etc.  Then it was reopened under new owners, new name, same products, and old orders were not honored.  Just did not seem like it was handled in a real Christian way.

Is that legal - not honoring old orders? I've just been reading my government's business website, and saw that if a company gets bought out, by law, the new owners must honor old orders. Surely the US has similar laws?

Na - This happened in TX, and certainly thought we had laws to cover this. There is a facebook page about this, and the sheriff's office in the city where they were located was taking info at one time. I think no one pursued it because individually no one had enough invested to go to the expense of law suits.  If they had all joined and filed a class action suit they might have been able to do something.  The original company apparently never filed bankruptcy (although the original story was that they were filing), because there are laws regarding property if you do that.

Last I heard nothing had happened.  It was a strange thing, it just closed, literally overnight.  According to what I read they had close to 2 million in annual sales, and had been in business 40 years.  They had some new puppets coming out, and people had ordered them. They kept sending out notes saying the product was delayed, etc.  After literally months of this, they closed (yet they kept going to conferences and taking orders until right before they closed).  By then it was too late to get the credit card companies to refund the money.

I thought the sheriff/courts would force them to sell off old merchandise, materials, patterns, etc., to help pay some of the debt. This did not happen, and almost immediately a new company opened, using their patterns, selling off their old merchandise and so on.   Really a strange thing. 

Na - This happened in TX, and certainly thought we had laws to cover this. There is a facebook page about this, and the sheriff's office in the city where they were located was taking info at one time. I think no one pursued it because individually no one had enough invested to go to the expense of law suits.  If they had all joined and filed a class action suit they might have been able to do something.  The original company apparently never filed bankruptcy (although the original story was that they were filing), because there are laws regarding property if you do that.

I can understand no civil law suit (is that what it's called?) on behalf of the customers. However, here, our federal law would allow the customers contacting the business watchdog/government branch, which I assume would force companies to honor orders. By reporting it to the government, I would think it would avoid the need/cost to approach lawyers. I assumed that something similar would exist (ie. Better Business Bureau, although not sure how that organisation works in regards to US businesses).

Locally speaking, if a customer of mine approached the government business watchdog/consumer complaints commission, that would be like having a tax audit or whatever; and it's illegal to try and avoid complying with both the regulations of having to honor orders, along with whatever warnings/fines/etc the watchdog hands down.

... I'm just finding all this interesting. I've spent the past week or so re-familiarising myself with my local laws and I like knowing what the American differences are. Thank goodness I only have to work within state/federal laws and not try to deal with international laws too!

Last I heard nothing had happened.  It was a strange thing, it just closed, literally overnight.  According to what I read they had close to 2 million in annual sales, and had been in business 40 years.  They had some new puppets coming out, and people had ordered them. They kept sending out notes saying the product was delayed, etc.  After literally months of this, they closed (yet they kept going to conferences and taking orders until right before they closed).  By then it was too late to get the credit card companies to refund the money.

I thought the sheriff/courts would force them to sell off old merchandise, materials, patterns, etc., to help pay some of the debt. This did not happen, and almost immediately a new company opened, using their patterns, selling off their old merchandise and so on.   Really a strange thing. 

I remember the event, and found it shocking too. Personally, I'd think that it would be fairly easy to figure out how long your funds are going to last and be able to have advance warnings to customers about any kind of bankruptcy or lack of products. (In fact, not telling customers you don't have products would be a fine-able offence itself wouldn't it? I mean, it's kind of marketing fraud?)

As for the courts getting involved, maybe it depends on how it works. For instance, in the local issue I explained above, it could be that only once the watchdog commission gets notified - or only after a number of customers notify them - would they know to get involved. If the company never filed bankruptcy, how would government organisations know about the event otherwise?

And if a new company overtook the business, then perhaps it was up to them to notify the government....

Anyway, just thinking out loud. Don't mind me