WEB SITE UPDATE

Although it looked like semaphore it was only a lot of arm waving -- not even semathree. But the Cultcha Shop did broaden the scope of the site, even if it did not fulfil many of our ambitions. The motivating force behind getting the shop on-line was largely the perception that for most of our visitors cannabis was the primary reason for paying us a visit. And, indeed, the only parts of the shop that were ever developed were the cannabis seed pages and the books department. Although there is some merchandise in other departments, the store could hardly be described as ‘well stocked.’
...Although when we put the Cultcha Shop together we had great plans for it, in the final analysis, the development of the commercial aspects of this site came in a poor second in the contest between commerce and communication. The Coffeehouse Culture concept is not and has never been a commercial one. While we wish to provide visitors to our site with a worthwhile, interesting and fulfilling experience, we have better ways to provide it than shopping.
...Having said that, like every site we felt the need to provide services to our visitors as well as entertainment. And the Cultcha Shop was one of the mediums through which we hoped to fulfil that need. But not at the expense of maintaining the site or developing other, more meaningful, areas with it.
...There was another factor that influenced our decision (if you can call a lack of time a decision) not to develop the Cultcha Shop for the moment. It was the conviction that we did not wish to subscribe to the commercialisation of the web. The world wide web was originally designed to be a free resource of information and commmunication but somehow that noble aim was becoming sublimated to the same old commercial interests that ruin every good scene. We, honestly, felt that we could not subscribe to or be a part of that corruption. The web was always intended to be a free information and communication resource and that is how it should be.
...Having created the departmental structure of the Cultcha Shop we developed the ones that were important to us -- the Publications Department and seed section of the Smoking Departments -- put what we could in the others and then moved on. Had all the departments been developed the Cultcha Shop would have con-tained: a Clothing Department featuring fashions from some of the leading hemp fashion houses as well as the Coffeehouse Culture t-shirts which were the only thing we could put into the department at the time; a Smoking Department containing not just seeds but pipes and other smoking paraphernalia, grow products, processing products and supplies; a Multimedia Department containing electronic goods, videos and DVDs and an extensive music section and a large Household Department containing everything from drapes to lighting to crystals.
...As an annex to the Household Department, we intended -- and do still intend -- to put up a gallery containing original works of art by some of Amsterdam’s impoverished (but very talented) artists.
...The problem we encountered with the development of the shop was the same one that has bogged us down on almost every level at one time or another -- time. Isn’t it a bugger? Although we could have spent time developing the shop, it was a big commitment. Indeed, one that required almost total focus. It was, however, not what the Coffeehouse Culture site was about. To devote a lot of time to developing the Cultcha Shop seemed to be going off at a tangent. There were much more important things to do than pursue the Beast of Mammon; Coffeehouse Culture has something important to say, something important to the future of the world and the people in it. And nothing, we felt, should distract us from that mission.
...Even the most highly developed parts of the Cultcha Shop have never been commercially exploited. Having put up 19 pages of seeds from the catalogues of almost all the leading Amsterdam houses, we took a long look at the law regarding the international transportation of hemp seeds, at the statistics covering customs and excise interception and at the costs involved and reached the conclusion that there were simply too many risks involved to make the sale of seeds anywhere outside of the Netherlands worthwhile. Apart from any other consideration, we felt that it would do little for our reputation if seeds that had been paid for did not arrive. Whatever the reason.
...One of the main reasons for putting up the seed pages had been to attract visitors to the site and it seemed to achieve its purpose for the orders came rolling in. We just didn’t respond to them. But one day we’ll write everyone a nice personal letter of apology. Nor was the seed section updated to reflect its dormancy.
...Plans for putting the seed section together in a different format are already taking shape. Instead of selling the seeds ourselves, we will provide a catalogue for the seed houses that offers links to their own pages.
...By far the most successful of the Cultcha Shop departments -- probably because the order processing is not handled by us -- has been the Publications Department. The pages of Coffeehouse Culture have for long included recommended reading lists relating to the material on the page and the development of a longer more expansive list seemed to be a natural development of this. The Publications Department gave us the opportunity to recommend a wider range of books. As with the page-based Recommended Reading lists, almost all the books within the Cultcha Shop lists have been read by the editor and come with his personal recommendation.
...One new aspect of the Publications Department was our own publishing company, which produced a paper edition of the web version of issue one. This has proved to be popular among those who like to do their reading in the toilet.
...Empty and echoing it might be, but the Cultcha Shop sails on. Everything is in place for its eventual commercial development, including a credit card payment system, it is just a question of time.

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