At first I was going to title this post, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Then I thought that was too cliche. So my next proposed title was, “Cafepress Gets A Whacking For A Change.” Then it was, “What Goes Around Comes Around.” And then it was, “Cafepress Get’s Hit By The Karma Bug.” But none of those seemed to work. So then it hit me and I remembered the scene from Star Wars Episode I where Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jar Jar Binks and Qui-Gon Jinn were trolling around under the waters of Naboo. Suddenly they are attacked by a “HUGE GOOBERFISH!” that grabs hold of their vessel and starts having them for lunch. Then, just as suddenly, another sea monster appears, rips the Gooberfish from the back of their sub and saves them from certain death. At which point Qui-Gon wisely mutters, “There’s always a bigger fish.”

His reference is of course to the fact that no matter how big you think you are, someone else is always able to take you down a peg. Or in this case, have you over dinner as the main course.

Cafepress has been doing a lot of things to shopkeepers that have done nothing to help us make money using their system. We are like our heroes in Star Wars and they are like the Huge Gooberfish that has latched on, making us squirm. Well, not much has changed on that front except that a bigger fish has risen up and taken a bite out of them it seems.

That bigger fish? None other than Google.

Here is the email I received today from the Death Star that is Google Headquarters:

Hello,

We’re happy to let you know that as of September 3rd, individual sellers on marketplaces no longer need to submit feeds to Google Product Search. Going forward, marketplaces will be responsible for submitting a feed of all their sellers’ items, so we will be retiring your account to avoid duplicate entries on Product Search. Cafepress will also be responsible for ensuring that your feeds are up-to-date and compliant with our policies.

In most cases, marketplaces already submit feeds of their sellers’ items. If you have any further questions about your items or Google Product Search, please contact Cafepress. We look forward to continuing to display your products, and hope you enjoy the new streamlined submission process.

Sincerely,

The Google Team

Email preferences: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Base product or account.

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

With one swipe of their hand, and with no notice (ala Cafepress) Google has removed my products from their database leaving only the few that Cafepress has chosen to include in their own product feeds. My understanding is that Cafepress is not allowed to submit their entire product database to Google so the number of those products are limited. In the past before I started submitting my own product feeds I never had all of my products showing up in Google’s shopping database so I must still work under the assumption that this is true.

And while this sucks for me, do not think for a moment that it does not suck for Cafepress too! Because one of the ways they were able to get more products in the database was for individual shopkeepers to submit their own feeds which in the past Google has explicitly told me they had no problem with. Now things have changed and it looks like thousands, perhaps tens of thousands and maybe even hundreds of thousands of CP based products are gone. If my assumptions are right, while I might loose some sales multiply those losses by thousands of shopkeepers and think about how much money Cafepress stands to loose.

Now the rumor is that Cafepress worked with Google to accomplish this feat because shopkeepers were pulling their products from the Marketplace and then submitting their own feeds. My understanding is that Cafepress was caught off guard by this sudden move and caught unawares. While I find it hard to believe that Google would make such a change while not consulting and contacting one of the largest retailers using its services, I sort of can believe it based on the general arrogance that oozes from Google at times. The fact that the email came from a do not reply address and specifically tells us to direct our questions to Cafepress without notifying Cafepress is just typical Google. Couple that with the arrogance of dropping this major change right before a holiday weekend as Google employees are heading out of the office only further shows how arrogant Google is.

Also it should be noted that this applies to other PoDs too! That includes Zazzle. So it does not appear to be a CP spearheaded effort.

But what is done is done. Looks like Cafepress will have to have a chat with Google to find a solution. But in the meantime let me run down my thoughts directed at Cafepress.

First, how does it feel to have a bite taken out of you by a bigger fish? Hurts doesn’t it?

Second, now that you have have this bite taken out of you will you think though your actions that take bites out of smaller fish (like shopkeepers) before biting them?

Third, if you go whining to Google what are the odds that they will care? And if they don’t care and make you feel like you have made shopkeepers feel will this affect how you treat us in the future?

See, right now you have a bunch of us talking to Google trying to get them to understand our predicament and how some of the prices are different between our shops and the marketplace and how by doing this Google is not letting people find the best price! But we are not on your side Cafepress. We are not on your side because you’ve kicked us in the babymaker too many times for us to be. We are on our own side.

So all you are getting is even more negative press. Whereas if you hadn’t grabbed our nuts and twisted so many times over the past year we would be signing your praises and on your side in this fight.

But like I said, we are not doing that.

Would you like some ice for your own babymaker Cafepress? We’ve got a lot to spare because ours are very sore. No thanks to you.

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J.J. Jackson is President of Land of the Free Studios, Inc. and Cafepress “Top Shopkeeper”. He has been selling t-shirts on-line since 2004 and is the owner of the T-Shirt Entrepreneur, a site dedicated to helping people get involved in the T-shirt Economy. He is also the owner of Funny When Wet T-shirts, American Infidel Tshirts, Uber Gamer T-shirts as well as many other online t-shirt and gift stores.