WHY A SHOP WOULD WANT THIS

The shop is carrying a risk it did not agree to either.

Consignment is usually framed as protection for the maker. In practice the shop is just as exposed, and for the same reason.

One shelf, four makers, nobody asking

months on the shelf

The shop is not holding this stock deliberately. It is holding it because the arrangement never ended and asking would read as a rejection.

What the shop is exposed to, and whether it agreed to it
Shelf space held indefinitelynoA placement with no end date
Who absorbs a breakagenoNever discussed at handover
Whose count is correctnoThe maker’s memory is the only record
The commission splityesAgreed at the start, and honoured

Three of the four were never agreed to by anybody. They are simply what happens when a placement has no stated end.

  • Stock with no end date

    Work that has not sold in a year is still occupying shelf space, and asking the maker to collect it feels like a rejection.

  • Liability for breakage is unclear

    Nobody agreed who carries a broken piece, so it becomes a conversation nobody wants to have.

  • The maker's memory is the record

    If the count is disputed, the shop has no independent evidence of what arrived or what sold.

  • Ending it damages a relationship

    A shop that wants to stop carrying a line has no neutral way to do it, so it carries the line.

A term that ends on its own is as much a relief for the shop as it is a protection for the maker.