If someone is selling fabric for $1.99, they are likely getting either second quality or deeply discounted fabric. I can tell you from my experience in fabric retail in the late nineties, quilt shops are likely paying at least $5.50 wholesale plus shipping for most of their quilt shop quality fabrics. On top of that cost, they have to pay employees, exorbitant taxes (you really get reamed as a small business), rent or mortgage on the store, the costs of items that they have to sell below cost because they aren't moving, liability insurance, etc.
I suspect the difference in fabric prices is due to differing rent? It's possible that some gouging is going on, but not as much as you think.
If anyone is seriously gouging, it's probably the wholesalers. Fabric printing processes could only have improved and gotten less expensive over time. Also, the fabric is ordered before it prints, so most of it is sold before a printing, meaning they don't have the cost of carrying signficant inventory. Wages have not kept up with inflation. Very little reason for prices to have gone up so much.
That said, I don't buy fabric anymore. I can't afford it. I'm hoping that what I have can get me through until I "retire" from quilting. And I think the only way to get prices down is to vote with our pocketbooks. Don't buy and the wholesalers will do something to fix the problem.
Last edited by TeresaA; 03-20-2014 at 05:03 AM.