There was an interesting article on Yahoo this past week about the top 10 mistakes small businesses make.
I've not been buying a lot of fabric lately but I do "shop" my LQS frequently. I don't buy every time I go in there. It's not my store so they can do things the way they please but I can give them a couple of things that would prompt me to personally buy more often in there....but the issues are not big enough for me to not shop there. The LQS is closer to me than Joanne's or Hancock Fabrics. I will say though, when I went in to look at their Christmas fabric on sale - I was disappointed as it was only 25% off. There was a lot available too.
My local scrapbook store closes at the end of this month. Yes, there's another one but it's a longer drive for me. I do plan on going to a couple of their classes but I don't plan on doing the midnight crops as of now. I get that the economy sucks for some of these smaller businesses but sometimes I gotta wonder if there's not something they can't do to help themselves.....I paid $3 on a Friday for as much as a 14 hour crop at my local scrapbook store. Seriously $3 for that whole time - I loved doing that so much I would have gladly paid $1/hr even if I didn't stay 10am-12am I would have stayed longer than 3 hours and that would have put more $$ in their pot. Friday nights were full too! There are a bunch of us now trying to figure out do we go to the other store on Fridays (that charges $5 for the same 10am-12am) or do we get together at our homes.... And you can bet I spent more than my crop fee on Fridays :D
I'm not a big online shopper for fabric or scrapbook supplies. So it's not like I take my money online to get a better deal. ;)