Originally Posted by creativesheila
I don't know what is going to happen to quilt shops. I used to be a vendor at quilt shop merchant malls. Unless you were selling deeply discounted fabric from old collections, it was hard to make a profit. I had to sell new collections for $12 a yard JUST to make the booth rent, and cover my expenses. I hardly ever made a profit. Quilt shops have so many expenses - rent, taxes, employees, utilities. The costs of selling on line are much less. I do buy online but I don't want to lose quilt shops - that is where we take classes, can go to touch the fabric and see it in person. Quilt shop owners have taken a lot of risk to have a shop. Perhaps there is a balance between shopping on line and supporting local shops. I have an online shop on ETSY where I am LIQUIDATING my inventory from selling at shows. My prices are very low so I am competing with quilt shops too but I still don't want to lose them. I try to go to my local shop once a month and I always find the local quilt shops when I travel.
Well, see what you say is why I *want* to shop there. I do buy all of my notions and things there, where they are actually cheaper than anywhere else locally - spied a nice big cutting mat while I was there today, but have to wait until pay day lol. I would hate to see this shop go out of business, because it's the only REAL quilt shop in my area (I'd have to travel 2+ hours for another one). But the reality is that for quilting fabric, it's better for *my* pocket book to shop elsewhere. That's why I'm sad.