Originally Posted by stewyscrewy
To me it is jsut a gimmic to get you to buy (a vaction condo) just for thier new products or old ones they are trying to get rid of. Maybe you will have fun doing this as if thier fabrics turn out free would be a good thing.
Please don't call creative attempts to entice customers into one's store a "gimmick." These LQS don't self support, you know. The sale of their merchandise pays the bills....and doesn't often provide much real income on top of that for the owners, either!
This BOM sales technique in several formats has been around for a bit over a decade and was wildly popular for shops and customers when it began. For us personally, it was a way to demonstrate a new product that may not have been sold in our area before or may have just very recently come on the market. Those customers who bought it that morning of the block/demo received a 10% discount on it, but they were also invited to come for the BOM and make no other purchase.
In most small LQS, I ask you, HOW else can you get demonstrations of new things to the customers, expand on the inventory and keep things fresh in the shop?
Your local grocery store has "taste testing demos" all the time; do we resent THEM? This sort of thing is simply good business, "marketing".
I, too, am really worried about the cost of goods for our art these days, but expecting a LQS to survive on "air" and no paying customers is a bit far-fetched. Visit these demos when you can, you might actually learn a thing or two and enjoy the energy and company of like minds on that day!
Jan in VA