Originally Posted by iluvmycats
The average life of a local quilt shop is 2 1/2-3 years. Anyone who makes it longer then that is lucky..
I'm so surprised at such a short time! In the western NY area, thinking back over 20 years or so, there are four shops that have been in business all that time (or nearly so)... one new startup this year, two that have disappeared and one that merged with a sewing machine dealer.
So I guess here we have been bucking the trend, successfully.
In contrast: we used to have three fabric chains, one stayed, two closed, one more came, and of course you all know the Wal-Mart story.
Maybe this is an LQS-friendly area?