We have an LQS in a neighboring town, about 25 minutes from here, and they have been in business for 43 years I heard the owner state on the phone yesterday while I was there and still going strong.
There prices are less than any other LQS I've ever been in, customer servcie is great, and always a great selection of fabrics. Also if you go in there and ask them for a certain brand fabric or type they will research and get it for you.
I use to buy my fabric at WalMart but quality is bad anymore so seldom will buy there anymore unless I find a piece that seems good quality for the price and I use to frequent Hancock's and JoAnn's but there prices are as high if not higher than this LQS has it and alot of there fabric is not much better than Walmarts for the most part so I travel in the opposite direction and buy most of my fabric at this LQS.
This LQS has folks traveling from surrounding towns and as far away is Jacksonville, Fl and some places in SC, AL to buy from her.
She is also fair to her customers. For instance if you pick up a bolt of fabric and you want 1 yard and there is say 1 1/2 yards on it or even 1 3/4 yard she will give it all to you for the price of a yard. She also has 3 areas in her store where she moves higher priced fabric to make room for new fabric and reduces it from $1.98 to $2.98 a yard from $5.95 to $8.95 a yard. She sells her quality high end fabric about $4 a yard less than other LQS.
I can buy a yard of fabric for $5.95 that is high end and Walmarts sells there's at that price and a much lesser quality fabric. I can buy a yard of the $7.98 a yard at this LQS and other LQS online and other areas have the same thing for $12.98 on up.
No wonder she has been in business for 43 years.......her prices are fair and they give great customer satisfaction. Yes even in these economic times she is doing well because she keeps her prices lower than other places therefore she gets repeat business. Also word of mouth brings in folks from out of this state to shop there when traveling. She was telling me recently that she sometimes gets phone calls from folks in other states wanting to buy and she ships it to them and she doesn't even have a presence online with the exception of folks like us telling others about the place.