I made a page for each shop I was going to -- it listed the name of the shop, address, phone, what kind of fabric the carry, did I like the shop/people and what I bought. I included a mapquest map of the area and directions if there were any.
When shopping, I try to buy fabric that the LQS does not carry. In some shops, I could only find a fat quarter that I would buy, but usually I found more (my stash exploded from the shop hops). My friend and I always tried to buy at least a fat quarter as a thankyou to the shop for participating. I only remember one shop where we did not buy anything and it was because of the staff not the fabric (most of us took cameras with us to take pictures of the blocks the various shops had and this shop would not even allow us in the shop with cameras -- and they charged a fortune for their completer kits (I was not about to pay $5 for a 5"sq, and a 2 2"x5" strips). We left with our blocks and nothing else (and we were not alone).