Ok... I'll try to answer all the questions!
First, I'm not offended by any of the questions.
Cranston's five-bolt minimum is any five bolts. It doesn't have to be five bolts of the SAME item. And it can include QT (Quilting Treasures) or the VIP line. They'll be happy to sell any combination of fabrics. It just has to be full bolts. Usually the VIP fabrics are 10 yards per bolt but it could be less; they tend to wrap the number of yards per bolt depending on what their biggest customer for that pattern wants. For instance, their Hautman "wolves" line is still carried by Wal-Mart, and those have been 8 yard bolts lately. Most of the rest are 10. The QT line used to be 15 yards per bolt and most still are... but this spring they said that they were going to go to 12 yard bolts as it made it less costly for a LQS to stock a greater variety. But... I'm still seeing a mix of 12s and 15s. It's the nature of the business that the number of yards per bolt can vary a couple of yards either way. You never know exactly what you're going to get, until you have it in your hands.
Where to see their offerings? Cranston's website is
http://www.cranstonvillage.com; you can see the VIP line there. For the QT line go to
http://www.quiltingtreasures.com. For what it's worth, they update the QT site very regularly but the VIP side of things has not really been updated much this past year. (I believe their mind has been on other things...) These websites show what is currently available, not the future groups. For now, you can see future groups at the distributors' websites. Here are some:
http://www.eeschenck.com http://www.checkerdist.com
You probably won't find much of the VIP line at LQSs as by and large small shops don't want to carry fabrics that Wal-Mart or other chains do. We can't compete with their retail prices and coupons. I carry VIP because I like the designs. The VIP brand is priced less than quilt-shop-only fabrics, which means that I have something to offer at a lower price-point.
You may love or hate their designs, but I can't say enough good things about the people at Cranston! We probably buy more product from them than any other brand; in part because they refer customers to us, both for bolt sales and smaller, by-the-yard quantities. We don't stock ALL their lines (we wouldn't have room for it!) but are certainly open to suggestions about what we SHOULD be carrying as to by-the-yard retail fabrics. For full bolts, we can get anything that they currently have available with the exception of a few licensed fabrics that are simply not available to the retail market (Mary Engelbreit, for instance).
As to what percentage of our sales is Cranston products... I really don't know, as it changes all the time. I can say that when their Garden Tales (Peter Rabbit) collection came out, that one line accounted for 10% of our total sales (when the collection was new). But that was a rare and wonderful occurrence, to have such a single strong seller. We definitely enjoyed it, while it lasted!
One good thing I'd like to mention about the VIP line is that there has been such nice longevity to some of the prints. For anyone who likes to be able to count on a print being around for a while (including crafters and other small manufacturers), VIP's line has been a consistently reliable choice; some of the prints have run for many years.
In case anyone is wondering why I'm so keen on Cranston products, it started because they were still printing in the US, and I'm frankly very passionate about the concept of "buy USA-made/local; it feeds your neighbors". And Cranston knew it. That's why they called me to personally deliver the sad news about the mill closing. And now, since we have established this history and good rapport, even though they no longer print in the US I will still do what I can to help them succeed.
A question was raised as to the definition of who is a "business customer"... that's basically anyone with a tax id. It would include chains, LQSs, and "professional" crafters. I think, though I'm not sure, that this would also include organizations such as churches and schools... though the final decision on that would rest with Cranston.
And as far as no longer selling through distributors... they are not the first to go that route; Michael Miller stopped using distributors a year or two ago. The difficulty - and this is the "inside scoop", as you wouldn't know this if you've never been in on a sales call from a distributor's sales rep - is that many of the distributors have their own lines of fabric which they prefer to show first, and then the various other makers don't get their lines shown as much. For instance, E. E. Schenck has the Galaxy and Maywood lines, Troy Corporation has Riverwoods, Needlecraft shares their warehouse with Elizabeth Studios (which has helped that new company to get launched)... and so on. As a buyer, I can't possibly buy all the lines that I'm shown... and so I tend to "shoot my wad" on the first things I see, and by the time I get to the bottom of the stack of fabrics, I can't afford to choose any more. You get the picture. The reps come through the door with several SUITCASES of goods. (Yes, it is SO MUCH FUN! Until the money runs out...)
I think I've answered all the questions - at least, all the ones that were posted before I started composing this very LONG reply.
Any others, go ahead and ask. I don't want my posts to come across as advertisements (other than a plug for Cranston, in this case)... so if you have a question which you think would be better sent as a private message, you can always send me one.