Originally Posted by PatriceJ
P.S. - how wonderful to know there's a shopkeeper out there who cares enough to have asked the question. your customers will love you for it. :P :P :P
Thanks, Patrice, for the kind words!
I've instructed my staff, from the beginning, to always give that extra inch. We don't really talk about it - or advertise it - we just do it, 'cause it seems the right thing to do and we don't want to come across as "cheap".
But... it really does add up. We figure that due to "generous measuring" on every 15 yard bolt, between 5/8 and 3/4 yard "vanishes". That's 5% of the bolt gone. I don't even want to do the next calculation, that of multiplying it by all the bolts we buy in a year! In the end, it comes down to trying to please our customers.
And yet... we still can't please them all the time. I posted this question because I was wrestling with the issue. We have a repeat customer who almost always orders 1/4 yard cuts, and she e-mailed us to complain that after straightening the cut she didn't have her 9". Well... it's probably that "warped grain" issue - or perhaps she washed it first and it shrank a bit. Whatever it was, she wasn't happy this time. So I thought I'd take the question to the "professional customers" on this forum. Clearly you all have a lot of experience BUYING, and I wanted to get a sense of what most people think. So thank you all for posting. Seems what we're doing is pretty much on target.