I thought that I would renew this old thread to see how things may have changed since last May. Has anyone noticed additional product or service changes at their brick & mortar LQS in the past six months (besides them closing)? I’m referring to taking on new and different retail products or adding additional services.
With the increase in both fabric and fuel prices, I think small local shops will be looking for ways to diversify to stay afloat. Some quilters are less able to hop in the car with a couple of friends to go shop hopping to that distant shop that they’ve heard about, at least not as often as they once did. If traveling and shopping goes on the decline, especially in the rural areas, do you think small shops will try new products and services, or try going online with their business? Online fabric sales are getting very competitive.
We’re not ready to go online yet, but we’ve had to expand our service area again (sq ft of usable shop space) and obviously, that shrinks our retail fabric & notions space. We started out in 2006 using 6.4% of our floor space for services (ironing, SM repair, & sewing/mending/alterations). It was originally just something to keep us busy during slow retail activity. But mending and alterations have been increasing, so in 2010, we increased that space to 10.6%, and this past month, we have increased that to 13.9% to be able to manage the service. Each time that we expand, we lose space for quilting fabric.
Do you think that your LQS will change or stay the same? Do you think that brick & mortar fabric shops may become a thing of the past?
CD in Oklahoma