Originally Posted by
jcrow
I love my LQS and the owner..... She has a building behind her store with lots of long tables for classes and she keeps it open for anyone to come sew anytime they want. The day I went I could hardly find a place to shop because all the gals were sewing in the shop out back. They were having a great time together. Dawn says they do that all the time.....
The part of your post about the "building out back, lots of tables, open for anyone sewing, the gals do it all the time"......sounds like something this LQS owner could "build" on perhaps. If the space is really good, the lighting is wonderful, the atmosphere friendly and welcoming, and many shoppers/quilters avail themselves of it, maybe she could begin to make this more of a focus. Perhaps these quilters would be interested in helping her "buy" fabric, committing to paying for so-and-so many yards of this pattern and that pattern if she will order it, receive it, and cut their individual purchases at a discount before putting what's left out on the sales floor.
I see this as sort of a buying club, charge a nominal 'membership fee' if she wishes or can, and make sure those who come sew with her have first shot at any new inventory. She will be able to afford to sell this to them at a 15%, 20%, even 25% discount because before the bolt even comes into her store, she will have a certain number of its yards already guaranteed sold. What a great bennie for any shop owner!
The quilters will benefit because they won't have to pay shipping as they would with an on line purchase (a shop's cost of shipping is figured into the price per yard of the goods). They will be getting a discount, which is usually why we buy online. AND they will have had a say in what is selected from the fabric vendor and see the fabric samples before they are ordered (isn't that part of our complaint about buying online - we don't get to "feel" it, see it?)....3 good reasons for them to buy from her rather than online!
I believe out LQS need to continually reinvent themselves in these days, not just change displays and add new classes and samples. Sales of locally produced patterns. Retreat-like weekends where a (small-fee) paying customer group gets a mystery quilt design and a discount on their fabric choice for the mystery (the earlier before the weekend that they buy the better the discount?) and they can all work on it during the weekend. If there is a deli nearby, take the quilters' orders and monies, pick up, serve, and clean up after so they can concentrate on just sewing. Pamper!
Just starting the brainstorming gets the juices and ideas flowing to help her!
Jan in VA