The economy for one. unless you are using it for income, it is a recreational expense. When some is unemployed they are less likely to spend on their hobbies. Sewing machines aren't cheap, especially if you want the higher end modern ones you are at least looking at close to 1000. With people struggling with their mortgages, who is going to shell out that kind of money, and if they have a nice one but money is tight they are also less likely to upgrade even though they might want to. Look at what the economy has done to the sale of cars, electronics, how many retail stores have gone out of business or cloed down some of their stores, circut city, best buy, GM, dodge. Everything is affected by this economy