I worked at a quilt shop for a while. Here is a little on the back side that no one sees. The owners have to consider the labor cost of cutting the fabric and preparing the kit. When creating a kit, you have to pull all the fabrics, decided how many kits to make, figure out the minimum amount of fabric for the kit, compute how much yardage is required to cut for example 600 5" blocks of twenty different fabrics, cut the fabric, separate it into each kit (hoping you don't leave anything out because of the phone calls or customers you are helping while doing this), arrange the fabric in an appealing way, print the fabric list for the package, compute the cost per kit, add in labor, price them, package them and put them on the shelves. When I purchase a kit I always check the fabric before setting in my to do box. As someone who did put kits together, I made the mistake of leaving a piece or two out of a kit. It happens. We are human. Especially when you are putting together 30 kits with say 30 different pieces of fabric. You have to look at a kit a couple of different ways. It is similar to purchasing an item from the grocery store or the convenience store. You will pay a higher price at Walgreens than say Publix. It is called "convenience" store. On the second hand: Say you have a wall hanging with 20 5" squares. You are paying for these 5" squares in 20 different colors rather than purchasing a minimum 1/8 of a yard (which is the minimum that most quilt shops sell) or a fat quarter. Add up the difference and purchasing separately adds up. Therefore the kit can be a better price. For me, I usually love the original colors in the sample and don't want to have to think about putting it together myself. Even if they sit in my to do box for a few years. I also recommend purchasing the backing at the same time or soon after. We all know what is popular today is gone tomorrow. Enjoy!