As Linda said, there are better places than the craft store to buy your supplies. When starting out as a newbie to machine embroidery, it's a good idea to chat with the dealer. This time of year all the top digitizers (the guys who write the designs in a language the machine understands) are "on the road" giving seminars at local dealers. For
$35-$50 for a full day you get 5-7 hours of lecture, examples, and often other goodies. They of course want to sell their stuff, so there will be very good deals on stabilizers, thread, and design packs. At one of the Anita Goodesign seminars you will learn more than you can pack into your brain. My dealer here in Michigan usually hosts at least three of the major digitizers each year. Well worth the $ to attend.