Generally items being sold in a retail setting are manufactured for one fourth the price. For example, if you see a shirt that is $40, it probably cost $10 to make, was sold by the wholesaler for $20 to the retailer, and the retailer put it on the floor for $40.
In my prior experience in the Dallas, TX, area, many quilt shops keystone their fabric prices (double from wholesale) and also add a bit toward the shipping cost....like maybe $.25-.50 per yard. Doing this, why do you think that so many quilt shops are failing?
From that doubling of the price they pay to buy a bolt of fabric, they have to pay their staff, the utilities, the rent, advertising, newsletters, teachers, security company, bookkeepers/accountants/lawyer, cleaning crew, misc. supplies and tools, support the local guilds with door prizes, and hundreds of other expenses one never thinks about. And yet we constantly expect them to put their merchandise on sale, give *us* a discount, carry more and more inventory, offer free demos, and on and on and on.
I can hardly believe that current shops do this much differently than we did a decade ago. If shops are marking their fabrics up 3-4x the wholsale price now, then.........wow.
Jan in VA