As someone who recently closed their "physical" store within the last few months and moved back home and online for the retail portion of the business, I have to give some "insight" into quilt store closings.
Owners (mostly renters) pay anywhere from $500-$2000 per month for rent, insurance, utilities. Add to that costs of advertising (word of mouth is ALWAYS appreciated), cost of goods to sell (quality fabric costs anywhere from $5 and yard a up WHOLESALE price )plus add in the cost of shipping to recoup and buying enough inventory to keep the store current and people interested. Then there are samples to find the time to make, classes to come up with that hopefully people will sign up for and buy other things in the meantime, finding the time to "do it all yourself because when you have others help you or you "hire them" even if you are paying them with fabric or other store inventory- you are legally resposnsible for their different taxes to report etc. etc. etc.
Yes, we should support local small quilt businesses, but in the end many are closing because of rising costs and not enough sales to cover those costs and to make a fair profit to survive.
I'm fortunate to have a good and still growing long arm customer and memory quilt business base. I still get to have contact with people and help them out with any questions. I jut hope the time, money and effort to get my online store up and running and maintaining it daily picks up in the next months.