Originally Posted by
ghostrider
If you think $7 is too much, go have your group meetings somewhere else...your house maybe. No one is forcing you to meet at the shop. The shop owner is well within the bounds of 'acceptable' by any standards of business and, as an employee, you were way out of line to openly criticize her business decisions with customers.
Customers don't negotiate the prices of merchandise, why should they think they can negotiate the price of services? And space rental is a service, make no mistake about that. The rate here (NH) for using the shop's workroom...no food, no drinks, no supplies, no advice, just the room...is $5 per hour. It is paid with great gratitude in the heat of summer by many of us who don't have A/C and have to get something done on deadline.
I'm guessing the owner provided food to avoid having large amounts of messier things brought in (e.g., crock pots, etc.). If she ceases supply food, as she really should, don't be surprised if there are limits put on what users can bring in themselves. Quilt shops are not restaurants and food can do major damage to her inventory.
Let me clear up a couple of things, this was to get feedback from other quilters. I didn't pay anything since I'm an employee of the business. The event was the owner's idea, as was the food provided. Pizza, a sub and a couple of small salads from the local place. There were 4 people other than the owner attending. My only thought was that if you are trying to get a small business going in a not very affluent small town it might be wise to entice people into your shop with a social gathering at little to no cost. As I said no one used any of the machines and other than the electricity it wasn't something that was particularly expensive for the owner. I only attended the event because she asked me to for moral support. I paid the $7 for a friend of mine to attend because I want her business to grow and I didn't think the friend would want to pay $7 to hang out for an evening even if there was food. This is a boutique shop with some fabric, rulers, and other items such as soaps, candles, crocheted items and so on. She does consignment of those items. Maybe people would be more apt to shop was my only thought. I guess I can see I'm in a real minority as to my thoughts. Thanks for the feedback.
As to the snacks that would be brought it, maybe just pretzels or something not messy. I don't need to eat while sewing but there was a social hour of people just talking so food was put away before the projects came out.