My mother's family owned a "general merchandise" store in our small town. We bought EVERYTHING there. Only when we wanted something very special did we go to the next town to shop around. That store had everything you could imagine in it. There was a warehouse full of sacks of animal feed, flour, salt; tanks of kerosene, supplies for horses (those were used instead of the more modern tractors). There were dishes, ladies hats, men's work clothes (khakis and denims), shoes -- work shoes, dress shoes, kids shoes. And in the front of the store were bolts of fabric, patterns, thread and other notions, costume jewelry, small appliances - toasters, hand mixers, and, in later years, electric rice pots. We could also get all of our lingerie items there too. And the list goes on.
We bought all of our fabric there and when we went to church there may have been someone else dressed in the same fabric. A friend and I always tried to have at least one matching (of course, different colors of the same print) outfit every season. I still have pieces of some of that fabric (the store closed in '75). I don't remember the prices, though. The pattern line was Advance.
Our first sewing machine came from that store. The brand was Blue Grass. It was a sturdy machine that sewed "many miles." It resembled the old black Singers. It was a heavy machine in a cabinet.