I also work in retail(office products), and the delivery cost is eating our lunch! The wholesaler we've been dealing with for the past 20 years no longer has their own trucks, but contracts that out. So there is now a fee per delivery of $x and a surcharge of $xx if the order is less than $1000, a larger fee if it is less than $500, and another fee if it is from an out of area warehouse (like it's our fault they don't have it in Dallas and we had to order it from St Louis!). We used to order (and deliver) every day, now we order twice a week and deliver likewise.

So it's not just LQS having these sort of problems...and BTW the price of paper is going up again from the mfr.

Yes, unfortunately the last couple of years more and more manufacturers are omitting the country of origin on their bolt caps, and lots of retailers are putting their own barcodes, etc on there.

When we buy fabric, we look at it, feel it, and ask lots of questions. And there are manufacturers we have come to trust. Nothing says you can't as a consumer email or call the manufacturer's customer service department and get answers yourself, but the best thing is to educate yourself in what makes a quality fabric, and take it from there. Simple tests you can do yourself include holding the fabric up to the light. Is it thin? Can you see through it? Look closely at it, are the fibers thicker or thinner? Take a high quality piece with you to the store and compare. Feel it. Is it soft with a nice finish? Look close at the printing, are quality dyes used, is the printing distinct and clear, or muddy? Lots of things to look for...

As far as bargain fabrics are concerned, it really depends on what you're going to be doing with the fabric. If you're making, for instance, a tote that you don't expect to use for a long time, what's wrong with using cheap fabric? But do you really want to use cheap stuff on a quilt you're making as an heirloom gift for a loved one?

I've heard the statement made, "quality doesn't cost, it pays." I believe that...

I agree with QOK and with the rest of you, prices are making it difficult but the best sorce of quality fabric is still the LQS. I make 1 or 2 embroideried quilts every year, I put hundreds of hours in each quilt so there is no way I'm going to use "B" grade fabric or thread. With that said, I plan very carefully the fabric I buy, I buy enough that I know I will have extra (yes, even an experienced machine embroidery quilter will make mistakes) to redo a block or two, usually I buy at least a yard sometimes a 1 1/2 extra. I used to plan on $300. for fabric, now I plan on $350. per quilt. I buy all of my fabric at one time, that way I spend less on gas. Sometimes my LQS will have to order fabric for me but most of the time I can get what I want from their shelf stock. What I don't do anymore is buy "stash" fabric unless it is from a fellow boardmember. No impulse buying for me.

If I want to do a trial run of an embroidery design, I buy old pillowcases from the Goodwill, when they are full, I donate them to the homeless shelter, the kids love having a pillowcase that is embroideried.

If I want to make a sample of a quilt block, I use scrapes or old clothes. Then I turn those into dolly quilts for my great-granddaughters, they love them.

My personal goal is to not let any money or fabric get wasted. I think for me anyway it is a matter of being dollar wise, I can still make what I want I just have to be smart about it. I try to buy my quilting thread on sale as I know I will use it, I usually buy Signature brand and know that I will use beige, dark green and dark blue in abundance.

Hugs, Gail
trying to be a smart quilter

QKO, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your post! You've put it very well, and touched on most of the behind-the-scenes issues that affect the shopowner.

I'd like to add just one more bit of information, regarding selling everything at 25% off (in other words, half the usual retail mark-up). If you do that, online, you may be inviting trouble from your suppliers. They (the fabric manufacturers) have a vested interest in keeping their retail customers in business, because then they (the manufacturers) have a place to sell their goods. A store that always sells everything at 25% off is going to catch the manufacturer's eye as being a threat to "the normal order of things". What could happen then? The manufacturer could decline to sell to such a store, or put them at the lowest priority for getting goods shipped. It's a kind of blacklist.

You could say, well, you'll make up in volume for what you don't make in mark-up but... the reality is, you can't *endlessly* sell more. There is a limit to the size of the market you're selling to, whether it is fabric, t-shirts, or vacation packages that you're selling. Especially if you're a LQS in a small town... there's only a certain area that you're drawing customers from, and when your market is saturated... it's saturated, and you're not going to be able to sell much more, no matter how low the price.

Just my perspective...

You're welcome! :D

I know some stores have a policy of "everything at xx% off." Many are arms of giant retailers and get their stocks at volume discounts. If you look carefully, lots of the stuff they're selling are warehouse closeouts that they've bought in big volume and gotten for next to nothing (the giant online store's version of the bargain table.) What really chaps is when you see brand new fabrics on sale for less than you had to pay to get them to your store! Selling at a loss in this case is a blatant attempt to drive smaller online stores and local shops out of business, and we've chosen to not carry brands that sell to these retailers. Some brands have chosen not to distribute to these stores, knowing that their many small retailers count for more than one or two giants. Other brands have the attitude that they'll sell to whomever can move their product. We choose not to carry the latter in our store.

Pricing is always a genuine problem. Again, as an online-only store, we're being squeezed between our operating costs, and our ability to compete with the big online stores, while at the same time trying to give our customers good value for their money, because we know that like us, most of them are being squeezed by the economy.

At the same time we're trying to get along with our local quilt shops. Unless you've run an online store (and by the way, you have a really nice one!) you can't understand all the costs and overhead involved with doing that. You might have lower rent and equipment costs, but how about your web development and advertising costs? You know what we're talking about. I don't think we could be in this business if I didn't do all the web development myself.

We've chosen basically to NOT compete with our local stores. For the most part, we don't carry the same brands as they do, and we view our market as global, not local. One of the big advantages (so far) that customers get by buying online is that they don't have to pay sales taxes on purchases if they're out of state. In-state customers pay sales tax. Thus, we get very few in-state sales. We also don't have an open shop and don't sell anything out of our place of business, as our business license is strictly for a mail-order business. We live in a small community, and the people that run the LQS's here are our friends. We can all make a business if we cooperate...

In our area (Denver) prices went up significantly as of June 1. I hear there is supposed to be another rise in prices in the fall. You are not the only one with sticker shock! My solution has been to go to the larger web sites selling fabric. They have all the name brands and I've never been disappointed.

Your not crazy! It is happening way to fast. Wal Mart, the ones that still have fabric (limited) went up over a $1 a yard and quilt stores are way over priced. :thumbup:

I know I have said this before but , feel I need to say it agian. Support those businesses you want to be there next year! My LQS is one of my favorite places, I will support it. Yes I have fewer dollars to spend and my purchases will be more calculated , but I will support my local economy before ... big Corp's that really could care less about if I shop there or not.

Amen Lori S

I don't know about France, but in the UK and in Ireland, there are import duties to pay on new cotton fabric, but these prices are way over those, as I can get fabrics online from the USA, pay the shipping and any duty, and it arrives here at sometimes half what it might be at my LQS. I know the shops have overheads, I used to have one, but even so I think the shops here inflate their prices because they are few and far between, so they have a monopoly in their own areas.