The ideas mentioned are creative, and vitality is essential for a quilt shop to succeed. However, I do think that a key ingredient to success is treating the business as a business. It is not enough to be passionate about quilting. A business is a financial undertaking with profitability as a goal. It requires ample financial backing and commitment.

You have wonderful ideas. I suspect there would be a very heavy investment required to follow through on all of that. One store that springs to mind is Missouri Star Quilt Company.

I think you are on track for a great shop. I fell in love with a place in Alaska years ago, but soon found out that they samples never changed in 3 years. They lost my interest, and ended up out of business. I am sure it was not due to me alone! :D

I love it when there are little nooks and crannies in the store. I always imagine that I've found something that no one else had found. I'd shop in your store too!

My dream shop was a 2 story log cabin with fireplace on the lower level and comfy chairs to sit and quilt in. Upstairs was open above the fireplace and the rest was classroom and bedrooms for retreats. Then I woke up and realized that to fulfill all your and my dreams there was a mountain of money, a ton of talented people each doing piecing, web sites, teaching, manning the cutting tables and a endless supply of energy on my part to keep it all going. Mom always said that the one thing that was free was dreaming. She was right!

A quilt shop in my area recently closed. I would have shopped there more often, except that it seemed really cliquey, with the owner having her baby in the shop and visiting with her friends all day making me feel like an intruder whenever I walked in. What also bugged me was that she would have these lovely quilts hanging on the wall and when I asked her to show me where those particular fabrics were, she would say that the fabrics had been discontinued.

We used to have a cute little shop here in town (closed due to family illness) that had "sewing night". Shop was closed to the public, but open for those who signed up. Shop opened at 8:00 pm and we sewed until 2 or 3 in the morning. You signed up to bring your unfinished projects, new projects, etc. Coffee, tea, juice, popcorn were provided and everyone brought a coverd dish to share (Decided from a sign up sheet). Everyone wore their Pj's and sewed, laughed, ate and finished their projects. The store was open for us to purchase notions and fabrics we might need for that night. Once a month the group would gather. The one time I was able to go there were 6 of us. What a blast!
I vote for this as an addition to "our" store.

Sounds great but I am not sure you could make it doing all you are asking for. Samples come out of profit, in addition to the fabric do you have someone who is willing to sew for minimum wage? Do you have someone with the time to do it right now while the fabric is still there?

As for classes, I am not sure how other stores do it but in my area the teacher is paid by the student - in addition to that they pay for the supplies (yes there is a discount on those) and labor for the class sample. If you had put in $50 - $60 for your class sample and were getting paid $6/per student per hr would you be willing to give up 4-5 hrs (travel time included) plus $3 - $6 dollars in gas for the $18 (3 hr class) you would make if you only had 1 student.

Would you be willing to make $0 profit to move fabric out of your store so that you could buy newer fabric (and where is that money coming from) that may or may not sell.

Personally as long as the staff are friendly and helpful in my LQS I am shopping there. They may not always have what I want fabric wise, but if they do I will normally (unless I get a smoking deal) buy there. Pattern and notion wise, the stores have minimums that they have to purchase. If I have to buy 6 of a costly item that I know that only 1 person will purchase is that a good use of my funds.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have all of the things you mentioned but I honestly don't think that we have the big picture on how hard it is to make it as a LQS.

The one problem that our (former) quilt shop had was, she would have a sample hanging in the store but would not have the pattern or else she would not have the fabric that was used for it. Very frustrating but I do understand that they can't have everything all the time.

You have some very good ideas and as a former quilt shop owner I can see how most of them would be very helpful. I know one problem with our shop was not enough samples and the same ones were left there for too long. Also, we didn't make kits of our samples. That would have been a big help. Classes, classes and more classes are always a big help in keeping the shop going. Sometimes teachers are hard to find and it is hard to know what people are wanting to learn.