I heard one quilt shop owner telling his step-son, when his quilt shop was closing, due to his wife's sudden death, when his fabric was at 50% - then he was selling it at cost. HTH

I hit reply before I finished. So here's the math part and I am making up #s for ease of doing that math: If the LQS buys fabric at $5 a yd and then marks it up 60% then it is selling for $8 a yd. But then same LQS runs a sale of 25% everything in the store and now it is selling at $6 a yd-not much of a profit margin. Hope this provides some figures for thought.

And with the cost of postage going up and up the omline stores feel a squeeze too.

Wanted to buy a pattern the other day. 9.50 for the pattern. 7.95 for shipping. Dont think so. Will see if my Lqs can order it.

Unless you are buying a good amount online it certainly is cheaper to pickmup a fabric or two at your LQS.

I wouldn’t mind seeing a little more $5/yd fabric myself.

Lately, the wholesale cost for quality quilting cotton fabric has been running us $5.25-$5.55 per yard. And we have to buy a 12 to 15 yard bolt, usually with a 2-bolt minimum order, to get it at that cost per yard. Most times, we have to pay freight and a fuel surcharge on top of that to get it to us.

CD in Oklahoma

Actually, I wouldn’t call that $1/yd a “profit margin”. All of the overhead costs to run the LQS has to come out of that dollar before there’s any profit, which, I doubt that there will be in most cases.

CD in Oklahoma

A 100% markup is common, for LQS operations and other similar small retail businesses. Most of the fabric and notion wholesalers suggest doubling the cost (100% markup) as a pricing guide, but each shop has to learn what their overhead costs are at each facility.

Markup should not to be confused with “profit margin” at all. Markup is the amount that has to be added to the cost of the item to pay for employee wages/salaries, insurance, taxes/licenses, rent/mortgage, utilities, advertising, supplies, office expenses, repairs/maintenance, bank fees, any other expenses incurred to operate the business, and profit. Profit margin is what is left after all of the expenses/bills are paid.

CD in Oklahoma

CD, I obviously misused the term profit margin. I had mentioned business overhead expenses in the reply before that one and should have called the $1 difference a markup. Thanks for clarifying that. I also went to your website, browsing, and saw that you have an ironing service-Pressed for Time. When I was little, we took all of our ironing out to a lady's home. She ironed for everyone in our little town using a glass coke bottle as her starch bottle with one of those cork sprinkler tops on it. What a great memory! I still love ironing as the smells bring back such great memories. You offer some great services that I have never seen anyone offer. Thanks again for the correction!

I know that purchasing online is detrimental to the local brick and mortar stores, but sometimes they don't have what you want. I have three shops near me, but they don't always have what I want and tend to overlap with the fabric lines. Even with my online purchases I give the locals enough business for sure.

Being in the northeast, where everything is expensive, yardage is going for anywhere from $10.00 to $13.00 a yard. Unless there is a really great sale, nothing is $5.00 a yard.

It's very sad any more, everything is so expensive, even Wal-Mart the price is high, they use to carry, $2.00 a yard fabric, now they're $4.00, $5.00, $6.00 etc. or more, of course now they have better selections, even Batik, but it's no guaranteed for the Refill, so buy enough or a little more than you need. Different store (walmart) different Fabrics.
Even the small Shop there's a lot of overhead, utilities, taxes, the employees, rent, a lot of work.

Prim Quilts, I have to come to St. Louis some & have gone to several shops in the area. Could you post the names of the ones that have closed so I don't waste my time going there? I would greatly appreciate it. What are the shops that you go to also? I found a nice one just over the state line in Lebanon Ill, Caloco Moon. Your name is Prim does that mean you like primitive? I too am strictly prim. I live in a very prim log home.