Our local wm took their fabric out!

Living here in north central B.C. I think your fabrics are outrageously inexpensive to start with. I ordered 3 yds of fabric @7.98/yd the other day and had $15.95 shipping charges added (international to Canada) and the total was $39.89. This works out to approx. $13.00 per yd. plus exchange. We pay this for just average quality fabric here. Also ordered a pattern from Keepsake Quilting $9.00 & shipping was $11.99 plus exchange on both shipping & pattern & fabric.

I can't believe I'm going to say this but here it is, because their wallets are not fat enough yet.

I recently added so much to my stash because a local fabric shop is closing up. Hopefully, I won't have to worry about any price increases. But I have seen the prices edging up in the past two years.

Ours did too! Of all the WM stores around here, only one carries fabric and one of the employees told me that they will have to stop having theirs this fall.

Slowly the WMs all around the country are loosing their fabric sections. It's going to take a few more years for them to pull out and renovate all the stores but they'll get to it sooner or later.

dljennings: I'm sorry you are taking the comments on the cost of shipping personally. I remember a time when truck drivers actually made good money. Now they are simply trying to survive. Yet, shipping cost have gotten outrageous, at least for the average consumer. There may be a very good reason for it, at least from your end of things, but when the gas companies make upwards of 20-50 billion in profit in a year while the rest of us are struggling not to loose our homes and be able to buy food, it seems quite unbalanced. None of that is your fault and I don't think any of us begrudge your company the ability to pay its employees and not fall into the red.

In regards to where the cotton comes from... this page from Wikipedia is interesting (look about halfway down the page, to where there's a world map).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton

Apparently the US is the worlds largest EXPORTER of cotton. China is actually the world's largest PRODUCER.

I don't think that there's much left in the US in terms of cotton gins and weaving equipment. So yes, it's not "green"... the cotton is grown here but shipped abroad for combing, spinning, weaving, and finishing.

there are several cotton gins close to us, and lots of cotton bales go thru them

Hancocks of Paducah's owner is the one who told a co-worker of mine who went to shop in his store that prices are going up more than they ever have. I know someone who has a business that makes items in China, and he said that part of it is the rise in cost of fuel and that China is raising their prices to manufacture items, be it fabric, decorations, etc because the factories there want more money. He said it was pretty much the word all around oversees. Besides, have you seen the prices at the grocery store lately? It really does not surprise me.
I will be shopping my stash first and then only adding what I need for a project.

Have you ever checked out Hobby Lobby's mark-down sections? I find the best fabric in the mark-downs.
Bev