I like a nice friendly face when I enter a store and an offer for help if I need it!! Always greet your customers and make them feel welcome.

My LQS has a lot of block of the month classes where they make up a bag with the pattern and the fabric. Well, all the cut up extra fabric they sell for 25 cents a piece. I've gotten some pretty big pieces and some that I wouldn't want a FQ of but it sure came in handy for that "what do I put there?" project. I never walk out without a good handfull. If you offer classes with fabric you may want to sell off the odd ends like that.

Lots of times I come to a quilt shop for ideas. I love to see the samples on the walls and if I really like one I will either buy the kit/pattern or sign up for a class to make it. I love to take classes as it forces me to actually finish it.

So I say samples and classes are important to me. I am fortunate to live in an area where there are lots of shops available.

I will continue to go to my LQS even when the new el cheapo fabric shop comes to this town (which is soon), because if I go to him with a strange request that he hasn't got in stock he does the research and rings me up to let me know that he has acquired it. I think that is a good businessman. He also does not overcharge on repairs or try to push product - he is very honest in his assessment of pros and cons.Those qualities are what I look for in a shop, not that it is 'trendy'and has all of the 'right' material for the shopping snobs.
Good luck with your enterprise.

I knew I should never have left MI.

Ditto...I love this idea!

Now this is an idea that I too would like to see, although my little LQS will order anything that I want and know of, but many times I only have an idea of something I have seen but no real identity for it.

Please have enough room for a wheelchair to get around and also an entrance to get wheelchair in.
the store in the next town to me, even offered to bring what I want to my car, if I know what I want.

If you are going to sell machines, please do not greet a customer with predatory anticipation and then drop the smile and welcoming attitude when you find out that they are not interested in a machine. The only saving grace in a QS with this type of owner is an exceptional group of employees.

I would say friendly staff would be number one. I think sales and specials bring people in too!

Looks like all kinds of ideas, I cannot think of anymore, so it looks like I will just wait and see when this store is ready to open and then all my friends and I will travel to the store with our $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ in hand. Oh! I guess there is one idea, gadgets. Some of my friends are real BIG on gadgets.

Good employees who are friendly and helpful when needed but don't hover!

One LQS has a Studio that they offer a club for. Membership is $25 for 6 mos., you can go in any time in that period to use it as much as you'd like. I think that's a "win/win" for the customer and the shop.

I don't have grands yet, and my girls are way beyond this stage, but I've seen moms struggling with their active little ones and getting frustrated not being able to concentrate on fabric/whatever selections and leave in a
hurry without being able to take the time to shop.

How about a small "contained" fun place for the little ones to play in while Mom/Grandma shop? Maybe a tv/dvd player, large legos, books, pegs - age appropriate interesting stuff
they MAY not have at home to play with. You wouldn't have to hire full time staff to oversee as it would be sporatic, but rotate your regular staff to be the "eyes on the kiddos" when needed.

Coffee/water are great ideas. Shopping is thirsty work! A nice piece of chocolate with the store logo/name on the wrapper would be fun! If people are able (after buying so much), I see nothing wrong with a donation-type jar. Maybe
have a donation jar drawing monthly to win a small prize (pin cushion, transfer pencil, etc.)Make a small donation, take a chance to win a small prize.

Maybe after you're up and running, offer once-monthly free class. Our LQS does this, and it has rewards for all. People get to learn or hone-up on a skill, get a 10% discount coupon for that day only, and the cash register stays BUSY. Fun and worth it for all.

Everyone has great ideas for your shop along with the ones you've probably already come up with. Good luck on your new
endeavor and I wish you much success!

Our local shop does a 20% discount on all books. You would be surprised how many people will come to the shop just to cruise the book shelf. The owners say it brings people in from miles around. When figuring postage etc, the cost is almost the same, plus you can actually LOOK through the book before you buy. They also sock an area of "flat fold" fabrics. These sell really well for backings. They find people will buy off the wall for the top and then go to the flats for backing. These are good fabrics, usually last years patterns but--
Also a section of 30% off items. again mostly last years overrun from the fabric companies. This area sells well to beginners who are afraid to commit the $$ for a new project when they are just learning.
They also carry a shelf for DVD's on quilting.
They leave their class area open to customers to come and baste a quilt or just to come and sew for a while.
hope that helps a bit. Oh yes, they run the buck a block series every year. Amazing how many people come in for that. Some drive 50+ miles once a month to get that.

You already mentioned classes but the times of the classes are important too. My LQS has lots of classes, but the times just are not right for me, or they last 4 or more weeks and my schedule keeps me from being able to attend 1 or 2 of the the classes in the series.

I work full time so a class later in the evening would be good for me. Their evening classes start too early and they run on for too many weeks.

Good Luck with your Quilt Shop, if you can implement all these ideas... It will be GREAT!

Be sure and have a website and newsletter that can be emailed to customers who sign up. Can have info about classes, what's new in the store and pictures of projects available.

Love the above suggestions. I would like to see something for art quilters. I love all kinds of quilt projects, small gifty things, big stuff and everything inbetween.
The designer that really makes me go out of budget range is Alexander Henry, can't resist his stuff. I know that selling trends are important but would drive many miles to buy his line. Good lighting is a must.

My LQS has a small rug in a corner with a box of legos and a few toy cars ect -- it's not much, but it keeps my son busy for a little - and is much appreciated by both of us

Your own website so we can all visit your store.

Wondering Where you are going to be located in Iowa??
All the ideas sound wonderful. Good luck. I am always ready
to ROAD TRIP!

General Sewing machine parts for a variety of machines!!! I was recently on a quilt retreat with my guild and the black guide on my quarter inch foot broke right in half across the top!!! There were three quilt shops in the area but no one carried my brand of machine (Janome). I was stuck. I could have used another of my presser feet but i wanted that one... I was in the middle of a project. When I got home, I went to my local quilt shops. No one carried Janome. I had to call the place where I bought my machine... Very frustrating.

I love Asian and batik fabrics. One of my LQS owners doesn't like the color blue, so there aren't a lot to choose from in her shop.
Perhaps have a suggestion box on the counter, that way you will get to know what YOUR shoppers want...even if it's blue fabrics!

The thing that always inspires me is to see actual quilts on display with the patterns available. These change all the time so that there is always a new inspiration.

Greet all customers with a smile. If you weren't the one to greet the customer when she first came in and she comes to the area of the store where you are working, say hello. I was visiting my parents this week and went to three quilt stores. I would describe them all as nice shops with merchandise to my taste. In one I wasn't even acknowledged. In another one I was greeted when I first came in but when I met another worker as I walked through the shop I was ignored. At the third shop, a worker came from the rear of the shop to greet me and ask if she could help me find anything. She checked back several times to see if she could help. There were 3 other women working there who all spoke to me when I came near them. Guess where I spent money. When I go to a shop I always buy something, at least a fat quarter. I didn't buy anything in the first shop and bought a pattern in the second shop only because I had been looking for it. The third shop got my business and I will go back there.

How about buttons, I love buttons and use a lot for various projects, either individually or by the cupful.
Also, wallhanging projects, and I love reds, if your could have more in various shades and prints.
I dont live near by but I'm thinking maybe a day trip, of coarse I would have to find out how far away you are. And plenty of Fabric to go with the vrious projects, often LQS sells out and never replaces, so you will have a neat project on the wall in some nice fabric, but no fabric in stock, also if its been a while maybe switch off the samples on the wall as fabric changes so should the samples.Anyway just my opinion. Also, I'm all for the tables put around the store, LQS here has them and it helps a lot, even has an employee at each table to help if need be, but bare in mind, he has a huge store. Thank you for asking, this has been fun. Good Luck

My LQS HAS the Accuquilt that we can use for $10 an hour.

A separate classroom. One away from the sales floor. I think teaching classes are a must and a way to sell fabric.

A BATHROOM!

I do a lot of landscape quilts and have a hard time finding landscape fabrics locally so would be great to have a good selection of those.

I hate to burst your bubble but if Tomorrows Treasures quilt shop in New Baltimore is the only quilt shop there she closed last year. I loved going there as she was always so helpful, her store was small but packed with everything a quilter needed.

Somebody posted a notice a little while back about the Clover desk threader. I went and got one, and I absolutley LOVE it. These old eyes sometimes have to squint to try to find that tiny little hole, snd it has been taking longer and longer just to get my needle threaded. With this little baby, it's done in about 1 second! Now I have several needles threaded, so I don't have to stop each time.
Another suggestion is to have various types of thimbles. This may sound obvious, but I have a slight deformity of my rt middle finger (no, it is not in a permanent UP position) that makes normal thimbles almost impossible to wear. In addition, I have large hands for a female, so that is another strike, and I usually just sew until my finger is too sore to continue. At a LQS, I found s thimble (also by Clover) with a regular thimble tip, but the part that goes over my finger is a soft, flexible "petal" shape that stays on comfortably for hours. They are color coded for size. A little more expensive than the usual metal thimble, but both these products are indispensible for my quilting.
nanac

A table for customers to use to lay out fabric to audition - with or without their quilt top (perhaps if looking for backing or a border fabric)

Bolts of fabric from the same line displayed together on the same rack with (if available) a free copy of the pattern from the fabric designer.

But most of all teach your staff that smiles cost absolutely nothing.

I like the good lighting idea. Lots of different styles of fabrics- 30's repro, florals, batiks, kids fabrics, and all of the "name brands," of course. I agree with the rulers and cutters, too. If Joann carries it and you can buy it with a coupon, I wouldn't try to compete with that.

To add my voice, some of us still hand quilt, and have trouble finding proper thread--usually, the four stores I visit most often have a good variety of machine quilting threads, sometimes none at all for hand quilting. Wouldn't expect a beginning shop to carry many colors of hand quilting thread, but a few basics would bring me back. Also, while I seldom use templates, the big plastic sheets are something I keep handy, to. Good luck with everyone's list, you will have to use a barn-size building to suit us all!! piecefully, the old one

Hi, forgot to mention, a small shop in a small town in Michigan had two large recliner-type chairs, a floor lamp, and a stack of Field and Stream type magazines. My husband never noticed how long I spent looking at patterns and fabrics, in that shop. piecefully, the old one

That's so funny, as it was the first thing that came to my mind. Also, workers who are knowledgeable about quilting. Organization. Keep the store items neat, organized, and in logical places. A variety of the extra wide fabric for backings is also great. Your own block of the month might also be interesting. Hope this helps.

Quiltique in Henderson, NV, has the bolts on shelves and cubbyholes over the shelves. In that cubbyhole they put FQs of the fabrics on the bolts beneath. That way, you can pull out a FQ of the fabrics you are looking at, spread them out together and decide which ones will work for you. I like it because you don't pull out a lot of bolts that have to be put back. It's much easier to deal with while shopping.

You said you plan to have classes. I wish my local shop had classes during a variety of hours for those of us that work a M-F job. She has one Mon evening class for basic sewing and one Sat AM "Bernina Club" which really isn't a class you can just go and work on whatever -- mainly a social time. But both of those times are always full with the "regulars" She's the only shop in town too! So.... that's my 2 cents worth. Lots of classes at lots of times especially evening and weekends. Good Luck :)

I love this idea. I love shopping online but like to avoid the shipping charges that put a crimp in my budget!

I totally agree with having many finished samples on walls or in displays. My LQS has a quilt on display with a pansy border that I love. They tell me it has been discontinued & not made anymore. Then I wish they'd put that quilt away since I've asked about it twice in hopes that the info might be wrong.
I've bought sev. patterns this winter based on what I saw on the wall.