My hubby said its because we have laws that the fabric can not be slave labor using children. I rather pay more then have children forced into making it for us to use.

Small world. My grandson is going to school in Chiang. Mai. Maybe I can get him to bring me some fabric. LOL Now that would be an interesting purchase.

No one yet has mentioned tariffs (fees paid to import products).

Yes these countries do have cheap labor like china, so most of the time their workers are not getting a fair wage, USA really makes sure the people in their country have good work rights.

My daughter is moving to Chaing Mai on Sunday for one to two years. I'll have to have her go shopping for me!

Having been in Thailand twice I suggest you get out of Chang Mai and into the villages where the cotton workers live. Then you will have a better understanding concerning the difference between cotton material locally grown and manufactured there and what is grown and manufactured in Australia, the US and Europe.

I agree! I usually buy with a coupon at hancocks or connecting threads or I dont buy fabric. I cant pay those prices at the quilt stores.

I've barely bought any fabric for 3 years. I have a nice stash of cotton mens shirts and most of any future quilt making will be al la Bonnie Hunter scrappy style.

The work and living conditions in other countries are appalling. My now ex-husband was crazy about Oriental carpets. I loved the beauty and appreciated the intricate work that went into hand knotting them, but couldn't get over the shadowing of child slave labor of production. Tiny hands make better knots. I didn't even want to buy them. The carpets went with him.
On another thread someone posted about a new line of manufactured in USA fabrics available at JoAnns. Hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
I wash All fabrics that come into the house. I've seen warehouses in NYC. I don't need any passenger critters. All it would take is one egg.

but other than the supposed "made in USA" fabric at Joann's, there is no fabric made in the US anyway. So more than likely it's all being made with cheap labor (maybe not kids but still cheap).

I think that the point is that NONE of the fabric we are buying currently in our stores is "grown and manufactured in Australia, the US and Europe". It's all coming from the Far East. So, why the huge difference in prices?

My opinion...because they can. Profit.

I see that Connecting Threads is having their wide backs for roughly $8.something a yard. I calculated that to be $3.56/yard of 43" fabric. That is really more like what the prices should be. People do reach their price point and then they won't pay it anymore, or they will cut way down on their purchases or search and find the product elsewhere.