Why the high cost for cotton quilting fabric?
 

I am in Northern Thailand and will be here for several months. I've been fabric shopping in downtown Chiang Mai and I have to tell you, beautiful, fine quality, cotton fabric costs the equivalent of about $2 per yd. I am stunned at the difference in prices from here to the US or Australia or England. Sure, there is shipping involved, but how much can that be on a huge barge with a zillion other containers full of products. And even at $2 per yard, the shops are making a profit here! Now I REALLY don't understand why quilting cotton costs so darn much, l've seen the evidence that it doesn’t have to. Can someone explain this to me? Why do we pay so much for fabric in the US?

Because the stores that sell quilt fabric here have to make a living here. By the time fabric goes from manufacturer to distributor to store there's a whole lot of shipping and other overhead (employees, buildings, electricity, etc, etc) that it has to pay for.

Also, there was a cotton crop shortage a couple of years ago which raised the prices. Once they go up, they never go back down, even when the shortage is over!

Buy lots during your visit!!

I think I would be buying another suitcase for fabric! :D For the same reason gas prices go up at the holidays. Price fixing!

I think we pay much higher prices because we are willing to. I know everyone along the supply chain needs to make a few dollars but at north american prices some are making quite a bit. As long as quilters are will to pay those prices they will stay high.

There are so many different companies that have to make a profit from start to finish. Lots of middle men. Growers, brokers, manufacturers, distributors, warehouses, fabric designers, fabric reps, and shop owners. I grow a few cotton plants in my back yard. I can pick the bolls and have organic cotton for stuffing small projects. Costs me nothing. I can go buy a small bag of organic cotton and it will cost me $10 or more.

Make sure you buy enough....ship it home.

I have often wondered what would happen if every quilter/sewer quit buying fabric for one week to protest the high cost of fabric. Would it make any difference? If we are willing to pay the high cost of fabric, then maybe we should try to do something about it. I refuse to pay $12.99 a yard at the local quilt shop.

Because the labor to produce the cotton quilting products over there is "dirt cheap" ! Sorry, but that's the way I see it!

Jeanette

oh interesting.

aileen