Originally Posted by OmaForFour
I am on a fixed income and cannot afford the prices that are being shown out there in the fabric shops either. I don't know why the price has to be DOUBLED from the wholesale price. I am sure that profit can be made on less.
Are you? Have you run a shop? Would you be willing to work all day, 6 days a week, 12 hours a day and pay to be there? See my first post. The cost of the fabric at the wholesale level is only one factor in getting it into the hands of the customer...
I have been buying online lately because there are many places that have excellent fabric for much less. I just bought a bunch of Kona fabric for $4.79/yd for example. I also know that Thousands of Bolts has prices in that range or below and there are some good brands there.
There are many good deals to be had online. Bear in mind though that what you are buying when you get that fabric for below what the shops have to pay for it, is manufacturers seconds, overstocks and lower quality goods. If this works for you, cool! Not everyone has to have the latest issues from the designers to be happy.
I spend time searching around online. If you are careful about the brands select you should not have any trouble.
I am blessed in that I also have a dear friend in Georgia who is an experienced quilter and guides me in the right direction also. That is how I found Kona fabric.
Keep in mind that many manufacturers, including most of the huge ones, manufacture two different levels of quality, one for the quilt shops and one for the mass merchandisers. Buying by brand isn't always a good indicator of what you're going to get. They also have seconds on premium goods, that they'll wholesale out at lower prices. BTW, the online shop that is selling at $4.99/yd is probably buying it for $1.75/yd as a second or closeout, or the fabric didn't meet the manufacturers quality standards. So they're more than doubling their markup. I don't know anyone who is buying first-line fabric for $5/yd and selling it for $4.99.
BE appalled and DON'T consider yourself cheap! We CANNOT be paying these high prices and we MUST NOT stop quilting. I apologize if this offends anyone on the board who has a shop, but this is how life is for some of us.
No offense taken by this online shop owner. :-D Everyone needs to do what they have to do to keep on doing this great hobby.
But please don't accuse shop owners of gouging. We're not.
Most of us are barely keeping our heads above water, and many of us have invested our life savings into this effort. If we can't charge what it takes to keep ahead of the bill collectors, we'll have to go out of business. If enough of us go out of business, who will buy the first-run fabrics that drive the market and make it possible for people to buy seconds, overstocks and old goods?