Independent Quilt Shops

If you are a store owner, please note that I admire what you do.  I've worked retail as a manager for a couple of years.  I know it's hard.  It's grueling.  The overhead costs are obscene.  Keeping track of everything means having 4 brains.  I know you don't make a huge profit over all your products and if you decide to carry a line of something, it's a huge risk.

You have to buy in bulk or meet minimum items for an order.  Shipping costs alone, even for me, the average shopper, is outrageous.  I paid 13 dollars for UPS shipping for a 12.50 thread case.  I ordered two just to make it worthwile.  DH spends a fortune in shipping for his books/blu-rays.  It makes you sick.  Running a small business shouldn't be this hard.  You are the ones that fuel our economy.

I know you can't cater my every desire and just to my needs alone.  What is frustrating to me is going into a local store down the block and having to leave because the owner doesn't carry a basic need. It's the same thing every time I go in and I get the same dirty look of "you aren't buying anything, leave now". I came to you first hoping you'd have it and now I have to "cheat" on you.

You get to the point where you don't bother and find another store that does 50-80 miles away.  Now that I can drive, I feel bad that can't support the two local stores in town a half mile away in either direction.

I know you can't compete prices with JoAnn Fabric and other chain stores.  By the time I drive 80 miles up to a JoAnn Fabric store or paid shipping from another site, I would have paid that much for the item.  I'd rather give that money to you upfront.

The hard part is knowing that I want the color pallette of the quilt shown for the Fiesta BOM and the two stores in town don't have them.  Once again, I have to scour the internet or drive 50+ miles to get those colors instead of supporting my two LQS.  And truthfully; I dont' think any of the stores that far don't carry those colors either.

It's also frustrating when I go to a website hoping to order a product and being told to shop your local independent quilt shop for this item but all the LQS in a 80 mile radius don't carry it.  I have to scour the internet for the product hoping another store does.

We need our independent quilt shops and we are loyal and faithful shoppers.  You fuel our addiction and  our lusts for fabric and other items.  You give us complete and instant gratification when we buy from you.  Please know you are needed and cherished.  I hate "cheating" on my LQS for something as simple as a decent pair of scissors, several packages of needles, pins, and some thread or in one case some basic brown flannel backing for my pug quilt.