Favorite Fabrics

Being a buyer for a fabric store I always follow the threads about prices of fabrics... whether they're going up, how your LQS deals with it, what the chain stores are charging, what prices are in different parts of the world etc.

And I got to wondering two things:

1) How much do you think the shops mark the fabric up, per yard?

2) How much do you think a shop *needs* to mark it up, in order to stay in business?

These really are questions about YOUR perceptions. And there are no right answers or wrong answers, only your own personal perspective on the price issue. I would like to know, candidly, what it looks like from "the other side of the fence"!

AbbyQuilts

when we have been in business most products needed a 30-50% mark up to be healthy stock.

But some products like dog food we made barely 10-15% as that got customers into the pet store.

Same with gas at gas station they dont make a lot of profit form it but people need gas and might pick up a soda.

I am going to assume min 20% high 50% on fabric mark up but I I dont know really

fabric_fancy

it depends on the store (online vs. store front) and the part of the country they are in - operating expenses are higher in large cosmopolitan cities vs. small town locals.

while all of these options might pay the same wholesale price for a bolt of fabric the retail prices would vary greatly due to just the few variable listed.

gollytwo

100% mark-up; I know in the trade they like to call it 50% markup; but when you double what you paid - that's 100%

imatopper

50% is my guess for the quilt shops. JoAnns prices have gone up quite a bit but our 5 local quilt shops haven't increased much. A few new bolts might be $.50 more but hardly the increase we have seen at JoAnns where bolts that say Keepsake are 9.99 yard. JoAnns is passing on the increase to us, but i don't think the quilt shops are. I assume the quilt shops aren't seeing as much profit as they used to.

crashnquilt

I believe the markup is 100%, because that puts the shop making much less than 40% profit once all costs are figured into price. Trust me there are many more "costs" involved than just shipping and utilities.

Once you figure in "daily incidentials", you would be amazed at how much money a local quilt shop DOESN'T make. Unless that shop has BUYING customers inside from the time they open to the time they close, that shop ain't makin as much money as you think.

I AM NOT A SHOP OWNER, but I have been a business owner (not quilt related) in the past.

sewmuchmore

Ditto :thumbup: I agree with you.

cjtinkle

100% markup is what they charge. I buy my fabric wholesale, and it's exactly half the price of retail fabric... which is exactly what I charge when I sell it as well, retail.

ghostrider

Ah, but the shop still has to make money when they sell to you wholesale, not much, but some. They probably do not sell it to you at their cost even though you have chosen to do that. I'm betting markup is more like 110-125% (like 2.5 times what they paid for it).

cjtinkle

I purchase directly from the distributors (Moda, Hoffman, etc.). Moda fabric for example, that is $9 per yard at a quilt shop, wholesales at $4.50 per yard.