Interesting topic, and outlooks.
Will purchase what I like seldom LQS, unless its absolutely the greatest. But most or at least I have a regular budget to work within, Won't hesitated to purchase on sale, but only if will work together with other items.
I wonder if the refrence from the LQS owner is due to sales increased in general.

At the 50% off the LQS is probably not even breaking even on costs--- you figure the mark-up covers their cost of fabric plus S&H; their labor and the building rent/upkeep, etc. If you want your LQS to stay in business, I suggest you try to purchase things as close to their original price as possible. When the LQS is out of business don't count on Wal-Mart etc to carry the same quality or quanity or by the yard that you enjoy at the LQS!

the lqs in bunbury seams to charge $22.00 for everything.

so i guess it really comes down to knowing your regular customers...especially about designer fab's like the patrick lose, those fabrics have very identifiable characteristics (like Kaffe Fasset fabrics) some like them and some do not. those who love them will buy them, those who don't find them to be (all-that) will not. so knowing your customer base is important. do your regular return customers like the types of subject matter/ fabrics lines from patrick lose? if they do, they will pay the increase. if they are more into traditional over novelty they probably will not. it is all relative/ and very regional. some designers do very well in some areas and do not do well in others. some areas can handle increases, some can not. personally...i buy what i need/sparks me...i do look at the price; if i think it is too high or i think i can find it else where for less and i do not need it right away i wait and look else where but if i need it today, i buy it, and if it is unique, haven't seen it elsewhere i buy it. price matters but everything goes up, nothing we can do about it. i used to complain about having to pay a whole dollar for fabric, when i was in 4-H a hundred years ago...now i pay $10 for the same fabrics...

I agree!

If what they are telling us is true as the supply of fabrics clears out, all the new fabrics will be high because the grey goods are going up in China. Connecting Threads sells American fabric but we do not have many mills left. Maybe they will come back?

I buy some backing (wide width) fabrics wholesale for my long arm business and even without looking at my books I know that I am paying lots more per yard than I did say 5 years or even just a year or two ago. Add the shipping and the price per yard is astronomical. And blenders or basics have gone up in price also.

Some customers think I am being greedy, others understand that newer backings and other fabics are more expensive, same story as the grocery or any other store.

Longarm

I certainly hope the U.S. mills reopen. It would be wonderful to have our people working again!!

I saw a news blurb a few weeks ago where some of the Chinese workers are demanding higher wages, maybe this will help send work back here.

I personally believe the government should impose a tariff on all imported products, like they did years back, when there was a tariff people bought AMERICAN because imports were as expensive as products made here.

I also remember family members who had fought in WW2 who would not allow anything from Japan in their homes. They did not believe in supporting the country who committed the atrocities the Japanese had done. Food for thought for our current generation.

Longarm

Longarm

Price is really a factor for me....I seldom splurge on anything except the focus fabric. The rest I try to buy as inexpensively as I canwith it still being nice quality!

If you read carefully what Connecting Threads says about their fabric... they don't say that the fabric is made in the USA, just that the cotton for it is grown in the USA. Now... doing a little more research (here: http://unctad.org/infocomm/anglais/cotton/market.htm)
you can see that having the cotton grown in the USA is not unusual in that we're the second largest grower of cotton in the world.

But reading further on that link, China is actually the biggest consumer of cotton. And... I suspect it's because China is where the greige goods (raw fabric) is made.

And they do not say where their fabrics are printed, either.

So you have to read between the lines sometimes to get the whole story!

Several years ago someone in the industry informed me that all the cotton combing machinery had left our shores over a decade ago. Thus it's not likely that the industry will return. Even most of the printing is done overseas. Santee is the only company that I know of that still prints in the USA.