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  • REASON for increase in fabric prices?

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    Old 06-01-2010, 01:04 PM
      #51  
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    Originally Posted by tarbender30
    Originally Posted by fabric-holic
    Yes I'd like to know too.

    BTW I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and all their calico is 30% off so I bought 12 yds!!
    Have you ever checked out Hobby Lobby's mark-down sections? I find the best fabric in the mark-downs.
    Bev
    We have 2 HL nearby, one USED to have good markdown fabrics but hasn't in several years ... and the other one closer to me only has the most awful, ugly, strange or useless fabrics EVER on markdown ... They rarely have any remnants, which seems strange, maybe the employees take them all home ?
    I've stopped going there, their books are never new titles and they don't sell, so they are all dog-eared and damaged
    I'm surprised HL is still in business, their operation is so out of date ... I guess it's all the craft items & floral they sell
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    Old 06-01-2010, 01:23 PM
      #52  
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    I have a gigantic stash, and I'm mostly working from stash now, but I buy yardage for borders and backings. There are wonderful sales and incredible online sites with low prices on quilt shop quality cotton.

    I often buy from the back room of my LQS where the sale yardage is kept, or online at www.thousandsofbolts where most fabric is around $4 a yd. They ship it the same day and it is wonderful stuff. No affiliation, just a happy customer.
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    Old 06-01-2010, 01:52 PM
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    Originally Posted by JJs
    there are several cotton gins close to us, and lots of cotton bales go thru them
    I'm so glad to hear that! One of the fabric sales reps told me that all the cotton combing equipment had left our shores a decade ago. Apparently that's not exactly true, and I'm glad of it.

    Do you have any idea where the cotton goes next, after it leaves the gin? Does it supply other local or US-based businesses?
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    Old 06-01-2010, 02:37 PM
      #54  
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    TexasGurl, sorry your experience at Hobby Lobby has not been good. I guess it depends on where you are. We have so many quilters in this state that nearly every HL I've been in has had up-to-date books, in new condition, and a large selection of nice fabrics.

    I also purchase from lqs when I can. Recent converstaions have led me to believe that transportation/shipping is behind a lot of the price hike. I wouuld, as someone else has already stated, attribute that to the cost of fuel, not the shipping companies.
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    Old 06-01-2010, 04:37 PM
      #55  
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    Originally Posted by sewgull
    If manufactors had left America we have better produts, more jobs and have money. I don't like the fact that everything is made somewhere else. I like MADE IN THE USA
    I prefer made in the USA too, but people DO shop at WalMart and that drives the market more than most people know. This is why most things are not made in the US any longer. It's a double edged sword though, we, as workers, want a higher wage, but we do NOT want to pay higher prices for things other workers make. Nobody in the US makes batik like the Balinese and other Indonesians, so I feel OK buying/selling batik. It's a local art, not really a commodity (in my opinion). I try to buy in the US - things such as Pyrex, CorningWare are still US made, I think.... Check packaging before you buy.........
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    Old 06-01-2010, 06:20 PM
      #56  
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    Originally Posted by dljennings
    Originally Posted by mgshaw
    This increased price in our shop is not so much the price of the fabric but the cost of the shipping that we get charged to receive it. It is outragious!
    there is nothing outrageous about the cost of shipping... i work for the largest privately owned ltl (less than truckload) company in the country. our 2nd largest expediture is fuel..labor is first...

    so all the 200 bldgs we own or lease, all the thousands of trailers & tractors, including maintainence, forklifts, insurance, etc etc etc...still the 2nd largest cost is fuel that gets pass on in the form of a fuel surcharge that is reset weekly depending on the national average price of diesel fuel this week it was 20 1/2 %... and every carrier charges it, they have to, in order to pay the bills... does it suck? yes it does. is it outrageous to make a reasonable profit & employee about 15000 people... no it is not.
    If we just paid the shipping companies, it wouldnt be bad, but we have to pay the VENDORS Shipping and"HANDLING" Which is a different story! And it is outragious!
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    Old 06-01-2010, 06:29 PM
      #57  
    Joe
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    The prices are going up because they can. There are many excuses but it all amounts to greed as far as I'm concerned. It's like when fuel went up to $4 a gallon here in US I believe what they really wanted was us paying $3 a gallon by raising it to $4 first we were happy to pay $3 when it came down. When gas went up retail prices went with it. Now that gas has come down retail prices stayed there, why? because people are still buying, and if people are still buying they wont stop raising prices. Unfortunately the only thing not going up is wages. There's my rant thank you.
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    Old 06-02-2010, 06:11 AM
      #58  
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    [quote=Quilt Mom]TexasGurl, sorry your experience at Hobby Lobby has not been good. I guess it depends on where you are. We have so many quilters in this state that nearly every HL I've been in has had up-to-date books, in new condition, and a large selection of nice fabrics.

    Hi Quilt Mom,

    I guess the condition of the HL stores around Houston may vary, I haven't been to others here lately ...
    It sure isn't due to a LACK of quilters ... Houston has TONS of quilters and so does Texas ... guess it must be different mgmt /regions than y'all have in NE ?

    We ARE fortunate to have a lot of great quilt shops here !! :)
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    Old 06-02-2010, 06:29 AM
      #59  
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    http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org....jsp?id=h-1588

    you might find this link interesting - cotton in Alabama....
    there's also TONS of cotton grown in Mississippi -

    notice where it says it goes after it leaves the gin - China.....

    China has also started growing their own cotton.

    I've said it before and I'll say it again - economy cannot sustain itself when people want high wages and low costs....
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    Old 06-03-2010, 05:26 PM
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    Originally Posted by stitchinwitch
    Does anyone know exactly WHY fabric prices are going up? How many of you plan to "cut back" or will you still continue to buy? And I'm referring to buying at your LQS, NOT yard sales, discount businesses, etc. Luckily I have so much stash (hopefully in the right colors) that I won't need to buy anymore.
    I received the following explanation from the owner of my LQS, quiltfabric.com. She does explain why, but not how much.

    "While I am on China, that is where the cotton is woven into fabric which is then shipped to Korea to be printed for our quilt fabrics (not the batiks, but everything else). The price of cotton has been going up for various political (like Pakistan won't export cotton to China anymore) and environmental (lousy crop year)reasons. Hence the price of fabric is going up. Not a good time to raise prices. I have talked to at least four presidents of fabric manufactureres about it in the past two weeks. They would not budge on prices but at least I got some of the explanation."
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