mrsbishwit Posted July 25, 2008 Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 Has anybody else been seeing the decline in business due to these issues? It seems that last year when food and gas were cheaper I was twice as busy customer wise than I am this year. I mean the majority of my customers are the 60 and older group and most of them are living on fixed incomes. I wonder if they have decided to not send out their quilts now because their disposable incomes are less. Even my LQS owner has said her business is slower these days and has made her alter her business hours because it didn't make much sense to keep the shop open with staff when no one comes in the door after a certain time in the day and sometimes ot at all. I am also curious if this is why there seems to be a larger "gotta sell my machine" posts lately. What do all of you think? and how has it affected your business? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
April W Posted July 25, 2008 Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 Personally, I'm busier this year. But my customers seem to come in bunches...friends, mother/daughters, neighbors. So one or two gals bring the quilts and they will wait till everyone's is finished to make one trip to pick up several quilts. I even have a lady whose husband drives a semi and they picked up a quilt in Texas for me to quilt and bind. Next trip down they took it back to her. I have a lot more 'first time' quilters just getting into this new hobby too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary Beth Posted July 25, 2008 Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 I talked to Carol Lyon on the phone last night about this very thing. I don't know if it is the high cost of things...or as Carol said, it is people are on vacation, kids are home from school, no one has time to quilt...as soon as school starts again, it will get busy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoriasews Posted July 25, 2008 Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 I'm taking in double the quilts I did last year. I thought people were staying home using up their stash instead of running around shopping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoleneK Posted July 25, 2008 Report Share Posted July 25, 2008 Victoria, I've looked at your webshots and your quilting is absolutely beautiful - I can see why you're taking in double the quilts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoriasews Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 Oooooh, Jolene, thank you for the sweet comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jessica Gamez Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 The Phoenix market has been hit really hard... mostly due to home values and the fact that people lived outside of their means when the real estate boom happened a few years ago. Now most people are losing their homes to forclosure because of all this mess. Not to mention the most current rise in population was due to speculation and people working in real estate moving here thinking this market would continue to grow and now it is almost impossible to buy a home. Then the people who do have money are being much more careful with it because of how bad the stock market has been doing. So yes, I have noticed a slight decline in my local customers but a definite increase in my out of state customers. I would suggest marketing out of state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsbishwit Posted July 26, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 Jessica, My local customers are the ones that seem to have been cut in half this year, if it wasn't for my snowbird customers and my out of state customers (that were never snowbirds) I would wonder if I even had a business left I know that local home values have declined sharply lately in fact our home was valued last year for $75,000. more than what it is valued at today! I just heard on the news though that gas prices are expected to fall another .20 cents by Labor Day so hopefully that will help the locals get back to spending on quilting Also the LQS that I advertise at says that they keep running out of my brochures (in fact I need to take some more over there this week) so people are interested, I guess they just can't swing the money for it right now. I do have a promo idea that I might have to put into place in the fall for 1 month to get the flow moving a little bit less sluggish but right now I am waiting and seeing if it will be neccessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtreusch Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 My business hasn't fallen off. In fact it has increased. What I have noticed is that I am getting very few of the day to day quilts that are made for gifts, graduations, baby showers, etc. I get mostly group quilts, show quilts and auction quilts. I think a large part of that is due to the AQS show here in Des Moines in October. Everyone in Des Moines that I know of is pretty busy just as I am. Debbi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calicokat Posted July 26, 2008 Report Share Posted July 26, 2008 My LQS has closed on Mondays for the summer due to a drop in business and a rise in rent. As for me, I'm only in my first year of taking customers, so nothing to compare it to, but my summer has been dead compared to April and May. I got a call today though, and I'm expecting it to pick up in Sept. Our local guild's show is October so folks will be getting ready (at the last minute ) for that soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lyonden Posted July 27, 2008 Report Share Posted July 27, 2008 Yes, summer always slows down for us but I did have one of my elderly customers tell me she can't afford to quilt anymore. She is on a fixed income and it just costs her so much more to exist now than it did a while back. How sad as she is a great quilter. Yes, the economy is hurting right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheryll Posted July 27, 2008 Report Share Posted July 27, 2008 I hate to think of someone having to stop quilting because of money. Maybe people in her area could each donate some stash to her on the sly. Maybe like a May basket put a bag of fabric on her doorstep and ring the doorbell and run. I'm not joking. As we get older quilting is one of the things that brings us great joy. It's bad enough when things like eyesight or illness make us stop but hopefully never money. It's too special to lose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dtreusch Posted July 27, 2008 Report Share Posted July 27, 2008 Carol, If she can't afford to buy fabric for quilting, maybe she help a church guild or a local guild with making donation quilts. All of the quilts my church makes is from donated fabric. It costs nothing but time and the rewards are out of this world!! Debbi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veg-girl Posted July 28, 2008 Report Share Posted July 28, 2008 Over here in the UK we are a few months behind you in the slump but the effects are beginning to show. The takings in my shop this month are 29% down on the same month last year, having been roughly the same as the previous year up to now. Some say a slump leads to people economising on big items like a family holiday and treating them selves to more fabric for quilting and other hobby items to compensate. Who knows? Did you know that the UK petrol(gas) price is over $8 per US gallon, so you have away to go yet to catch up with us! We run a charity quilt group at my shop and certainly a few of the ladies come to that because they can't afford classes. I always send them home with homework to keep them busy until the next session. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pntmms Posted July 28, 2008 Report Share Posted July 28, 2008 My business slowed for the first time in 7 years. It is starting to pick up again but I am seeing that more of my customers are making quilts from their stash rather than with new purchased fabric. TJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathyA Posted August 1, 2008 Report Share Posted August 1, 2008 Just wanted to chime in. My business has remained steady but I have found that my high volume quilters have 'slowed down' and are actually doing their smaller quilts on their DSMs. Some are stashing quilt tops until there's a need for one. I've picked up more new customers this year and that's keeping things fairly steady year over year. I belong to 3 different sewing groups and in all there's alot of talk about increased cost of living and what they'll be doing this winter to cope....and we're all working from our fabric stashes for the most part and making more gifts for Christmas this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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