Friday, April 4, 2014

Aussie Quilters, time to start buying from Australian Quilt shops again!

How many times have I heard quilters guiltily whisper, or sometimes brazenly declare, that they buy fabric from overseas because it is sooo much cheaper! That's their prerogative, that's fine, but I believe it's time to think again my friends.
On our big trip around Queensland last year my very patient husband drove me around to any quilt shop I could Google in every town we visited. It became a regular occurrence that we would turn up at an address and find the shop vacated, no longer in business. As well as disappearing businesses we  also found downsizing businesses, shops that were struggling and had had to move into smaller premises.... pretty sad really.
I feel for the shop owners because I know how much they pay 'wholesale' for fabric, it's usually more or about the same as the US shop owners sell their fabric 'retail'.  It's hard to compete with that!
Well I hope that I can persuade shoppers to start looking back in their local quilt shops again.

Lets start with an average order:

POSTAGE FROM THE US TO AUSTRALIA DOUBLED LAST YEAR!
Most US shops will send 6 - 8 yards in a Priority Flat Envelope for $24.00.
That means you need to add the cost of $4 -$3 to each yard that you buy to cover postage.

If you buy 6 yards @ US $11  (add postage $4 per yard)   6 yards X  $15  =  $90 US

The AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR is not so great now!
 So $90 US will be about $97 AUS

We Aussies deal with METRES! US shops charge by the YARD!
6 yards is equal to 5.5 metres
So you have just bought 5.5  metres for $97.
Don't forget to add the currency conversion fee that gets added separately to your bank account, around $3.
You've just spent $100 on 5.5 metres of fabric.

That comes to $18.18 per metre!

Now that's not much less than you pay in your quilt shop for a metre of fabric!
So for  a few dollars isn't it worth rethinking your next online spending spree?
Why not take your $100.00 to a shop where a you can see, feel and touch the fabric, see whats new in the Quilting world, chat with the helpful shop owner and meet with friends.......