The Plain Truth

Well, by now, I’m sure many of you have heard  the “big news” from the shop last Friday.

A big sign in the window saying the shop was locked by the landlord due to a late rent payment.

Wow! Scary, bad news!

(To jump ahead a bit- all was resolved by Friday afternoon).

Of course, what happens when we hear big scary bad news?  We have to tell someone!  Anyone!  And as soon as possible!

I live 250 miles from the shop, and had my first phone call at 10am.  My second call came at 10:46am.  One from an employee and one from a customer.

Of course, I was on the phone with Holly right away too!

One customer even sent Holly a text photo of the sign, in case she didn’t know something was up…(Thanks for the picture).  You can see our good Samaritans image in the first photo.  Anyone want to guess who it was!  You might be surprised…

The Plain Truth

All of our customers who have shopped with us loyally over the last 20+ years, recognize that  the shop is not in a great spot financially.

We all can see that the fabric inventory is down.  Remember the days you could barely walk in the store because all of the fabric stacked on the floor.  (ah, the good ole’ days).  We all know that it has not been that way for a couple of years.

Step 1 in recovering, have less inventory.

You also recognize that we have fewer ‘girls’ working in the shop.  Perhaps that means a little more wait time for you, or even a little less service then you may be used to.

Step 2 in recovering, reduce employee hours.

Many small businesses are hurting right now- we are just one of many.  Lots of quilt shops have gone out of business, including several in our area.

Let me say, we do not want to close! We are doing what we need to do, in order to survive this economic mess!

Please, please be patient and loyal as we struggle to get through these difficulties.

A big thank you to all our customers who came in on Saturday, to see how the shop was doing!

A big thank you to all of you who are patient with the ‘girls, they are doing the best they can within limits they have no control over!

A big thank you to everyone who participates in classes, bees and such!

A big thank you to those customers who let us special order books or patterns for them.  We may not always have the item in stock you want, but we will be happy to order it for you!

We know that you want to see the shop not only survive, but thrive again!

We want to see that too! 

Plus, selfishly, I just put my house up for sale this week!  I intend to come back and work with the other ‘girls’ at the store!  Don’t you want to see “kit of the day” again?!

Well, now you know the plain ugly truth.

Know, that we are trying.

Know that we are working toward new fabrics and patterns.

Come see us, let us know you want us to be here next year!

If there has any been a time we would appreciate your comments, it would be now!  As you can imagine, this has been very stressful…Would be nice to hear our customers our with us!

Thanks, Sandra