Where Are All the Quilt Stores?

I am a small business owner.  In my "real life," my husband and I own a demolition and environmental company in High Point, North Carolina.  This means that not only can I tell you what is the best way to piece together a quilt block, but I also can tell you the asbestos regulations for the state of North Carolina.  Chapter and verse.

But as a small business owner, I am keenly aware the threat that "big box" businesses are to the small business owner.  Walmart (God bless them), Barnes and Noble, and Home Depot are the reasons that the neighborhood general store, book store, and hardware store went the way of the butcher shop.  Thankfully, as far as our business goes, we're small enough to be flexible, big enough to maintain a decent payroll roster, and too tiny to be a real threat to any of the big boys in our sandbox.  We're riding out the recession with hopes of selling the thing and retiring in the next couple of years.

I mention all that for this reason.  Last week I was able to take a business trip with Bill to Asheville, NC where we were estimating two jobs.  I Googled quilt shops in Asheville and found a couple I wanted to see.  And Bill was happy to comply as long as I let him fly fish for a couple of hours one afternoon.  So after we looked at the two projects in downtown Asheville, I programmed our GPS for the first quilt shop.  It wasn't too  far, but when we pulled up to the location, the shop was no where to be found.  Another shop (a fish market, of all things) now had the space and the current owner of said fishery told us that the business had shut down months ago. 

"Well, darn..." I thought as I programmed the address of quilt shop number two into the GPS.  Fifteen minutes later, we arrived only to find that the second quilt shop had also closed. 

I was fuming and Bill was chuckling at this run of bad quilting luck.  Then as we turned the corner from quilt shop two, we both discovered why both of the independent stores may have had to close.

Hancock's.

Now I'm a Hancock's shopper.  My bee meets at Hancock's.  I do buy quilt supplies at this store.  However, if I want quality fabric, quilting information, and just some time to hang out with fellow quilting addicts, Hancock's is not my choice.  I go to Dragonfly or Ye Olde Forest Quilt Shoppe.  However, in this case, I'm afraid it was a big boy entering the quilting sandbox that ran the two tiny kiddos out of the playground. 

Small, independent quilt shops are an endangered species, my fellow quilter.  Please, please, please support these wonderful women (and men) in their entrepreneurial endeavors.  If you don't, we may all end up shopping on the web...which is not necessarily a bad thing.  But these stores are a form of support, information, and education for all quilters.  The big stores such as Hancock's, AC Moore,  Hobby Lobby, and Michael's aren't.  The independent quilt shop fills a niche that no other store can.  Shop there.  Buy there.  Go to class there.  Spread the cash and the love.  Keep them open and running.