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Posted by Val on December 10, 2006, 5:16 pm
I realize that just the mention of 'Wal-Mart' puts up hackles whether pro or
con and any demise of a retail fabric source brings on the 'whys and
wailing' but unfortunately it's a business fact of life. If it doesn't make
a profit it doesn't last and out it goes and is replaced or restructured for
what will make profit. Fabric is a very high overhead product to sell.
Fabric takes up a huge amount of retail square footage and stores now use
cubic feet as well as square feet to calculate profit. Retail stores are in
business for only one reason, hard as it may be to grasp, they are not
really there for your convenience, they are only conveniently located and
they are there to make a bottom line profit in every cubic foot of space
possible.
All those wonderful little fabric shops we used to patronize couldn't
compete with the larger chain stores that bought in volume. Those have all
but disappeared to be replaced by even larger chains that have added other
products to their inventory to maximize profit margins, TSWLTH is a prime
example. The majority of their cubic profit making footage is NOT fabric.
The few of our favorite little owner operated fabric stores that are still
in business are usually in a building that they own (lower overhead) and
fabric prices are higher but are in an area that has a customer base to
support their profit line. It's a business people, retail is not a non
profit organization. You may worship at your church of fabric but they are
not tax exempt and they don't run on donations. Ledger books are not a warm
and fuzzy bedtime story, they are cold hard columns of indisputable fact.
Mail order fabric sources are growing because they don't need the out go of
cash to display or man the store. We've seen over the past few years some of
our favorite fabric stores add internet sales to their operation and then
close their doors and go strictly internet mail order.They can afford to
have bolts of specialty, high priced stock sit for just the right customer
on the other side of the country because the 'warehouse' is now what once
was the garage. Overhead has become a tax deduction. They don't have to
worry about paying people to stand around and LOOK busy on a slow day. They
don't have to worry about lighting, parking, convenient displays, expensive
high customer volume locations or expensive ways to be aesthetically
pleasing, maintaining 'customer bathrooms', insurance, loss leaders or shop
lifting expenses. It is more cost effective to fire a dishonest employee
than to prosecute a shoplifter and it costs just about the same to prosecute
for lifting a spool of thread as it does for a $5,000.00 sewing machine.
Advertising, demonstrations and classes to bring in customer dollars are
overhead that seldom break even anymore, perhaps for the few days of the
event but not for the big over all picture in the profit vs. loss columns in
the ledger.
The majority of people who sew are quilters and crafters and hard as it is
to believe those two types of customers as a whole don't generate that much
square footage profit in the big picture of fabric sales. I am not talking
about the little fabric store in a location that is now unique to the rest
of the country, I'm talking BIG picture, as in the USA as a whole in retail
sales evolution. Up until about 30 years ago there were many families who
wore almost nothing but home sewn garments, those days are over and the few
who still do sew everything or the majority of what their families and they
themselves wear are few and far between and there aren't enough around to
support all the fabric stores with the huge selection of inventory that
cater to these needs as there once were.
We all need to vent but just writing letters to any place such as Wal-Mart
will not change their decisions to replace their fabric departments with a
higher profit volume product. It might make you feel better but it won't
change the big picture. It might make them re-evaluate their decision but if
the department is in the red or not keeping up with profit volume of other
departments it won't make any difference. If every person who bought fabric
at Wal-Mart refused to ever shop in their store again for anything it most
likely wouldn't even make a dent in their profit columns. You might feel
better but the final outcome won't change. Those fabric departments were put
there because when a customer comes in to buy their fabric, and even you
have stated over and over you mostly buy when things are on sale or the
price is lower than a competitor or is marked down, you also usually buy
other non sewing type products. There may be a few who don't but that is the
minority. Fabric is a ''come on". As in come on in and buy your fabric and
spend many $$$ on other things as you have to walk by merchandise to get to
the back of the store where it's stocked and back out again to get your few
dollars of fabric. The lowest profit merchandise is always placed where you
must pass all the higher profit or impulse purchase items to get to
it........retail psychology, it's a science and it works or they wouldn't
pay to study and use it. More bottom line substantiated fact. Retail sales
must profit, FACT.
When a local fabric store announces that it is closing down there is all but
a funereal wake and huge out cries of "OH NO" as the store is swarmed by
customers to buy what has been discounted to wholesale or below; all the
time wailing about how much they will be missed, please don't close and
circling the mark downs like buzzards over road kill. If the store had been
consistently swarmed in a like manner with *loyal customers* buying at full
price it wouldn't BE going out of business.
If you look at your selves, myself included, in the cold hard light of day
we operate much the same way the stores we are constantly complaining about.
Because of economy and human nature we want and usually NEED to get the most
for our dollar spent. Stores are the same, not only for the stock holders
but also the "greedy capitalist pigs" who own the store or corporations.
These stores are no different in that they need to justify the most for
their purchasing dollar. Fabric departments in a store, seldom if ever, can
justify it. If you have a job that cost you twice as much to work at than
what you got paid you'd either find another job or cut back on your non
essential expenses as in close down the store or close down the department
that has more expense than income. Successful businesses don't max out
credit lines to keep something going they don't need. People max out credit
to buy what they can live without, not businesses. Financially unsuccessful
people go further into debt or bankruptcy and stores close their doors, same
difference. There will always be a few exceptions but it's not the rule.
Now you can run this letter and me over the roasting fires of outrage but
those are truly the facts, life isn't fair, never has been and never will
be. You can be as outraged by the policies of retail operations as you are
outraged by the way other people live their lives. In this case outrage
won't change things. Life is only surviving each day the best way possible
for the person who lives it and *life* for business is profit, you don't
have to like it, you don't have to even agree with it but those are just the
cold hard, bottom line facts.
Val
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Posted by BEI Design on December 10, 2006, 5:49 pm
<snipped for brevity>
> Life is only surviving each day the best way possible for the
> person who lives it and *life* for business is profit, you
> don't have to like it, you don't have to even agree with it but
> those are just the cold hard, bottom line facts.
I mostly agree with your dissertation, however, I quarrel with
the use of the pejorative term "greedy capitalist pigs". Without
capitol, and that includes the "Mom and Pop" kind, we would all
back in an 11th century economy, growing our own food, shearing
our sheep, carding the wool, and slaving (for ourselves) at the
loom to have any fabric to sew *at all*. I applaud those with
capitol who are willing to *put it at risk* to produce jobs,
products, and services.
JMHO,
Beverly
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Posted by Val on December 10, 2006, 6:55 pm
That was in quotes for a reason, I should have specified that it was a
tongue in cheek 60's expression and not to be taken quite so literally. As I
was a young adult working my a** off as a single mother and working two jobs
to get through school in the 60s I noticed that the people protesting about
the unjust practices of the "greedy capitalists pigs" were children of them
and having college and living expenses paid by said "GCP". What is more
ironic is that the majority of those I still know from that era that
protested the loudest have also joined the ranks of "GCP". The view of
financial landscape often changes with which side of the bank book you
stand.
Val
>
> <snipped for brevity>
>> Life is only surviving each day the best way possible for the person who
>> lives it and *life* for business is profit, you don't have to like it,
>> you don't have to even agree with it but those are just the cold hard,
>> bottom line facts.
>
> I mostly agree with your dissertation, however, I quarrel with the use of
> the pejorative term "greedy capitalist pigs". Without capitol, and that
> includes the "Mom and Pop" kind, we would all back in an 11th century
> economy, growing our own food, shearing our sheep, carding the wool, and
> slaving (for ourselves) at the loom to have any fabric to sew *at all*. I
> applaud those with capitol who are willing to *put it at risk* to produce
> jobs, products, and services.
>
> JMHO,
>
> Beverly
>
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Posted by Seeker on December 12, 2006, 9:27 am
On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 14:49:17 -0800, "BEI Design"
>
><snipped for brevity>
>> Life is only surviving each day the best way possible for the
>> person who lives it and *life* for business is profit, you
>> don't have to like it, you don't have to even agree with it but
>> those are just the cold hard, bottom line facts.
>
>I mostly agree with your dissertation, however, I quarrel with
>the use of the pejorative term "greedy capitalist pigs". Without
>capitol, and that includes the "Mom and Pop" kind, we would all
>back in an 11th century economy, growing our own food, shearing
>our sheep, carding the wool, and slaving (for ourselves) at the
>loom to have any fabric to sew *at all*. I applaud those with
>capitol who are willing to *put it at risk* to produce jobs,
>products, and services.
>
>JMHO,
>
>Beverly
>
To paraphrase a style invented by Jeff Foxworthy: If you and/or your
husband own a 401K plan, you might be a "greedy capitalist pig".
<wink wink> If you expect to get paid for your labor, effort, or
intellectual property, you might be a "greedy capitalist pig". Some
people are willing to sacrifice more to gain more, i.e., skip watching
the latest popular TV comedy to do school homework, delay entering the
workforce in order to study, go to college, take the hard math and
science courses, build skills - you might be a "greedy capitalist
pig". If in anyway you choose to delay instant gratification in order
to improve your lot in life, you might be a "greedy capitalist pig".
If in any way you expect to gain from being smarter, doing better, you
might be a "greedy capitalist pig". I agree that we all need to help
one another, but please - grant me the human dignity to choose when,
where and who I will help. Don't make me a slave by coercing me by
taxation to support someone who thinks of it as an entitlement. They
may not use it as the assist it was meant to be, and a welfare
mentality will thus be born.
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Posted by BEI Design on December 12, 2006, 12:32 pm
> To paraphrase a style invented by Jeff Foxworthy: If you
> and/or your
> husband own a 401K plan, you might be a "greedy capitalist
> pig".
> <wink wink>
;-) I'm sure all the people who think capitalism is inherently
evil will rush to their HR department and insist on liquidating
their accounts. Riiiiiigggghhhttt.
Beverly
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