I admit it, I play favorites. Yes, dear reader, I have favorite customers. Customers who are so fun, so easy to work with and so happy to be SPOOL customers that they make it a joy to come to work. Some of these customers are in store and some are online and before you ask, no, it actually has little to do with the amount of money they are able to leave in my shop at the end of their SPOOL experience and has way more to do with how they approach their visit to our store.
The truth is that many shop owners keep their lips tightly shut on these matters for fear of losing a sale but let’s face, it I have rarely been one to take the safe path, so let’s explore this subject a bit deeper!
As I said, I play favorites – I have been known to drop in extra patterns, bonus yardage, collectors pin,s or BadAss goodness into orders and in-store purchases just because it was so damned fun to work with certain customers. I am lucky; SPOOL has a fair number of these BadAss Quilters but the honest truth is I can’t say this about every soul that walks through our door.
Again, this is not about the dollars spent (but please do, spend, it is what keeps a store open) but about the attitude when in shop. It is about being present, courteous, aware, and ready to think about what you are doing. Of course there is always the time that you need to just wander around and touch fabric to make your day better, and that is cool as well. Some days are for dreaming and planning; we get that and honor your need to have time in your own head.
Sticky Wickets
What is not so cool are customers who abuse the store with both their actions and their words leaving us dazed and confused as to what has just happened as they walk out the door leaving in their wake a laundry list of sins that leave us gape-mouthed if not outright furious and even occasionally make us cry.
Do I think that people do all of these things on purpose? No. But I do think that as a culture we have become numb at times to the wake of our personal space and expectations on a variety of situations, and this extends to the way people shop.
In the south we have a phrase that we use when a woman is really difficult; we say she is a “hard woman to love.” The same goes for some customers. Of course some sins are more egregious than others but let’s just trip through a mercifully shortened list of situations I have encountered since opening the shop 3 years ago and learn about situations that will get a shopper bumped from the favorite customer list in a heartbeat.
Hard Customers to Love (cheater’s list of things not to do in a quilt shop)
Walking into the store on a cell phone, not making eye contact, and acting as if our greeting you is an imposition on your time. Extra eye rolls awarded for having your conversation via speaker function the whole time you are in the shop. Bonus points for referring to your sister-in-law as a “skank” during the conversation. That was certainly special!
Showing up to class unprepared, late, or without the basic knowledge of your machine (it was not a new machine class).. Extra points awarded when talking loudly to a table-mate about all the great deals you get buying fabric online over buying fabric in the very shop you are taking a class.
Taking photos without first asking. Yes, in my store you can take photos, but asking is nice. What is not nice is taking photos of the end of bolts so that you can then comparison shop those fabrics online at a later date and then have the brass balls to tell me you are doing it! For the win, whip out your cell phone and order the book online that you are looking at in my store and tell me what a great deal you just got on Amazon!
Snooping where you are not allowed. Walking back into obviously office / storage space, opening storage units or rifling through bathroom cabinets. Extra points for stealing our Poo-pourri bathroom spray. I mean really, I don’t remember there being a big bathroom spray famine, buy your own damned spray!
Pick up an item, raise it high into the air Lion-King-style and announce to the whole shop that this is the daily deal on Missouri Star! Extra points when then also point out 5 other things in the shop that you are going to go home and buy online as soon as you get us to help you figure up how much binding you need for your new pot holder (made with the Deal of the Day charm pack you got last week from Missouri Star as well!)
Engage a sales associate totally for an hour or more, get out 30 bolts, take up the whole sales counter, and then request an 1/8 of a yard from each of them. Extra points if while we unfold them to cut you decide that you really don’t like many of them and tell us “never mind” and walk out telling us you need to “think about it.”
Grab the corner of the fabric that I had laid out to cut in order to “help me” get it straight. Bonus points when you keep tugging it in order for me to cut “just a bit extra for free.”
Need to use the bathroom? Please do, but please also use the fan and clean up after what ever post-apocalyptic event happened for you in there. Extra points for leaving unwrapped sanitary items, dirty diapers, and evidence that even at your age you are still menstruating since I love nothing more than cleaning up blood that is left dripping down the front of the toilet bowl. And, for pity’s sake, FLUSH!
Come in and please feel free to bitch about our location, our hours of business, and how hard we are to find since when I started in business I thought, “What would really piss people off? I know, let’s put our business on a main road, put directions and a map on the front of our website in a large town, and let’s also be open 7 days a week. That should do it! Extra points when you refer to my shop as being in the “hood” and openly questioning why there are “so many black people around here.”
Bring in a cup of coffee, sports drink or beer (wtf?) and then abandon it on my shelves. Extra points for hiding it behind a display so it later gets knocked over and ruins something.
Go ahead and open a kit or tied bundle “to see something better” and then leave it in a heap. I can’t tell you how much I love that! Extra points for hiding it behind some bolts of fabric!
Come in my store and tell me I “have a lot of nerve charging $xx.xx for that!” Go on to explain that you can get something “almost like that” at Walmart for “SO MUCH LESS”… …please do.
Want to look at a pattern? You bet! Bring it to the front and let us help you with that. Bonus points for ripping open the seal, and then sneaking off into a corner of the store to try to take photos of the instructions and then getting huffy with me when I tell you that you are violating copyright as I pull the pattern out of your hand and tell you I will be charging you for the pattern and it will be waiting for you at the front counter when you are done shopping.
Come in, ask for a line of fabric of which we have bought the whole collection. Have us get out ALL THE BOLTS for you, open each, tell us about the quilt you plan to make, and ask approximately 1 ZILLION questions about project construction and technique, then thank us for showing you the fabric and make for the door telling us that you are SO VERY GLAD we have the collection since you really wanted to see in person it before you ordered it online.
And people wonder why some quilt store owners drink.
Come on into the shop and see that there are 17 customers waiting, and we are run ragged, ask us to figure out how much your need for the umpteen quilts you want to make. Can we unroll some of the bolt so I can see the fabric better. How about unrolling the entire bolt so I can see how much is on it. Does this fabric go with this? My favorite customer and every sale the same thing….
I to have had some “hard” customers. Once I was at a show, not feeling good. At the end of the show I realized that a$100.00 kit and a set of bias tape makers were missing. Yikes! I said a prayer on the way home. Lord please let the one who has the bias tape maker burn their fingers each time they use them. And with the kit I prayed that they would prick their fingers & bleed all over the quilt. Not nice maybe, but I felt better. So nice to rant thanks!
I have seen some of these things happen. The one that got me though – I was visiting an area, and went to a quilt shop that was recommended. One person working, and she was on the phone. The Entire Time I Was There! Found out the store was going out of business “due to the internet”. No, I think it was due to the lack of business sense of the worker!
How about the ‘full on toddler tantrum when things don’t go our way’ customer. I have witnessed a 60+ year old women have a complete meltdown because the shop did not have 7 distinct shades of lemon yellow, and her teacher had told her that the block she was learning could only have one colour (it was a log cabin class as it turned out) The woman in question was making a baby quilt but didn’t know what flavour it would be, and therefore had decided that lemon yellow would be ideal. The shop assistant tried to help her, her friend tried to help her, I tried to help her, we all tried to tell her the world would not end if there was more than one colour in that quilt, but apparently total and absolute histrionics was the only way to go. Her friend walked out and left her, and I’m afraid I high tailed it back to work after making my purchase (it was only my lunch hour) I felt sorry for the poor assistant we left her with.
What a laugh! Have experienced all thes things.
Its the theft that really gets to me. At one store I worked in we were told to look out for pregnant women. But amazingly everone was pregnant, girls, grandmothers. Everyone was putting things up there dresses. It was like a swarm of locusts. Lost a whole bolt of velvet. 5 bolts of silk gone in one day.
work in a country store now. Every in town is so honest.
Love them.
thanks for the post.
My husband works in a grocery store and I spent my first 10 years or so of work in retail, but it still amazes me how people act in businesses. I teach and am thankful most days that I don’t have to work with “the crazies.” LOL I’m so glad there are beverages to help you through the worst ones.
I on the other hand have gone into quilt shops that have one or two people working. One is by herself & never even acknowledged I walked in the door as she was cutting fabric for one of her favorite customers whom obviously had no limit on what she was spending while her husband waits in the rocker on the front porch. I walked around the store in anticipation of finding that special pattern of fabric that I just couldn’t leave without. Needless to say I walked out with nothing. Than the shop where two are working & one is giving a class & the other follows behind me to watch if I touch something I shouldn’t or keep offering to help me. I am not a person of big income, so when i go into a shop it is for something special & then hear “o we are sold out of that” even though I just found it on their website. So not all customers are there to steal your pooh spray or strip a bolt of fabric or give you a problem.
Maddie, you are just the best! – Love, a fellow quilt shop owner.
Oh my word!! – this weekend my husband, Carl & I are celebrating 8 years in business at our shop Linderella’s Quilt Works – and your post just made me ROTFL….must say that “grabbing the edge of the fabric ” and “using the bathroom (especially the Poo Pourri and cleaning up after yourself ) ” were so spot on….but wait – I might add these to your list : “Poo Pourri is not a perfume” – we’ve had several customers who have sprayed it on themselves even though we have a clear directions framed above the toilet – and, “TMI While Checking Out is not a Virtue” – Several years ago, we had a customer who was about 75 years old announce to us (and the the whole store…) that she was headed over to the gynecologist…..if that wasn’t enough, she also announced that she hadn’t been for 30 years….say what?!? and of course let’s say nothing about the image that conjures up when she said that!!? ….Thanks you Maddie for this post – it just made our shop anniversary weekend even more special!
They are everywhere….I think it is a club! How about taking a sale bolt with you into the bathroom, remove the fabric and put it in your “project bag” and hiding the empty bolt behind little table. Or remove the pattern from a kit…it was a “free download” we would have given you the source…all you had to do was ask. But…there are those customer who do put a smile on our face, put a laugh in our heart and are just plain nice people. Enjoy your day
I so wish that I was shocked, but I’m not. We, the hubs and I, are regulars at our LQS and even enjoyed meeting up with the wife and husband team of owners at the local craft brewery. (it was a Saturday, now I know they probably NEEDED that beer) But even if I was not one of her favorites, cuz I know I am, never ever could I imagine doing any of the things you’ve described. No excuse for bad manners, if you didn’t learn good ones at home most of us have been around long enough to pick them up someplace else.
wow! i am truly shocked at some people’s lack of manners!! i know i shouldn’t be though, after spending time in retail, etc.! i hope i get to visit BadAss Quilters one day; you sound wonderful! i am the type that doesn’t want to cause any commotion or trouble in a store. & dear me, i Do Not take my young children Anywhere i do not have to (like a store) for fear of the unknown behavior. i try my best to teach them manners (all the time) & agree with Gayle regarding learning proper etiquette out & about if home didn’t do the job!
I have one … as a customer in a quilt store. I was waiting behind a perfectly dressed and attractive looking woman talking loudly on her cell phone and pushing bolts of fabric across the counter to the very patient staff member trying to stop everything from sliding off the the other end. The child of the woman looks up at me and says at the top of their voice “how come you’re so ugly?”.
Look, I know I am no picture painting… but gee… The lovely lady patiently cutting fabric asked the woman if she had heard and asked for an apology. Obviously the woman had but made no attempt to correct her child or apologize. In fact she rolled her eyes and glared at both of us. I deserved an apology didn’t I? In the end the woman glared at both of us , pushed her credit card across the counter, paid left, not coming off her phone once and ignoring everything her precious child had said.
The owner of the quilt store apologized to me over and over and related similar horror stories to the many above, she then offered to give me my entire purchase for free, after it was cut, plus an extra yard of anything I wanted for free. I declined, but their kind gesutre made a big difference to me. I honestly don’t know where people come from these days. I cannot believe they do what they do. I’m really sorry to read all the stories above and I am still a regular customer of the little store.
Wow. Certainly an experience. I go to my LQS often (about once a week or two), buy something, talk the the personal, share stories etc., always buy and they have never put anything extra in my bag. I do none of the ‘do not do’ things that you listed above. I may have to show them this post. Lol
OMG!!!! You’ve been hanging out in my store haven’t you? Let me add another to the list, We all know that children are a blessing and I’m sure that if you COULD have gotten a baby sitter, you WOULD have left your darling angels at home. Alas, you brought all three of them, all under the age of four, with you while you shopped. Kicking at and taking a swing at my staff is not cool, neither is swinging (and I mean this literally) from my long arm. Strollers with harness seat belts are a wonderful thing, leaving the kids at home is even better.
I feel your pain even though I don’t work in a quilt shop, this is everywhere. I volunteer at a local railroad venue, the brochure plainly states, “no strollers or car seats” and when you tell them sorry, but can’t take that on board, the reply is usually “what am I supposed to do with my kid?” I want to tell them that perhaps one might hold their child/baby! Some just don’t think any rules apply to them. Will always be that way
As others have stated, this behavior is not limited to quilt shops. I work with the public every day at a public library in a small city. Some things are universal even if sales aren’t involved.
Yes, thank you for pulling several items from their places on the shelves, carrying them around with you, and putting them on the nearest shelf when you decide not to get them. The next person who tries to find that item is out of luck until a staff person finds it while straightening up other areas.
Yes, thank you for walking past that “no drinks” sign with your sugary beverage of choice, then setting that sweaty drink on top of a computer or magazine.
Yes, thank you for not paying attention to your child who is randomly pulling stuff off shelves or getting sticky fingers on items. Or for feeding your toddler goldfish and then running the stroller over the ones that fell on the floor, grinding the crumbs into the carpet.
I joke that there’s a reason many staff begin a wine habit after they’ve worked here for a while.
All of these “events” and “special people” are the reasons I retired after 24 years of owning a successful business which was several years before I was old enough! If I had waited any longer I wouldn’t have been able to comment. I would have either been dead from the stress or in jail !!!! Hope you have those great customers more often than the other kind!
This type of action happens in other retail businesses too. Our family business is furniture … my hubby has similar stories about customers. For some reason, people do not seem to have a clue about the ins and outs of having a small business.
You nailed it! Sadly, it’s not just quilt shop owners who are subject to picking up a drink. Our society is losing its basic moral structure. Today’s parents weren’t necessarily taught common courtesy and good manners, so that lack of etiquette (who remembers that word!??) doesn’t get passed down as it was never there in the first place. I see it every day. Rudeness, disrespect, lack of courtesy of others. Me, I like to practice at least one random act of kindness every day. Makes me feel all warm & fuzzy! : ) My hope is that, in setting a good example, someone else might get a clue. There’s also a good booklet out there for kids and adults with 21 basic precepts to help bring about a renaissance of good moral character and judgment. It’s called The Way to Happiness -and the one for kids is: Make Good Choices. : ))
If I owned a business I’d have a big sign out front. Rude people are not welcome. Go shop somewhere else. As a customer I don’t like to be around other customers that are rude and ignorant.
This is all so true– and so sad! I have been a shop owner for 32 years, and honestly, I think this behavior has increased mostly in the past 10 years or so. I am only about a 2 hour drive from Mo. Star, an so where do they come for help when they have problems with poor directions, bias edges that are wavy & other issues– the local shop of course. Sometimes it’s really hare to smile assist them. And then, I have the customer/friends who tell me I “saved
their life ” by helping through rough times- or the ones who tell me that no one- not even family sometimes seem to care about them like I do- and ones who send flowers or bring home baked bread to share– that is where my true profit is!!
Excellent listing of Hard to Love Girls! I experienced this year’s ago working in a LQS in Houston. We especially dreaded Saturday’s customers. We believed they were released from the asylums to shop that day!
I had a customer call and leave me a message. I had ruined Christmas for his wife. He called on Dec 23rd (after we closed for the holiday) and ordered a gift certificate for her for Christmas. We got the message when we got back to work on the 26th. The wife later apologized. But his name went ” on the list”.
Cheers to you for your honesty and putting up with the ungrateful, unkind, thoughtless and greedy folk that cross your paths! So thankful you find the gems along the way to keep you keeping on!
I am so stressed out just reading this list!
I hope the only one I’m guilty of is pulling out too many bolts but I *always* help put them back. I help put them back while admitting out loud what I pain I was for pulling them out in the first place, so please don’t hate me for this.
I would love to buy you a drink to recover from the stress of typing all that out. Cheers!
Totally understand. I have a convenience store. Talk about stuff we see. And when people are fishing on the bayou and come in to use the restroom, steal your tissue, make a mess and buy nothing
Yea you’ll can all come here and have a drink. I also have a bar. Haha
I am at work in a quilt shop right now. I love working here, and am eternally grateful I do not own it. I was laughing out loud at this blog. I want to applaud you for your honesty. I will share my three worst customer types: The do it for me customer – let me lean my ass against your cutting table while you bring every bolt of blue in the shop for me to reject and decide the blue you saw at the chain state was perfect after all.
The I can’t make up my mind, so you decide, but make me feel like it is my choice customer – this one requires advanced psychology, but handled correctly will spend way more than they came in to spend.
The praise me and my choices and look at every quilt I have every made on my phone, or I will leave in a snit and say bad things about you customer – they only shop at peak busy hours.
And please don’t get me started on the bathroom, really people, what must your homes look like if you are willing to leave that behind knowing I will have to deal with it. Have you ever seen an unflushable? That are not a myth!
Please paw my samples until they fall on the floor. Bonus points if you step on it and leave a shoe print while its down.
I think I love you
Wonder if that term “ugly Americans” was coined by shop owners ☺️
That happens in Canada too, not just the US.
Your post has made my morning – I giggled, laughed, grimaced and cringed! Some people are absolutely incredible in their insensitivity. My three teens have always been taught (with varying degrees of success) if you won’t do it at home in front of me then you sure as hell better not be doing it somewhere else. A year and a half ago, my husband and I were moving from Texas to Virginia. He was sweet and told me to Google any quilt stores along the way I wanted to stop at. Well, by the time we got to Chattanooga I was pretty bummed and burnt out. Little had I realized that most of the shops along the way tended to have a greater emphasis on garment/heirloom sewing than on quilting – probably just luck (or bad luck) of the draw. As we approached Chattanooga, he asked if I wanted to stop since I had passed on the last three places. I was going to say skip it when I remembered the blip about BadAss I had seen online in your description. So glad we made the turn off – we did drive by twice (damn you Google maps for being slow and AT&T for the latent service.)
When we came in, it was going to be in a hurry. It was a very slow and cold January day. You all were so wonderful. I had stopped to coo over some Art Gallery that was right by the door. My husband was tickled pink that you showed him a great spot where he could sit and surf his phone to his heart’s content. About 45 minutes later I walked out with a huge bag of fabric and patterns. I’m feeling really good now as you gave me a bunch of BadAss Quilters pins and swag as well! My kids try to take the buttons – apparently they are rad or whatever the next expression for cool is – but I’ve threatened them with no more cookies ever if they touch them.
Your post did make me feel guilty. I’ve told countless people how much I enjoyed your shop but I never have told you. 99% of shops are nice and pleasant – yours was the exception, it was fun and great and still makes me smile a year plus later. I haven’t had that great of a shopping experience since. On the flip side, I have gone into a very small old store where when they hear the bell, the owner and his wife always both come to the front where the 6 foot tall plus owner hovers over you (every single time) as though you might dash out with the extremely old grandma floral fabric any sec. Agggh…I just grit my teeth and head to the other local stores instead! Sometimes I dream of a day trip your way – after all 5 hours each way in a car isn’t that bad – is it?
Sigh. People. Quilters. Not all polite and good. I dont have a lot of spendable cash always but if I visit I try to at least buy something. A fq at least and support my LQS! Sigh.
Thank you for venting for all of us! Some days it’s hard to keep smiling through all the bull. But we keep doing it because of the wonderful customers.
Wow! A sad commentary on bad manners.
Omigawd! I just don’t understand people. I mean, I’m not super shocked because people can be horrible, but at the same time, I just don’t get it. I’m a fan of giving my dollars to people that are awesome. Etsy, eBay, brick and mortar stores near and far. If you are awesome, I will gladly throw my dollars at you, but I would never be so disrespectful as any of the people you’ve dealt with in the store. Ugh! You are awesome!
On boy, as a former quilt shops owner,just reading this makes me want to drink! You describe the scenarios so well. And everyone thinks all quilters are nice! Maybe,but quite a few are cheap,insensitive and often thieves! That was my lesson learned from my quilt shop. A few times I actually had to go into the bathroom to cry as a customer had been on a rant about something or other. And I could not get over how people stole fabric off the bolt! Yet, all that said, I had some pretty wonderful people enter my shop and my life and thankfully after 6 years after closing my shop, many are still in my life!
How about the customer who shows up a full day BEFORE the class is supposed to start – what a doof!!!! You all handled it beautifully (of course), especially your son who was brilliant, as I called my husband to come back to the venue and I ran to my car in embarrassment. P.S. the weekend was amazing, and who doesn’t love an extra day in Chattanooga shopping at Spool!
Yes, customers can be amazing.
– The folks who walk through the door and ask when the next sale is going to be – when you don’t know because you’re not one of the owners, they walk back out, do no shopping and no buying. We do have to sell non-sale fabric occasionally not to go out of business.
– To the person that took the $4 a yard sale fabric, slipped the whole thing off the bolt, hid it in their purse, then hid the empty bolt – I hope that brought you tons of joy!
– To the folks that take 15 bolts off the shelf, bring them to the cutting table (not including the 20 bolts they took off the shelves and left scattered throughout the store), mix and match them, walk away, come back with more, repeat, for the next 30+ minutes, take 4 of them and ask for fat quarters, then when you look at the huge pile that’s left and ask what they need of those they reply, “Oh, I always pull out WAY more than I need”! Really …. I didn’t notice 🙂
Bless you for putting up with the bad behavior in your shop. Its not only
there that people misbehave. I worked our county fair recently and we saw
exactly the things you described. We even had a man scoop up a handful of
cherry tomatoes from the entries and munch his way out the door!
I appreciate the work and love that goes into keeping a store looking
inviting and exciting. Its like every quilt. Its a part of your heart. There will
always be misbehaving “children” who know better but choose not to behave
better.
Sheesh. Color me not surprised. I work in another profession also serving a customer base, but still lot of my conversations revolve around bathroom behavior, boogers, and unmannerly behavior.
You would think in the middle of color, creativity and wonder, people would behave better!
I learned the term for taking pictures in a retail shop in order to get a better deal online. “Show Rooming”. I take picture, I’ll admit, though usually not for a better deal. To think about it, send it to my quilter sister, or, in the case of a book (sorry) to get it from the library.
I love my local quilt shop, being very fortunate to have a local shop, and my online shops. I raise a glass or two in your Badass honor
Cheers
Usually if I’m taking a picture of something like fabric in a shop, I’m trying to get a decent photo of the colour tone so I can match it to something at home. Even as a CUSTOMER if I saw someone blatantly gathering data from an independent business – I’d come so unhinged at the fellow customer -I’d- probably have to be removed from the store. That’s unacceptably rude.
I have heard all this and more. I always support my local shop and buy their kits and do their classes as I want them to do well so they will always be there
It is amazing how rude and inconsiderate many people have become. I believe the cell phone has caused a major part of our disconnect, when someone on the other end of the phone becomes more important than the person standing in front of you.
Manners, respect and common sense- all a missing link.
Bless you for tolerating the “hard to love” and pour yourself another!
I love you more than my luggage!
People behaving badly. Sigh. You have to wonder what our society is coming to.
It’s called common sense, decency, courtesy, and respect, people.
C’mon, girls, you’re giving quilters a bad name.
Maddie, know that by far MOST of your customers value and appreciate you and Spool, and are “easy women to love.” Hang in there for them.
❤️
Different country but so much of the story rings true!!
I buy online some, I’m a suckered for a beautiful line of fabric, and if I see it first online, then that’s where I’ll order it. However, I love to pet fabric, and if I see something gorgeous in a LQS, I’m whipping out my card just as fast. I recently participated in our state’s shop hop, and I purchased something from every shop I visited. I thought that was the courteous thing to do. In one store, I saw a quilt on display that I loved. They were out of the book it came in, so I ordered it online later. If they had it in stock, I would have bought it there. Most of the shop owners and clerks were a joy to be around. Helpful and really nice. They even recommended other shops I should visit. You can bet I’ll be back to their shops again.
Pretty good list! And I understand completely.
Now, I will say that I have taken a picture of the fabric and the end of the bolt, simply to remember for the future. I have never then bought it online. Most of the time because I don’t have the money right then.
Thanks for the laugh. I hope that I am lucky enough to visit your shop one day and become a favorite customer!
I worked it a quilt store for 10 yrs…I can SO relate! Loved working there 99% of the time, but there were those handful of customers that made me want to cheerfully choke them with our lovely skeins of hand dyed flosses, or something equally as satisfying.
Girlfriend your are so amazing and hit the nail right on the head. As a quilt shop employee myself I know your pain and struggles from a day to day basis. There are days I come home and tell my family war stories from our shop. My family always says you have got to be kidding me. Why would quilters act like children? It blows my mind what people think is an acceptable way to act in a quilt shop. When I show people my copy of the book your in they ask did I buy it from Amazon. I reply with absolutely NOT! I tell them I believe in supporting my friends and their quilt shops so I ordered it from your shop. Sure I work in a quilt shop and could get fabric cheaper but I believe if I visit a quilt shop and find something I like in their shop I will buy it from the shop I’m in. It’s called supporting each others shops. I could go on and on about this topic. The reason I adore you and your shop is you accept people for who they are. It’s not often in the quilting world you find honest folks who aren’t afraid to speak their mind. I have put visiting your shop and meeting you on my bucket list. I hope that doesn’t seem weird. I mean when my husband wants to actually visit a quilt shop with me that says a lot about how freaking awesome it is.
Yes ma’am. I know exactly what you mean! Have a great weekend!
I cant tell you how giddy this makes me! I work in a quilt shop and i have experienced nearly all of these. A couple add ons … needing borders on a quilt but having no idea of the dimensions of the quilt. Here you do the math, i hate math! Having a pattern but wanting to make it bigger and wanting to figure out how much more fabric they will need. And MY favorite is the lady that comes in after mucking her horses stall!!! Its super fun to follow you around the store sweeping up your horses sh*t!!
I guess, at my age, I shouldn’t be surprised by people’s behavior? But I cannot imagine doing any one of these things!!! There is a special place in heaven for shop owners!!!