Michaels v. local yarn stores

I support local stores. I don't shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's. I try to
shop at stores that treat their employees fairly (not sure what to do
with the supermarkets and their new two-tier system for new employees).
Anyway, I always bought my yarn at my local yarn store and paid highway
robbery prices. Last summer I bought some yarn to make my
afghan-half-price yarn-10 balls for $90. It was 75% acrylic/25% wool.
Well, I saw the same yarn (same brand, same mix)at JoAnn's for half of
the sale price. I saw a 100% wool of that brand still for less than I
paid for the cheap mix. I'm really fed up. I understand retail markup
but I'm not going to be ripped off. The same thing happens in the
jewelry industry which is why they have such a bad rep and rarely stay
in business. Sorry but I saw the post about the new Michaels and had to
put in my .02 cents...

Well, you get what you pay for, and not always in material goods.
Your LYS is available to help you troubleshoot pattern problems, make
suggestions WRT suitable yarn for any given project, will hold your
hand when you need to rip an entire sweater, and will let you sit in
the back room and swatch with THAT yarn and THOSE needles before you
buy either or both. The shop owner is available, the clerks are
knowledgeable, and if they don't have something in stock that you want
they'll order it for me - none of this "you can call the store in Oak
Hill and drive down there if they have it" bull****.

I'm more than happy to make the 30-45 minute drive (depends on
traffic) to the single YS in the Austin area. Occasionally I drive
nearly 2hr (yes, two hours) to San Antonio to a yarn store with an
absolutely amazing book room in addition to a wall about 10' high and
30' long that is NOTHING but needles, crewel, needlepoint, trapunto,
tatting, and every other yarn-related needlework supply on the face of
the planet. Again, I get what I pay for in the form of value-added
services. I also get to visit the San Antonio Zoo and have a nice
lunch with the girls while I'm there.

If you feel you're being ripped off by your LYS you should ask the
owner to sit down and explain to you why it is she's charging the
prices she does for the yarns you want to buy. Chances are it is
because she is paying a higher wholesale than the big boxes (after
all, she can't order a few hundred metric tons of the stuff and get a
bulk discount) and has to set her retail accordingly.

As far as jewelery: My husband and I have been doing business with
the same custom jeweler for 10 years. He has a small shop, we know
all of his employees, his prices are reasonable, his work is
excellent, and he's never tried to rip us off. We don't shop at
big-box jewelers, we don't buy any diamonds at all, and we only
purchase gemstones from mines/companies known to engage in good
safety, environmental, political and social practices. Its just
another case of "you get what you pay for".

Hi,

I also felt I should comment on this topic. I shop at both local yarn
speciality shops and Micheals and Wal-mart. I agree with the fact that
Wal-Mart employees are the lowest paid in the US especially women. Depending
on how much money I have when I start a project is how I decide to buy my yarn,
I usually buy all Red Heart yarn that I use for charity projects at Wal-Mart or
Michael's depending on who has it on sale, but usually they don't have the
color I want and if they do they usually don't have enough skeins I ran into
that problem the last time I was at Hobby Lobby. If I am looking for a special
yarn such as a type of yarn that the other stores don't carry or the 'Denium'
yarn I will shop at the specility stores.

On 12 Dec 2004 01:32:17 GMT, (GJeep4x4) wrote:

Hi,

I also felt I should comment on this topic. I shop at both local yarn
speciality shops and Micheals and Wal-mart. I agree with the fact that
Wal-Mart employees are the lowest paid in the US especially women. Depending
on how much money I have when I start a project is how I decide to buy my yarn,
I usually buy all Red Heart yarn that I use for charity projects at Wal-Mart or
Michael's depending on who has it on sale, but usually they don't have the
color I want and if they do they usually don't have enough skeins I ran into
that problem the last time I was at Hobby Lobby. If I am looking for a special
yarn such as a type of yarn that the other stores don't carry or the 'Denium'
yarn I will shop at the specility stores.
Hi

I have to agree with you and that is how I do my shopping. If I am
doing a charity project (which I do a lot of) I buy Red Heart at
Michaels and Wal-mart or whereas it's on sale. If I need yarn for a
special project or if I want a treat I go to one of my LYS and
purchase yarn/wool for my project.

I guess I shouldn't say much but my last purchase of TLC/Red Heart was
at a local hardware store that carries overstocked items at a
reasonable price. $1.48 CDN for 140 grams of worsted weight.


Darlene in Toronto
http://members.rogers.com/craftkitten

Well, a couple of thoughts come to mind. While all (3) of my local yarn
stores will help if it's a small problem, if you want them to sit down
with you you must pay $30 or $35. an hour for individual lessons or
$75. to $150. for the series of [group] lessons. This is in the area of
Los Angeles where I live. So you must pay for lessons in addition to
being required to buy the yarn from them. As for the jewelry industry,
I am a Graduate Gemologist (GIA) and worked for them as a diamond
grader (went into teaching for the higher pay/better hours) so I'm
intimately familiar with industry practices-lots of classmates from
family stores/companies plus some free-lancing for extra cash. The
mark-up at mall/stand-alone stores is 1000%. Only 7% of all diamonds
are conflict diamonds and you have no way of really knowing where they
come from by the time they go from the mines to DeBeers (DTC) to sight
holders and down the line to the manufacturers to the wholesalers to
the retailers you have absolutely no way to verify where they come from
because the retailers themselves have no idea. And mining practices
everywhere including Russia with the sole exception of Canada, are
among the highly destructive environmentally and socially.

Hi,

On the LYS subject, the three ladies that run mine which was going out of
business don't know a thing about knitting or crocheting. The price of yarn is
out of sight. The little Red Heart skeins of yarn are higher priced than the
big skeins at Walmarts. The local store deals more in sewing than yarn.

Hugs,

Nora

In article .com,
"Islands" wrote:

I support local stores. I don't shop at Wal-Mart or Sam's. I try to
shop at stores that treat their employees fairly (not sure what to do
with the supermarkets and their new two-tier system for new employees).
Anyway, I always bought my yarn at my local yarn store and paid highway
robbery prices. Last summer I bought some yarn to make my
afghan-half-price yarn-10 balls for $90. It was 75% acrylic/25% wool.
Well, I saw the same yarn (same brand, same mix)at JoAnn's for half of
the sale price. I saw a 100% wool of that brand still for less than I
paid for the cheap mix. I'm really fed up. I understand retail markup
but I'm not going to be ripped off. The same thing happens in the
jewelry industry which is why they have such a bad rep and rarely stay
in business. Sorry but I saw the post about the new Michaels and had to
put in my .02 cents...

I think you should shop where you want.


I do think however that you do not have a clear picture of how it really
is. How these big stores are run, I also believe that you are not correct
in believing that your are not being ripped off by the smaller merchants.
1€The clercks working for Wallmart as well and in most super warehouse
stores are badly underpaid.
2€ Often with out any benefits.
3€ Many of the products are bought at discount whole sale prices.
4€ There is no good service available in most of these stores(that was the
topic of our discussion), because they do not have enought staff, and
maybe cannot keep their staff either.
All these facts are the reasons you can get your yarns cheaper in these
stores.

Now the other side of the coin is the small store owner, take my brother
in law, who had a small embroidery store here on the Island. He told me
that for instance it is good costumer practice to accept bank and credit
cards. Do you as the buyer have any idea how much that cost for the store
keeper. Each and every sale he makes he has to pay for.
When he is going to buy the same brand name yarns you got so cheaply at
Micheals, he has to pay much more for them because he is not able
financially to buy such large quantities, and neither can he affort the
storage cost the have such a large stock. Ah you see that is where the
mark up comes. It certainly was not going into his pocket. He went
bankrupt and packed it in. He is not allone, a much younger weaving
friend I have, recently closed her 100 year old mens clothing store. They
could no longer compete with Wallmart. Both she and her husband are still
looking for work. They could work for Wall mart around the corner,
however the income is peanuts...either way they lost.

So you are right you get a bargain, but do understand at the same time
that the little guy around the corner is not ripping you off.....It all
goes under the banner of freemarket and the capitalist sytem we support
and live in.

Els

--
hate spam not welcome

Then I feel for you. Yarn stores I've experienced (which is many more
than the two that are moderately handy) have always been helpful
without expecting one to open the wallet in exchange for a piece of
advice or help reading a pattern.

I'm sorry that your career has turned you into a bitter old woman.

Spend your money where you want, but don't bitch about it when all the
good yarn mills have been driven out of business because they can't
compete financially with the overseas mills.

Wow, you're really angry aren't you?! I wonder why you are always so
negative. Who's the bitter [old?] woman or perhaps you aren't even a
woman as the rest of us use our real names.... I wonder why the ugly
language "bitch" instead of a simple discussion (during which actually
I didn't ask for your input). Perhaps you should try another group
until you can behave appropriately and politely.

Oh, and that should read: "I wonder why the ugly language: [such as]
'bitch' instead of a simple discussion..."
I was not calling you any name and don't wish for it to be misconstrued
in anyway. Your self-esteem seems to be low enough already and you are
angry enough without my adding to it. If my posts offend you pass them
by or block them....