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Northeast Texas is getting one. At least what "passes for" an Arctic blast around these parts. You guys up north would probably consider this pretty mild.

The temps are in the 20's. The streets are icy. And for southern drivers who aren't used to it, they can be a little treacherous. The schools have been closed for 2 days, and are opening late today. Most big retail stores are open while the small mom & pop stores are closed.

Activity in downtown Greenville consists of the Police station, the Court House, a few bail bondsmen, and some moron who has an upholstery shop. Everything else is closed.

What I've been hearing the most from people, is how they're going stir crazy from being cooped up for the last couple of days.

I always wonder how you guys deal with being hunkered down for much longer stretches of time. And how do you convince your clientele that life really DOES go on while we experience a little foul weather.

I'm quite the opposite of the "norm" around here. I don't see why people want to pull up to my shop with a truckload of furniture during the hottest part of the summer, and stand outside in the 105 degree heat and talk about it at great length.
THAT'S when I want to go into hibernation. They could take August off the calendar, and I wouldn't miss it one bit.

I've always bought supplies in bulk from delivery trucks in order to avoid shipping costs.

My grandparents/parents who started the family upholstery business used to order supplies as needed. So they paid freight charges on every last little item. I thought this was foolish. So when I took over, I immediately ceased this practice. My goal was to pay shipping charges for fabric only. And for many years, I accomplished that goal.

But lately, a couple of my supply trucks have folded. And a couple others have reduced their inventory to the bare essentials. Foam, batting, staples, thread, etc. Plus, they have cut back to quarterly deliveries instead of monthly.
One of them has hinted that he really isn't interested in coming my way unless I order EVERYTHING from him alone.

I've already shifted most of my foam/batting orders to an out-of-state company that ships for free on orders over $100.

But now I find myself paying shipping on items like glue, welt cord, webbing, button molds, etc.

Are you guys seeing this problem (fewer choices from supply trucks) on the rise?

There is a factory here in town that manufactures church pews. They've been in business over 60 years, and ship their pews all over the US.

I've had a very good relationship with the owner for the last 30 years. He subs out his small cushion jobs to me.

He was in my shop today. He says that business has been way down the last 2 or 3 years. Most new churches are comprised of members that split off from an older more established church. Usually a younger crowd, that wants a multi-purpose building that will serve both as a sanctuary and activity center.

In other words.......no pews. Just movable chairs.

Over the years, he has observed many changes in the "business" of religion (yes, he considers it to be nothing more than a business now). Churches are taking a more relaxed stance on many lifestyles that they previously left no "wiggle room" on. I don't have to tell you guys what lifestyles I'm talking about, and I'm NOT trying to spark a debate on them. He firmly believes that churches have eased their standards simply to "put more butts in the seats".

I used to do at least 1 large pew cushion job a year. It's probably been 4 or 5 years since my last one. I've bid quite a few, and found out later that the cost caused heated arguments at budget meetings.

Do you guys get many church pew jobs? And without getting into a religious debate, are you seeing your local churches doing more to affect their bottom line? Even if it means relaxing their beliefs?

I bought some used stuff off a salesman yesterday. He got it from a shop that was closing and owed him money.

Among the stuff was a double welt folding gauge. I've always been leery of them because I've been told that they must be custom made to fit a specific weight of fabric. I've been playing around with this one, and so far, I kinda like it. Although it doesn't achieve a real tight wrap on thinner fabrics, and thicker fabrics are harder to get started.

But here it is. Take a look.


Here's a thicker fabric:


I actually could've sewed much faster, but I was fumbling with the camera.

You have to cut the strips approx. 1 3/4" to 1 7/8" wide, depending on the thickness of the fabric.
It will mount on most any industrial machine, walking foot or not (as long as you have a DW foot).
You can use the 5/32 DW cord, or two single cords.

It also did a nice job of sewing across a seam where 2 strips were joined.

Burch fabrics sells these for about $110 + shipping and tax.

You have to start with a full bobbin. Because if the bobbin runs out, or the top thread breaks for any reason, there's no backing up.

I think this thing will come in handy on large DW jobs. But for smaller jobs, it may be too much trouble to set up and adjust.

I drove by Wally World just before 6PM yesterday. If there was an empty space on the parking lot, I didn't see it. The line awaiting the doors to open was out to the highway. And a lot of pushing and shoving had already commenced.

I did the 6AM "doorbuster" thing a few times back when my daughters were kids, and there was always some hot toy that was in short supply (Cabbage Patch, Tickle Me Elmo, Gigapet). But I'll be damned if I'm going to risk my life to save some money on a bunch of crap.

Take those idiots who trample each other just to save $200 on a TV set. If you offered to hire one of them for 1 week at their normal salary PLUS $200, they would probably turn you down.

I had thought that the "Gray Thursday" crowd would be a little more subdued with their bellies full of turkey. But no-o-o-o........they appear to be feistier than ever!

[you're]

A large group of Blondes and Brunettes went on a sightseeing tour in London. They boarded one of those double decker busses.

All of the Brunettes sat on the bottom level, all the Blondes sat on the top.

The Brunettes were have a great time laughing, drinking, and taking in all the sights. One of the Brunettes suddenly realized that they hadn't heard a peep out of the Blondes, so she went up to the top to check on them.

When she got up there, she found all the Blondes sitting frozen in their seats, gripping the handrails, looking straight ahead, with terrified looks on their faces.

The Brunette said "What's wrong up here? We're having a great time down below."

One of the Blondes said "Well, of course you're having a great time.......you've got a driver!!!

I used to love "Little Johnny" jokes. You don't hear them too much anymore.


The teacher was writing a very long assignment on the chalkboard. So she started high at the top.
When she stretched up high, one of the boys started giggling.

"Patrick! What's so funny?" she demanded.
Still giggling, Patrick said "Tee-hee, I saw your garter"

Angrily, the teacher shouted "Get out of my class! You're expelled for 3 days!"

She resumed writing on the board, when she heard another boy laughing.

"OK Billy........what's so funny now?"
Billy said "Tee-hee........I saw your other garter".

The teacher was furious. "That does it! Get out! You're expelled for 1 week!"

As she started to continue writing on the blackboard, she dropped her eraser, and bent over to pick it up.

Little Johnny burst out laughing......... got up.........threw his textbooks in the trash can, and began walking out of the classroom.

"Little Johnny! Where do you think you're going?" said the teacher.

Little Johnny said "After what I just saw........my school days are OVER!"   

"I am a proud black man!" said the black man.

"I am a proud Mexican woman!" said the Mexican woman.

"I am a proud Asian man!" said the Asian man.

"I am a proud gay man!" said the gay man.

"I am a proud transgender!" said the transgender.

"I am a proud native American!" said the native American.

"I am a proud white man!" said the racist.

A husband and wife are shopping at a grocery store.

The husband spots a 24 pack of Bud Light for $10. He immediately grabs one and tosses it in the cart.
The wife says "What do you think you're doing?"
The husband says "24 cans for only 10 bucks! That's a good deal!"
The wife snaps "But we're on a budget, and can't afford anything that we don't absolutely need! Put it back!"

Reluctantly, the husband obeys.

Down the next aisle, the wife grabs a small jar of face cream that costs $35 and puts it in the cart.
The husband protests "I thought you said we can't afford anything we don't absolutely need".
The wife replies "We do need this. It will make me look young and beautiful for you".

The husband retorts "So will the beer, and it's only 10 bucks!"   

My wife and I were out of town the other day. We stopped at a nice farmer's market, and bought a few things. Knowing that we had a long drive home, I stopped at a CVS store to buy a cheap Styrofoam cooler and a bag of ice.

I quickly found a Styrofoam cooler that had a price tag of $1.99 on it. The ice was $1.29.
So I'm walking up to the checkout counter all fat, dumb, and happy with a $5 bill.

Imagine my surprise when the total came to over $11. I said "I'm sure you're mistaken. The cooler is 2 bucks, and the ice is less than a buck fifty".

The cashier (acting very annoyed) simply said "Do you have a rewards card?". Before I could even absorb what she was asking me, my wife came over and whipped out her rewards card, and presto! The total came down to under $4.

I never sign up for those things. If I did, I'd have to carry one of those "man purses" just to hold them all.

My original understanding was that they would "reward" you for being a loyal customer by giving you a small discount. But this has evolved into something completely different.

They aren't rewarding your loyalty. They are PUNISHING you for not being a regular customer.

I used to see women all the time with a keychain the size of an NBA basketball with all those little rewards cards on them. Now, most of them have gone the electronic route. They pull up an app on their I-phone, and show it to the cashier.

So is that how the world works now? If you don't play their silly game, you get severely penalized?

 I hear that 5 or 6 times a year. My nearby competitor routinely quote prices on certain jobs that are almost half what I charge. BUT......he follows up that price quote with "But I'm too busy to get to it right now".

I suspect that he does this because he doesn't want the job, but on the other hand, he doesn't want anyone else to have it either. So he give a low-ball estimate, and then passes on the job. This way, he plants a seed of doubt in the customer's mind about having it done for substantially more money somewhere else.

I guess his strategy works a little. Because I get a lot of jaw drops when I quote prices, and then they tell me what "the other guy" was going to charge (had he accepted the job).

He only does this on oddball jobs that may end up being tedious. On "run of the mill" jobs, his prices are very similar to mine.

My policy on jobs that I would really prefer to pass on, is to pass without quoting a price. Some guys throw out a HUGE number just to get rid of the customer. I think this sends the wrong message. The customer then assumes that you are outrageous on everything. And that's what they tell everyone they know.

[TOO]

I seldom do these, since you can order them so cheaply online.

But I have recently established a new relationship with a nearby healthcare facility. And unlike most, the project manager isn't so cheap-ass.

He has a ton of work for me, and he hasn't attempted to negotiate any of my pricing so far.

He has always ordered the replacement seats for folding wheel chairs online. But they tear easily. He said with each passing year, the average patient is creeping closer to 300 lbs.

I have no problem with making him some replacement seats that will certainly hold a lot more weight than the $20 ones you can buy from places like Amazon.

What I'm asking is...........where do I draw the line? If I make them TOO good, they will cost over twice as much as the Amazon seats.

On a product like this, is there a fine line between quality at a reasonable price, and price at reasonable quality?

I have made one prototype. For the liner, I used a 16 oz. mesh vinyl (similar to "Tuff-stuff"), and 1/4" sew foam sewn in to heavy black vinyl cover.

I figure I can fill his order of 50 at a price of $30 each. There is about $10 worth of vinyl and foam in each one, and once I get rolling, they shouldn't take more than 15 minutes apiece to make.

Does this sound reasonable?

Some friends of ours asked me and my wife to go with them to shop for new living room furniture. Mainly, they wanted my "expert" opinion about sofas and such.

I don't have to tell you guys that taking an upholsterer with you to shop for a couch is a bad idea. Especially when you're shopping at all the usual budget places.

But I promised myself that I would be as objective as possible. I took into account that this couple is over 40, their combined weights are under 350 lbs, and they aren't the kind of people that abuse furniture.

I set the bar very low on my criteria. I never absolutely ruled out any piece that they had their eye on. I only pointed out possible shortcomings on various pieces so they could make a more informed decision.

In the end, they picked out a living room set that they felt good about, and that's really all that matters.

As we walked around the stores, one thing I kept noticing was how poorly padded the top arms are. On most pieces, you could feel the hard edge on the front of the arms.

I overheard a salesman telling customers what the hottest fabrics/colors are right now. As I looked around, I'm thinking "Well of course they're hot..........that's all there is to choose from". There are basically only 3 or 4 colors and textures in the whole store.

And you know that video at the top of this page where the guy can't keep that nail gun straight? Well he must've done all the nailheads in one of the showrooms that we went in. Not only were they crooked, they were sunk at different depths. Some of them you could pry out with your fingernail.

All things considered, I'm glad I went with them. If you're ever feeling like the business might be passing you by, just go to a new store for a boost of confidence.

In light of the racial tension in Missouri combined with a few recent events locally, the KKK is rumored to be planning to riot downtown Greenville, Tx. tomorrow morning.

A few weeks ago, a black man was shot to death by a white attorney in the wee hours of the morning. Then last week, 2 young black men were stabbed to death outside a skating rink at 3 AM. The attorney is out on bail. The other killer remains at large.
This has caused tension in the black community, so the KKK plans to flex their muscle.

All this is scheduled to go down in front of the Court House, just a little over 1 block from my shop.

Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail.

There's a Hispanic lady in town who does upholstery out of her garage.

She doesn't collect sales tax, and I seriously doubt that she reports all (if any) of her income to Uncle Sam.

She started coming in my shop 5 or 6 years ago wanting to buy supply items. It started out small, buy has gradually grown the last few years.

I've always sold her stuff at near cost as a professional courtesy. Sometimes, I probably lose a few bucks because I'm too busy to stop and look up prices.

But lately, she has become more and more demanding. She doesn't understand when I don't want to sell her a supply item that I'm running short on myself.

Today, she bought a huge quantity of snaps from me, and then wanted to borrow my snap-setting tools. She got mad when I told her that she would have to leave a deposit equal to replacement cost for the tools.

My experience on loaning tools has always been "They come back broke.......if they come back at all".

She got really mad when I charged her $15 for a 1 lb. spool of #69 thread that was about half gone.

This lady is much cheaper than I am, and takes away some of my customers because of it. I don't feel like I owe her any favors.

She seems to have the attitude that I should be obligated to make her life as easy as possible.

Do you guys have any "Moochers"?

A lady that owns a nearby pub brought in 12 chairs that she bought 2 weeks ago, and they're already falling apart.

It's the ones that come in a box unassembled, and they give you that little toy hex wrench to put them together with.

Just a few days of pub patrons scooting around was enough to loosen up all the bolts, and pull out the insert nuts.

The lady was furious that she had paid a whopping $39.95 each, and the chairs had failed so quickly.

I turned one of the chair seats upside down, and showed her the tag on the underneath side.



If you ask me, that caution label is merely code for "This chair is a POS".

It probably would've only lasted a few extra days under "Household use".

The market is so flooded with this kind of junk, the average consumer doesn't have any quality point of reference to compare with. The lady will probably go back to a similar store, and buy similar priced crap.

I must admit. When asked what brand of recliner I recommend, I have no answer.

Brand names really don't mean much anymore. I'm sure there are a few high quality brands out there. But I haven't seen any lately.

Throughout the 60's, 70's, 80s, and 90's, La-Z-Boy built a very good recliner for the money.

Here's a La-Z-Boy footrest that I repaired today:


3/8" particle board. The mechanism wasn't much better either.

Is La-Z-Boy outsourcing to China?

Do you guys know of any quality brands/retailers for recliners?

[am]

The bank where my wife works was throwing out this rolling cart.



I turned it into my "crash cart" (after all......I am a doctor.....right?).
I keep all my pertinent tools and supplies on it, so I can roll it right next to my work.
Screws, staples, hand/air tools, cordless tips, etc.
The bottom shelf has my foam cutter, scissor sharpener, and my "House call" tote.

I normally do on average about a dozen salon chairs a month for all the local beauty/barber shops. Various styling chairs, shampoo chairs, and dryer chairs.

Usually black vinyl. And if the back isn't torn or cracked, then I just do the seat only.

But there's a guy in town now who is working out of his garage. He does the seats in black vinyl for $30, PU & Delivery included. That's less than half what I charge.

The PU & Delivery time, and a yard of vinyl alone is worth more than $30.

I'm not worried about this guy. At $30, he'll get tired of working for below minimum wage soon enough. But in the meantime, he'll spoil all the hairdressers in town.

Independent hairdressers are notoriously cheap anyway. Once they get used to paying $30, it'll be tough to get them back paying a normal price again.

Every now and then, a guy like that blows into town, and scoops up all the jobs for a while, but they never last very long.

I just wonder if the idiot even realizes how much money he's "leaving on the table".