This could be interesting - we'll see!

[sofadoc]

We decided many years ago the sample books took up to much space, to much time and the prices were no longer competitive.

With each passing year, more and more small shops are coming around to that way of thinking. And I'm no exception.

I don't make much effort to sell fabric anymore. I don't want to spend a lot of time showing samples, or "holding their hand" while they go through the books. And I'm definitely not going to spend an hour or more in their home while they mind-numbingly go through every sample.

And since the suppliers are disguising their retail pricing as wholesale, it IS very tough to compete with all the customer's other options for buying material.

I don't know why customers buy fabric from me. But a few of them every week still do. And as long as they make their selection without wasting my time, I'll keep selling it. I'm still averaging about 100 yards a month at full MSRP.

But it is a viable option for a shop to simply adjust their labor rates to compensate for loss of fabric sales, and proceed full speed ahead.

Like others have said, the customer who pays an ID $300 per yard is a customer of a different mindset. Take a rare stamp or coin for example. It's only worth a lot of money because someone is willing to pay a lot of money for it.

[bobbin]

My favorite supplier does not post prices on their website.  I can send customers to their site, with my own suggestions, and I encourage them to cruise around on their own.  I order samples according to their responses.  I know my margins and I know when there is "wiggle room" and adjust prices accordingly. 

I am finding that most of my customers are "all about" on-line shopping.  They're interested in winnowing down the choices to a select few and moving on from there .  It took me awhile to "get" that, but now I like it!

[gene]

I cannot blame the people who find a fabric in someones sample book then spend hours shopping around town or on the internet to find a better deal.

I occasionally hear how an ID spent a lot of time with a homeowner picking out fabrics and then the homeowner did just this.

If the homeowner knows that that particular ID makes her/his money off of selling the fabrics, would this constitute theft of services? Or does it just mean the homeowner is being thrifty?

On the other hand this is a risk the ID takes.

gene

[kodydog]

This is a risk the designer takes. Is it fair? No. But the designer could spend hours working up an estimate and the customer may decide to go with another designer or after seeing the estimate forgets the whole thing. This happened to my wife occasionally. Until she started charging a consulting fee. I know designers who charge $50 an hour for the first visit whether they get the job or not. They make this clear before they arrive and if they don't get the job they send a bill.

[byhammerandhand]

I had a job a few years ago where the customer used an ID for layout.  Then the lady went to a hole-in-the-wall furniture store (literally, they mostly sold high school logo kitsch, through what had been a storefront apartment), who ordered the piece(s) for her.   Well, it came in a mess and no one was happy.  The store had no idea what to do, the consumer was upset, and the ID was screwed for his/her time and effort.  I ended up spending way too much time for what I got out of it.

[Steve at Silverstone Fabrics]

Hello Group.............I don't post much as I use to but I thought my company would be recognized.

The link that DB referred to was this:http://www.silverstonefabrics.com/Baker_Furniture_Classic_Damask_Black_and_Cream_p/fx4.htm   and my company is Silverstone Fabrics.

If he would have read a little more carefully, he would have noted this listing is for 3.5 yards of a fabric that come to us from Baker Furniture. The value of the 3.5 yard piece is $385 (Baker charges $110/yd) and we charge $70 for the 3.5 yard piece......or $20yard and we offer free samples. That way our customers can see and touch it prior to the purchase.

In June's post, she mentioned a 50% off sale that we had several weeks back. I believe she purchased some Ultrafabrics Brisa for $9/yard..........the same Ultrafabric product that sells for $62/yard (and up)

Even though I have been a contributing writer about upholstery (I owned one of the largest volume contract upholstery shops in the SE based in Charlotte, NC . My company reupholstered 6,700 stack chairs for the NASCAR Hall of Fame and we did it in only 2 weeks) and we were a advertiser to this site........I believe June is the only person from this site to make a purchase from my company.

My company is one of the leaders in the secondary fabric market. There are several "players" in this market like, Fabric Guru, New Toto, Winterbeach Modern, Modern Fabrics........etc)  We all do similar things to acquire fabric, some buy mill closeouts, some buy furniture manufacturers close outs and COM left overs. The major difference between our companies is this, my company is the only one owned by an upholsterer. When I purchase and market fabric, I do so with the insight of being a 2nd generation upholsterer.

We buy and sell fabric all of the time that have wholesale values that exceed $100 to $800/yd........the only difference is we typically sell them for 1/3 of true wholesale.

Have you ever purchased 8 black Spinneybeck Sabrina hides for $3/ sq ft? probably not.....especially when the price from Spinneybeck is $14/ sq ft. Last month, we sold over $6,000 (440 sq ft) worth of black Sabrina for $1300 (with free UPS Ground Shipping)

Companies like mine only have short ends.............not so. I have several major wholesale houses (a few of them are mentioned in posts on this site) that I routinely sell their own goods back to them. When a major hotel or resort orders for furniture have been completed, there can be multiple rolls left over.

I know how hard it is to be competitive and profitable  in today's economy but if I were a shop owner in "middle America", I would know every secondary fabric site on the internet.

Steve Terry, 2nd Generation Upholsterer, Fabric Purveyor and Owner of Silverstone Fabrics

[sofadoc]

The biggest problem that my customers have with secondary fabric sites, is that by the time the sample swatch arrives in the mail, the fabric is out of stock.

[Steve at Silverstone Fabrics]

SD, We send out over 60 samples per week and according to our "follow up" emails, we only have about  2% of our customers report that the sample arrived after the fabric was sold.

We have about 2,000 unique items on our website and our eBay site. I would say that the size of the store influences the number of "disappointed" buyers. Steve

[JuneC]

I haven't been disappointed by Silverstone, but have by a few others.  The reason I trust Steve and the gang at Silverstone is simply because of his experience.  Like Mojo likes MiamiMike to not mislead him on the awning fabrics, I know Steve and his gang know upholstery. 

I bought some really nice looking fabric from FabricGuru to do my own dining room chairs and they came out great!  I love the design and feel.  However, they started to show wear after less than 3 months.  The fabric was very inexpensive, but the labor was more than I expected and I've learned my lesson.  I won't be buying any fabric from a website that doesn't rate the fabrics for use.  Understand that I'm not as familiar with the fabric manufacturers as most of you are.  I know marine vinyl, but that's about it. 

A lot of eBay vendors list really pretty stuff, but unless someone who knows fabric tells me it's OK for sitting on, it won't be on my list of purchases.   I have no problem telling Steve and his staff what I'm looking for and they'll send not only the samples I've requested, but similar products they have in stock.  I've found that their recommendations are spot on.  I'll definitely purchase again. 

June

[sofadoc]

SD, We send out over 60 samples per week and according to our "follow up" emails, we only have about  2% of our customers report that the sample arrived after the fabric was sold.

We have about 2,000 unique items on our website and our eBay site. I would say that the size of the store influences the number of "disappointed" buyers. Steve

Most of my COM customers have either already purchased their material, or at the very least already selected the material that they intend to purchase before they ever darken my door.

I haven't had any COM as of yet that came from Silverstone. Most of the "out of stock" problems that my customers have are with newtoto, or fabric guru.

In the future, when they complain about those places to me, I'll try to steer them in your direction.