The folks at Needle Nicely have written a wonderful post about some of the costs and perils of opening a needlepoint shop.
I’ve known some pretty ripe specimens in shop owners over the years.
There was the lady who owned a very tiny shop in a high-rent town. Needlepoint was her hobby and her DH wanted a tax write-off. The shop was the write-off. Sitting in the shop 8 hours a day can be pretty boring, especially if no customers come in (and they didn’t). I think the couple split and the shop closed.
Then there was the lady who had a shop open mostly for the benefit of her friends, who would sit around the table and stitch (invitation only). She wouldn’t let customers touch the threads, wouldn’t sell thread to you for canvases bought at garage sales and on eBay, and considered it a threat if a customer asked where to buy something she didn’t carry. Finally she closed the shop and moved her thread “collection” to her garage, where she stayed open for those friends.
Another shop had so little traffic that every canvas looked old and shopworn from being handled too much. It was also very tiny.
A fourth shop had clerks so clueless they couldn’t match floss to a painted canvas.
Add to this the considerable expenses of stocking an running a shop and you can see why shopowners are the unsung heros of the business.
If you have a good one, cherish them!
About Janet M Perry
Janet Perry is the Internet's leading authority on needlepoint. She designs, teaches and writes, getting raves from her fans for her innovative techniques, extensive knowledge and generous teaching style. A leading writer of stitch guides, she blogs here and lives on an island in the northeast corner of the SF Bay with her family
Leave a Reply