Recent Quilt Shop experience: The undervalued customer

So I signed up for a monthly quilt block doobedoo at a not so local quilt shop about 30 minutes away. I shall keep them unnamed, for the time being. The deal is, you sign up for a flat $10 for 12 months of block kits which you take home and assemble. That blew my mind since they provide the fabric bits, all precut and neatly packaged into a zip-lock bag with printed instructions for assembly. If you miss a month, or you don't get the block made in time to show off at the next month's "meeting", then the next months block will be $5 instead of free. Seemed like a good deal at the time, and I always buy something when I visit because I'm a good customer like that.

A friend and I both signed up for this, and unfortunately we had to miss last months block due to other obligations.

So we made it out there yesterday. The thing is, they ran out of background fabric that they had put with the batik blocks and so they did some substituting. When they got the original background fabric back in stock, instead of replacing the sub fabric, they instead were charging $3 extra for a fat quarter.

Now I didn't think anything of it at the time because I was so elated to even be there. I even bought a scrap bag of fabric that was SO pretty.

But as the day wore on I began to wonder why they would charge for something that is supposed to be INCLUDED with the block and the $5 late block fee. So this month's block ended up costing me $8 instead.

I'm pretty miffed about this. It would not have taken much to lay the fat quarter out and measure out what is supposed to be in the block kit, and swapped the two fabrics out. Next time I will not be buying the extra fat quarter for the additional cost. It's simply ridiculous to me.

Not only this but they had a really cute demo piece in the window with fabric that I dearly wanted to take some home with me. When I couldn't find it and asked...oh, they are out of that fabric. Sooooo, why is the demo still in the window?? When I asked if they were getting more in, they didn't know. When I asked if there was an online source I could look into, they were "not sure". Well, that's so helpful. NOT.

 I ended up spending $20 there, but I was treated like an undervalued customer because I didn't drop hundreds in one stop. My other quilter friend has said that her local quilt shop also has this mentality towards small time shoppers and treats the ones who drop hundreds in one stop like royalty, doing just about anything to please them.

This mentality will lose future business from miffed customers like myself. Take note shop owners. EVERY customer should be treated as a valuable source of shop income, even the small time shoppers who only spend $20 at a time. That's $20 more coming in that you would have had that day. That's also my hard earned money that I can very easily go elsewhere with.

 You never know when a small time shopper will come into some money, and let me tell you....after yesterdays experience I may just take it elsewhere or shop online instead. I would think that shopping in a physical store, vs online, would prove to be a more positive experience. I love to walk around, see all the beautiful fabric and dream about owning some of it some day or taking some with me the very day I visit. They have a beautiful and HUGE selection of batiks...more than I have ever seen before in one shop. I love taking home a fat quarter of it, or more, when I visit that one time a month.

But, if you treat me like I don't matter because my purchase is small...I will STOP buying ANYTHING. If I have this experience again with them, I will surely reveal the store name and take my business elsewhere.

Don't treat your customers like they don't matter because they don't spend hundreds at one time.

This is BAD.

This will get you bad reviews.

That will lead to a loss in business and profits.

And that, sucks ass.






Until next time...
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