Saturday afternoons during the last hour they're open: that's my favorite time to visit my favorite local yarn store. With no other knitters present, I can browse to my little heart's content and fondle any skein or ball of yarn without bumping into anyone or, much more likely, having someone bump into me. And, as the only customer, I get all the attention.
I also get the scoop on knitting trends. Usually this is in the form of the latest hot new yarn or pattern. This time the hot topic was local yarn stores and local economics. Specifically, the fact that we have too many local yarn stores for the number of local knitters. Oh, and knitting is going out of style. Funky scarfs and ponchos are out and knitting is no longer the hot, trendy thing to do so business has been impacted.
More yarn for me, I say.
Here we have Reynolds Lopi for felted clogs in Hawkeye colors and four balls of Tahki Bunny Print, which is soft and fuzzy at 50% Merino Wool, 25% Alpaca and 25% Acrylic. I have no idea what I will knit with the Tahki, but I had to get it because it was half price. Had to have it. I'm thinking scarves for my nieces for X-Mas.
It's hard to pass up a yarn sale, especially when it's a yarn that I've eyed before. Some of the yarn store talk centered around yarn sales per customer and I was surprised to learn that we have at least one local area knitter whose yarn budget totals $20,000 per year. Yes, that is $20,000. As in 20 K. I don't keep track of just how much I spend at the yarn store, mostly because I'm afraid to know. But I'm sure it's no where close to that.
At a prior place of employment, we once attended an off site vendor meeting to discuss some deficiencies in the level of customer service we received when we were inadvertently privy to the wrong handout. This interesting little handout revealed that our company was one of the "Little Dawgs" while also listing all the "Big Dawgs". We weren't very happy to learn of our standing because we suspected this shed a lot of light on the level of customer service issue.
So this experience, combined with the recent yarn store talk, leads me to wonder if local yarn stores have such customer lists. Do they have a list of "Big Skeins" and "Little Skeins"? And does this effect the level of service received? I don't have any complaints as I've always received the right level of help to match my needs, but I do think it's an interesting question.