My wife wants a "babylock" for mothers day and she just might get one. Is there a good store that anyone would recommend? I'm near Albany, Oregon, but I go to Portland several times a week.
Oh, and any advice - what to look for, what to avoid?
Does she want a babylock sewing machine, embroidery machine, embellisher, or serger/overlocker?
Go to the babylock site
Sorry :) serger/overlocker...
You would only need an open territory and enough cash to purchase 2 of each machine in their line up to start. Along with a store front, good credit rating and approval from the Babylock gods. It also helps to have some experience in sales, business management and sewing machine repairs if you wish to be successful in a market on the edge of collapse.
IMO, depending on how you do things in your home......... I recommend that you go to the Babylock dealer, get a very,very brief explanation of the features of the "jet air threading" sergers along with pricing and brochures. Be sure to ask about the "Gold Standard Warranty" with 3 years of bumper-to-bumper coverage. Ask to look at an additional cost thread-by-thread, needle-by-needle workbook. Would recommend that this be purchased with whatever machine is chosen...the workbooks are machine specific. The workbook is expensive but will save a lot of frustration. Also choose a small selection of quality serger threads while you are at the dealer. Present a basket with threads, brochures and a card explaining your intention to free up her time to choose the machine with the features that she will need and will ultimately use.
Purchased the top of the line BL serger last November and think I overbought. That being said, they hold their value very well and I could sell it on ebay for nearly what I paid for it if I chose to downgrade. Additionally, I purchased to replace the top of the line serger that I bought 25 years ago from the dealer, half priced since it was used and I could have sold it for 25 to 30% of its original price had I not sent it to a relative who is thrilled. Even purchasing top of the line, you will not lose on your investment.
In investigating the Viking 936 versus Babylock, found in the test runs that the Viking dealer yelled in my ear non-stop and had a messy cramped classroom area; whereas the Babylock dealer was pleasant, patient and had a dedicated windowed classroom with computer support for each of the participants; should they need it for embroidery classes. The purchase is about the supporting dealer as well as the machine.
I was able to elicit pricing information from five dealers to present to my preferred local dealer to obtain the best pricing.
You could sneak a peak at the Babylock website to look at the jet-air threading sergers to get a better idea of why a test drive might be a good idea. Given the lifespan of a quality serger, buying up as the budget permits is not a bad investment.
Not a salesperson here, been sewing for 37 years: clothing, draperies, camper repairs, hiking straps and duffels for my sailing brother, upholstery, kites... You name it, I've sewn it. I also purchased a new sewing machine after 25 years of using a Pfaff that was originally $1,200 new. Although I am keeping it, I could sell it today for nearly half of its original price. Buying a quality sewing/serging product pays off in the long run.
Good luck, bet you get extra kisses for this.
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Two days ago I walked into the Babylock Dealer in Portland, and asked the sp to show me what they had. He promptly sat down at an Imagine and ran 4 different types of material through it - something real thick, something thin, something stretchy, and something else. It put a *perfect* stitch on all of them! No threading, no tension adjusting, it just quietly sewed them all perfectly. So today I walk back into the store with wife in tow and asked the gentleman to put on the same show for my wife. 10 minutes later my wife became the proud new owner of a Babylock Imagine :-)
We did get the Gold Standard warranty - a bit spendy, but it also gives us
20% discount on everything at the store, and a lifetime of free lessons.And yeah, I got a few extra kisses :-P
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