I went to my local Hancock Fabrics the other day, and discovered it empty, and a sign on the door reading "We have moved acros the street." Now, the old place was in a decidedly run-down strip mall, so we looked around. Way across the street, across two streets actually, there is another discount store type strip mall, but several degrees better than the one where we were standing. Went across there, and the new store is just beautiful. Bigger, bright, clean, easy to see (the former one was an L shape inside, not easy to navigate) and the merchandise was much more upscale. For instance, I had gone to see if by chance they had any of my favorite rayon challis, which I wanted in pale colors to line some other stuff. Not only did they have the solids, they also had a whole bunch of prints, more, in fact, than I saw on line the day before.
The store used to have tables on tables of clearance merchandise, obviously brought in, and most of it sheer junk. Now they have just one clearance counter, and the regular fashion fabric seems to be a much better quality than before. DH was with me, so I didn't want to spend too much time browsing, but as well as 10 yards of white rayon challis I also bought three lengths of print for summer pants plus a bunch of notions. After the sale price on some stuff plus the discount with my ASG card I got out of there just under $120. I am going to be very good and get this made up before I go back for more, but it would seem that more people are doing garment sewing these days, if the shop was able to justify the move plus the improved merchandise. (Either that, or I am not the only one who pointedly told the manager that I am buying a lot on line these days.)
Olwyn Mary in New Orleans