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Is A One-Stop Shop Hop For Your Quilt Shop?

Summary

Quilting Contessa covers if your quilt shop should be part of a one-stop shop hop and some tips to make it great! Read and share with your quilt shop.

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Is A One-Stop Shop Hop For Your Quilt Shop?

We went to a "one-stop shop hop" this weekend to try to answer the question, "should a quilt shop participate in a one-stop shop hop?

Is A One-Stop Shop Hop For Four Quilt Shop?

 

A "one-stop shop hop" is a lot like a quilt show without the quilts. Oh yes, the vendors have many, many quilts in their booths, but this isn't a guild show where quilts are a focus of the day. At an One-Stop Shop Hop, there will be many vendors in one center at one time, but in other ways, it is like a true shop hop. They often do offer a "block hop" – a chance to purchase blocks specially designed for the purpose.

This One-Stop Shop Hop also offered charms to collect and a chance to purchase red, white, and blue fat quarters to donate to Quilts of Valor. And, of course, there were door prizes.

The most important factor that came to light is traffic. One shop owner told me that she would see thousands of quilters on this weekend. While, in her Brick and Mortar store, she might get ten visitors a day. "Anywhere we can see people is an advantage," one owner told me.

Another noted that if they came up with a way to collect emails, it proved to be even better. Three retreat centers were also there to meet and greet the quilters.

I asked several quilters why they came. One told me it was a better chance to increase her stash without spending a lot of money on gas. She said there weren't the usual weather problems with traveling from store to store.

So, what advice would I give to shop owners? Here's a list.

  1. If you can, check out the One-Stop Shop Hop. If you are participating, ask a close friend to be a shopper. This prepares you to bring the right mix of goods to the show next year. Make sure you budget for a big enough booth. The small booths experienced less traffic.

 

  1. Ask your regular customers what they would be looking for at an One-Stop Shop Hop. The answer we heard most often was that they were looking for the UNIQUE. The One-Stop Shop Hop we went to was in Texas and nearly every shop featured their Texas fabrics. The shops that were different, such as having wool, or chenille, or great fabric deals had the longest check-out lines.
line

 

  1. Avoid the trendy. We saw several shops with 2 1/2-inch batting for Jelly Roll Rugs, but we didn't see anyone purchase any.
  2. We saw lots of kits, but not many folks buying them. Shops that had yardage (3-6 yards or end-of-bolt) at good prices were doing better.

 

  1. Ask your regular customers what they would be looking for at an One-Stop Shop Hop. The answer we heard most often was that they were looking for the UNIQUE. The One-Stop Shop Hop we went to was in Texas and nearly every shop featured their Texas fabrics. The shops that were different, such as having wool, or chenille, or great fabric deals had the longest check-out lines.
One-Stop Shop Hop

 

  1. Demonstrations bring folks into the booth. Quilters love to learn something new and if they see a demonstration, they assume that you know something they don't. It's also more personal and folks think that their questions are welcome in your booth.

So, how did I answer my question? I'll go with the majority and say that if you have the staff to make the most of the traffic, you will be rewarded with new customers. Situations often give back based on what you can put into them, and this is one of those situations.

 

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Glossary

Batting
The layer in the middle of a quilt sandwich between the Top and Backing layers consisting of wool, polyester, blends, silk, or cotton.

Same As: Stuffing, Filling, Wadding, Filler
Block
The basic unit of a quilt top, usually square but can be rectangular or other shapes. Blocks can be pieced, appliqued or plain.
Chenille
This may refer to either a type of cored yarn or fabric made from it with an extra fluffy or furry texture. It may even refer to a process of making Chenille like fabric on a quilt by layering at least three fabrics (cotton, linen, silk or rayon) on top of each other, sewing lines 3/8" from each other on the BIAS onto the fabric 10 stitches per inch (or less) through all layers, cutting away the top layers of fabric (leaving the bottom most layer intact) and finally fluffing the cut fabric.
Stash
A quilter's personal collection of fabrics. Buying more fabric is adding to your stash.
Author
Debi Warner
Author and humorist, Debi Warner, retired after many years as a clinical librarian and information specialist. She has her Master’s in Library and Information Science and achieved a Distinguished level in the Medical Library Association’s Association of Health Information Professionals. She has worked on teaching physicians to use computers and electronic resources. She also worked on several grants teaching the public how to use the National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus public database and is co-author of several articles on health literacy. She took up quilting after retirement in 2012 and chaired the Rio Grande Valley Quilt Show in 2019. She currently teaches several quilting classes over Zoom and writes for QuiltingHub.
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