My wife and I just visited a local knitting store to buy yarn for a sweater/cap set for a little niece and scout yarn for an upcoming sweater-for-me project. It didn’t go the way we hoped.
Now, local stores of any kind have been challenged for a long time. Most recently by internet trade, but before that they were threatened by malls and super markets, before that plain competitors and stores selling newer and better products. Still, in recent times internet trade has probably given the coup de grace to many small shops that were already struggling.
It doesn’t have to be like that of course. Good service and the opportunity to see and feel a product can still make the local store relevant. For example, I have never seriously though about buying aquarium fish and plants online – not when I can go somewhere and see that the animals are healthy and look good; and where I can get a qualified discussion about the answers. We want to support that and don’t mind paying (a bit) extra to support them.
However, this time we didn’t get the chance. When we asked the first question about the pattern, we were advised to go check it on the publisher’s web site. When we asked for some specific yarn for the niece project we were told that it was not in store at the moment. (Period. No alternate yarn was suggested and there was no saying when new would be ordered.)
Surprised, we left the store with money in the hand and went to publisher’s web site which helpfully provided “buy yarn here ->” links.
The ordered yarn arrived the next day.