Crochetville Yarn Store?

[Amy]

If Crochetville were ever to open our own little online yarn store, would you be interested? This is something I would love to do if we could ever raise enough capital for the initial yarn purchases.

 

Would you please answer the following questions to help us determine if there's enough interest for us to pursue this?

 

1. What brands of yarn would you like us to carry? Please list them in your order of preference.

 

2. Would you purchase from us even if we couldn't offer free shipping?

 

3. Would you purchase yarn at the manufacturer's suggested retail price?

 

4. If not, what discount rate would you require before you would consider making a purchase?

 

5. Any questions or comments?

[Cindy Smith Weaver]

First, there are so many sites that offer free shipping with a certain dollar amount of purchase, not to mention the bargains you can find on Ebay and etsy. I have a few favorite yarn store sites but often find it's worth the savings on shipping to shop at a local craft or hobby store to pick up yarn on sale or for a certain project I want to start.

I shop specials, usually, on the few yarn store sites I frequent, and when I do, I get up a big enough order to save on shipping costs, too.

I don't usually shop for a certain brand of yarn but shop by weight type and type of fiber; then color and yardage per dollar. 

I know I didn't exactly go by your questionnaire, but I hope this helps. 

[Amy]

Please don't use this survey to plug other online stores. Let's keep the focus on a Crochetville yarn store.

 

If another store offers benefits that you like, feel free to mention the benefits without plugging the other site.

 

Thanks!

[auntbubbels]

1. What brands of yarn would you like us to carry? Please list them in your order of preference.

I love this yarn, but it always depends on the type of project that I am doing.  It also depends on the type of yarn thats needed when joining swap.

 

2. Would you purchase from us even if we couldn't offer free shipping?

No, unless the shipping was a good deal.

 

3. Would you purchase yarn at the manufacturer's suggested retail price?

Yes

 

4. If not, what discount rate would you require before you would consider making a purchase?

 

5. Any questions or comments?

When I order online, which is often, I always look for free or inexpensive shipping.  Sometimes when I need yarn in a pinch, I have to pay for the shipping, but then use a coupon for 40 - 50% off and may order other items so that I get the most bang for my buck.

[Rachel L Pierce]

1. I am always in search of organic yarn as a reasonable rate.

2. No

3. Yes, if it is a reasonable price.

4.

5. Offer coupon or coupon codes

[Cathoms]

1. What brands of yarn would you like us to carry? Please list them in your order of preference.

Bernat, cascade, trendsetter, red heart, caron

 

 

2. Would you purchase from us even if we couldn't offer free shipping?

As long as the shipping rates were reasonable.

 

3. Would you purchase yarn at the manufacturer's suggested retail price?

Yes

 

4. If not, what discount rate would you require before you would consider making a purchase?

 

5. Any questions or comments?

I have to agree with Auntbubbles...

When I order online I always look for free or inexpensive shipping. When I  purchase at the local box store I try to  a coupon

[magiccrochetfan]

I usually do end up ordering yarn online when i decide on  a project, to get the color and quantity I want.  Also some yarns just aren't available locally so I order online.

 

1. What brands of yarn would you like us to carry? Please list them in your order of preference.  

One yarn I buy repeatedly is Red Heart Creme de la Creme, I like to use it for washcloths for gifts.  I've only found it online and would buy it from Crochetville if I could.  (only reason I even know it exists is that i received it in a freebie bag at ChainLink 2008   )

I really love Cascade Heritage Silk (solids and Paints), it is great to crochet with and is superwash so it's a great all around fingering wt yarn.  Have used it twice and am sure I will use it again.  

Lately I have been getting more into indie dyers/natural dyers, so i think it would be interesting if Crochetville collaborated with a dyer on great crochet-worthy yarns. This would be something really special that wouldn't be available elsewhere. Not sure how feasible that might be but thought I would throw it out there.  

 

2. Would you purchase from us even if we couldn't offer free shipping?

I don't expect free shipping, but I do like $5 flat rate shipping or similar deals.  For me, the LYS or big craft store are an hour drive away, so shipping costs and gas cost are about equal.  Low shipping costs make it easy to decide to shop online.  

 

3. Would you purchase yarn at the manufacturer's suggested retail price?

yes

 

4. If not, what discount rate would you require before you would consider making a purchase?

 

5. Any questions or comments?  When I shop, either in person or online, I like to throw in notions or a new hook (or knitting needles) along with the yarn.  It would be great if you could sell some hooks that are hard to find....like maybe the Etimo steels individually; I've lately started looking for those online and they are hard to find.

[LI Roe]

If Crochetville were ever to open our own little online yarn store, would you be interested? This is something I would love to do if we could ever raise enough capital for the initial yarn purchases.

 

Would you please answer the following questions to help us determine if there's enough interest for us to pursue this?

 

1. What brands of yarn would you like us to carry? Please list them in your order of preference.

 

2. Would you purchase from us even if we couldn't offer free shipping?

 

3. Would you purchase yarn at the manufacturer's suggested retail price?

 

4. If not, what discount rate would you require before you would consider making a purchase?

 

5. Any questions or comments?

 

 

 

 

I) RedHeart, Bernat, Caron, Lion Brand

2) Probably not, unless there was a reasonable flat rate. I usually prefer (if possible) free shipping, than enables me to purchase more yarn.

3) Yes, if it was reasonable and comparable to store prices.

4)

5) Since I do a lot of charity crocheting, the more yarn and free shipping (again, if possible) that I can purchase reasonably, is better for me since I am retired and on that "fixed" income. I also use coupons in stores, when available.

 

 

LI Roe

[RoseRed]

1. What brands of yarn would you like us to carry? Please list them in your order of preference.

- Caron, Red Heart, Bernat

 

2. Would you purchase from us even if we couldn't offer free shipping?

- Maybe if you offered a flat rate or free over a certain $ amount.

 

3. Would you purchase yarn at the manufacturer's suggested retail price?

- I almost never pay full retail prices. I shop sales and buy pounds at a time.

 

4. If not, what discount rate would you require before you would consider making a purchase?

- 25% if not better

 

5. Any questions or comments?

- I don't know if you'll be able to compete with the prices of the box stores. If money wasn't an issue I would purchase all my yarn through here just out of ville loyalty.

[Amy]

Thanks for the input, everyone! Not sure if this will ever be a possibility for us, but it's nice to think about it!

 

I can tell you now that there's no way we could compete with Walmart pricing or even craft store pricing when they put things on a 25-40% off sale, especially if people want free shipping coupled with that!

 

In fact, some of the craft store regular pricing is only 50 cents to a dollar per skein more than the wholesale price we'd have to pay. No way could we afford to discount those yarns any. After we factored in our time, packaging materials, credit card processing fees, shipping fees to get the yarn to us, not even counting any expenses if we had to rent a facility to hold all the yarn, we'd end up losing money. Not a good business model! LOL

 

When the big box stores are able to negotiate huge bulk discounts off the regular wholesale prices available to everyone else, it makes it incredibly hard for anyone else to compete with them.

 

We're a business here, so if we're going to sell yarn, we have to make money at it. Much as we might like to, we couldn't offer yarn to everyone at our cost or less.

 

Please keep sharing your comments on what it would take for us to have an online yarn store here at Crochetville from which you'd actually make purchases on a regular basis. Let us know what type of shipping arrangements and regular pricing we'd have to offer to get your business.

 

You'd be supporting an indie business, but I know oftentimes people have to shop wherever they can get the absolute total lowest price, and not always with the place they'd prefer to give all their business. If price sensitivity is the factor that most affects where most of our members can shop, then having our own online yarn store might not be possible.

[Amy]

5. Any questions or comments?

- I don't know if you'll be able to compete with the prices of the box stores. If money wasn't an issue I would purchase all my yarn through here just out of ville loyalty.

Oops! Michele, I meant to respond and quote your post, and accidentally somehow edited it and removed the parts I wasn't responding to. I didn't notice until after I'd done it. I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to get rid of your words, I promise!

 

Anyway, here is what I wanted to say:

 

Oh, what a sweet thing to say! I have a feeling that there are plenty of members here who feel exactly the same way.

 

If we could just find a way to win a big huge lottery as a group so we could all access the funds to buy as much yarn as we wanted from anyplace we wanted without taking money from our family budgets! But families must come first: otherwise, they'd be hungry, cold, and very, very cranky!

 

EDIT TO ADD: I'm so happy! I found the email notification of your post still in my inbox, so I could copy and paste your words back into your post! Now I don't feel horrible anymore for deleting them by accident! LOL

[craftyone]

The profit margin on yarns does tend to be very low.  My wholesale cost of RedHeart Super Saver only allows me a profit of .80 a skein, in order to match the price of other stores near me.  When Michaels and AC Moore have sales, they are often selling it for less than my wholesale cost.

I would like to see Crochetville offer yarns that aren't readily available in most stores. Something that would be a bit of a luxury and a treat to be used for a special project.  Maybe Cascade yarns  or even some from the Crochet Dude- I've never seen those in a store in my area.

[Amy]

If we did stock the craft store brand yarns, we would definitely have to carry the lines that the big box craft stores don't carry as much: like Red Heart Boutique yarns.

 

Drew is slowly trying to get his yarns into yarn stores. Don't know how he'd feel about online vs. brick-and-mortar, but he did get his online start here after all, way back in the day!

[RoseRed]

No worries, Amy.  I was just being honest about my shopping habits.  Not everyone shops the way I do.

 

I still think that you guys should come out with your own line of yarns.  Those would be awesome!  I know - everything comes down to cost.

[wheat]

If we did stock the craft store brand yarns, we would definitely have to carry the lines that the big box craft stores don't carry as much: like Red Heart Boutique yarns.

 

Drew is slowly trying to get his yarns into yarn stores. Don't know how he'd feel about online vs. brick-and-mortar, but he did get his online start here after all, way back in the day!

 

Amy,

 

It has been very much a pleasure to watch Drew's well earned success over the years. 

 

If you read Drew's wholesale info link, his business model does not include other on-line only stores. I happen to agree it would not be in his best interest, and ultimately in the best interest of his customers to change that. 

 

Now that his site is up and running well, and with the tools well placed in the chains, especially Michael's and other  normal business practices of Simplicity - it no longer makes sense for most Indie Retailers to stock his tools. 

 

Probably not what you or CVer's want to hear, but the reality, as you have pointed out, is that Indie retailers have families to feed and bills to pay, so it is difficult to compete with those business models.  Still it is great to watch his career and see him with the recognition and success he has worked to long and hard to achieve.

[mattenylou]

Survey in a nutshell- I use all of the popular brands, I'm not faithful to anyone, tho I do prefer Premier yarns. I usually end up with whatever is on sale the day I'm making a purchase, unless I really want to use the exact yarn suggested in the pattern. 90% of my yarn is purchased online, I get those "yarny" emails and I have to check them out to see what is on sale, tho I seldom make a purchase without having a project in mind(whether that project ever gets started is another story!) I hate to pay shipping, I always check for a coupon code for discounted or free shipping. On the other hand, I have no problem having DH drive me to East Overshoe and back, stopping at every craft store in the area, looking for just the right shade of pink yarn, wasting gas and half a day... oh well... I, too, would buy from you out of loyalty, if your prices were comparable.

 

 

Just another thought, I've often wished we could buy enough yarn to make an afghan or a sweater all in one "lot". I'm thinking of your 'Ville's niche being working with these same favorite companies we all use now, and coming up with a deal to prepackage skeins for us to buy 1, 2, 3 or even 4 pounds of yarn, same color, same dye lot (or none), all ready to go at a good affordable price. (do you see how many afghans we make here at the 'Ville??.... that's a lot of yarn!)

 

Another thing.. It drives me crazy buying these teeny little skeins of 3 oz yarn to make a big project, especially in the "light' or "fine" weights. I don't know why they make these skeins so small, but it seems they could be made bigger and sold cheaper than we pay buying an armful of these tiny ones when one or two big ones could take their place.

 

I like the idea of a flat rate. If you offer a good deal, everyone's going to buy a big boxfull, a slower delivery time at a cheaper cost would be acceptable, I think. Speedy delivery could be available at a higher price, too.

[Amy]

If you read Drew's wholesale info link, his business model does not include other on-line only stores. I happen to agree it would not be in his best interest, and ultimately in the best interest of his customers to change that.

I agree about it being in Drew's best interest to be the exclusive online-only source of his yarns. I know he's being very careful to have a controlled expansion so he can keep up with demand without creating a situation with huge production delays. (Think Madelinetosh.) I think he's being very, very smart about the whole thing.

[Amy]

I still think that you guys should come out with your own line of yarns.  Those would be awesome!  I know - everything comes down to cost.

Actually, this does not seem as much of a pie in the sky dream as it once did.

 

Attending the Stitches shows and becoming involved with Red Heart has helped me a make a lot of new friends over the past year, friends who have knowledge and contacts that I do not.

 

Let's play with this dream a little bit, too. If Crochetville did have our own line of yarn:

 

1. What types of fibers and in what weight would you like us to offer? Please list in order of preference. List single fibers, blends, whatever you would like to see.

 

2. What colors or color families would you like us to offer?

 

3. What size skeins do you prefer?

 

 

We would likely to have start small, with just a few types/weights of yarn in a limited color range, sort of like Drew has. In fact, please take a look at his site to check out his prices. What do you think of his prices? What do you like about what he's doing? Is there anything you would want us to do differently? I'm talking only about his yarns (not the Simplicity/Boye tools).

 

EDITED TO FIX LINK TO DREW'S SITE

[magiccrochetfan]

Amy, that link just takes me back to this page.  but Drew's yarns are here http://drewemborsky.com/yarn/

I had seen them before but had kind of forgotten about them.  The color names are really fun ;-)

[LI Roe]

Actually, this does not seem as much of a pie in the sky dream as it once did.

 

Attending the Stitches shows and becoming involved with Red Heart has helped me a make a lot of new friends over the past year, friends who have knowledge and contacts that I do not.

 

Let's play with this dream a little bit, too. If Crochetville did have our own line of yarn:

 

1. What types of fibers and in what weight would you like us to offer? Please list in order of preference. List single fibers, blends, whatever you would like to see.

 

2. What colors or color families would you like us to offer?

 

3. What size skeins do you prefer?

 

 

We would likely to have start small, with just a few types/weights of yarn in a limited color range, sort of like Drew has. In fact, please take a look at his site to check out his prices. What do you think of his prices? What do you like about what he's doing? Is there anything you would want us to do differently? I'm talking only about his yarns (not the Simplicity/Boye tools).

 

For me, I need acrylic since I do mostly charity crochet and need the easiest, yet pretty yarns to be washable as well as durable.

 

While I love all colors, I tend toward brighter tropical colors, brighter retro colors, earthy colors, then deeper pastellytype colors.

 

Larger skeins are preferable (8 oz and up), if possible.

 

 

I also checked out his line of yarns. Love the colors but unfortunately, his price point is out of my range, not for what I need.

 

 

LI Roe

[magiccrochetfan]

Looked around on Drew's site.  The prices seem a bit high, but they are probably in line with other hand dyed yarns.  I guess I'd like to see some of it in person to form an opinion.  

 

To answer your questions 

If Crochetville did have our own line of yarn:

1. What types of fibers and in what weight would you like us to offer? Please list in order of preference. List single fibers, blends, whatever you would like to see.

For crocheting, i really like fine yarns, fingering to sport, no bigger than DK.  (except for using worsted for afghans, which i am only making very rarely for gifts.)  Favorite fibers would be cotton, linen, bamboo, and blends of these.

2. What colors or color families would you like us to offer?
My favorite color is turquoise and I am trying to expand my palette into more purple, rose, coral, yellow, green...in other words the rainbow lol

Off-white is a go-to for me, and I do not like working with black, dark navy etc.  

3. What size skeins do you prefer?

I have 2 opposite likes here:  miniskeins are really fun to play with and collect a variety of colors.  When I have a specific project in mind I like to get a big skein (or a cone if possible) in order to have fewer ends to weave in.