Now that is really too bad. While I can see this being for classes, knitting/socializing is a different thing for me. We are not charging for our Knit Night at LYS it is for fun only (not business) and anyone is welcome to bring anything from anywhere. Heck, that’s where I’ve seen some really great and different stuff from all over the place (real easy market research in my humble opinion!!).
Marilyn
You are absolutely right, Marilyn. And like Jan in CA said, she brought her own work to her LYS and was welcomed. Over time, just seeing the nice yarns and supplies sold in the shop got her buying from the LYS. It was a great way to get free promotion for the products.
This is a sadness to me. The owner is otherwise very nice and helpful. You’d think she would welcome any and all knitters/crocheters to come and - if only by association - show the rest of the world how wonderful knitting is.
Dot
To speak very bluntly-- not only is it too bad, it’s also idiotic. It isn’t just who comes into the shop. It’s the other people they talk to about the shop.
The class thing is going to vary from store to store because some are taught by the owner and then some aren’t getting anything from hiring an outside teacher and DO depend on purchases. However, in the social/free/whatever each shop calls those open, just come by and knit times-- to say that someone isn’t welcome if they don’t use the shop’s yarn and needles is crazy. I have a friend who has an art class business and she is very free with advice and anyone can call her for information about not only her classes, but art in general. She constantly gets calls from people who say they heard about how friendly and helpful she is and want to sign up for her classes-- which are always full.
At my LYS, not only are you welcome to bring anything to the social knitting times, but the owner provides coffee and free advice for anyone there. And I discovered from experience that if you don’t sign up early, there will be no room in her classes, they are always packed. I always overhear customers coming in to buy, who say, “so and so told me about you and said you’d help me find the right shade of orange for this sweater” and walk out with enough yarn for 3 sweaters, hundreds of dollars.
It’s a shame about this particular LYS owner, Dot-- there was an LYS in the next town over and she had that attitude and went out of business in less than a year.
Well here’s my 2 cents…
I can understand a yarn shop being a business, and I know some people do take advantage in general of businesses. I can understand wanting to only have yarn purchased in a shop in classes.
What I can’t understand:
Needles being purchased there- seriously? I have an Options set already. Why would I spend more money to buy tools I had before I ever knew there was a yarn store there? Yarn you’re going to buy again and again- needles- not so much unless they break. I am also quicker working with what I am used to.
Not being direct and posting the policy- something simple like “We’re proud of our yarn and we ask that you purchase all project yarn for this class in our store” or even better “Materials included in the fee” (and not offering an option for students to buy the materials somewhere else- anyone wanting that option would have to ask. Substituting other store yarn could also be figured up on a case by case basis. The teacher & the store already have an agreement- splitting up that fee into the teacher’s portion for their time and the shop portion for the utilities, space and supplies seems reasonable.) That way Katusha would not have ordered a ton of yarn without realizing what the policy was!
Instead- what seems to happen is you need to somehow figure out the “rules” of the club on your own. If you do bring your own yarn without realizing what you are supposed to do (I would think paying $95 would more than have me covered there) then you’re either talked about behind everyone’s back in a hush hush way or called out & embarrassed about it. If people had clear communication on what was expected, fair enough- but that’s rarely the case with a lot of things, isn’t it?
end rant!:whistle:
I agree with Renee - I don’t know why these rules are so unclear. Or rather, why they are implied and not obviously stated. I would have hated to start off an a bad foot with a LYS that I do hope to come back to (and eventually shop more at).
However, I do think that it would be nice if the store offered a 10% discount to materials purchased for the class. I run an online store and frequently offer coupons to my customers. I have found that this only increases the volume of my sales and in the end my overall revenue is more than if I had not offered a small incentive. People like to feel like they’re getting a good deal.
As Jan suggested, I will probably end up using the KP yarn for another project and if not, I know I can return it. I’m sure I will find a very nice yarn at the LYS - I just hope it won’t break the bank!
I totally agree. At the store I teach/work part-time at, on the top of our class schedule in red print we have what we call “the fine print” clearly stating this and the 10% discount students get as well as the cancellation policy.
Marilyn
I agree that the policy should be clearly stated up front. If it isn’t, I would do what I wanted to.
When I started taking classes at my LYS it was not very clear what was expected and I wasn’t sure what to do. But when you paid for the class you were given a coupon for 15% off one purchse. I figured that was a way of [U]encouraging[/U] you to buy your yarn there.
Since then I have taken many classes at that shop and it appears that some buy their yarn there, some don’t. I have, on occasion, used outside yarn.
HOWEVER, the shop has benefitted from a new customer (me) who shops their regularly whether buying class supplies or not. So now I don’t sweat about it. If I sign up for a class and already have the perfect yarn, I use it. Because I know that during the weeks I am there I WILL spend money on something, perhaps even more than I would have just buying yarn for the project.
I don’t believe that a sensible yarn shop would be so short sighted as to think that the class experience ends their relationship with a client. A class brings you into the store, gets you comfortable and hopefully starts a long term relationship with you.
Just last week I started a Fair Isle class at my LYS. I discovered there were only 3 of us signed up for this 5 session class and when I mentioned to the instructor that I felt bad that she only had 3 students and that it wouldn’t be worth her while she told me she gets paid the same whether she has 3 or 6. So in my LYS it appears the instructor is an employee paid an hourly wage.
Well put simplyrenee!:yay:
I agree that the policy should’ve been stated up front. But, since you are committed, I would find out the gauge of the project and ask what your options are for yarns. A good yarn shop owner should be able to offer several suggestions that are for sale, not just the yarn used by the designer of the pattern, unless there re specific design considerations for using only what the pattern calls for.
As for what to do with the KP yarn, I just read a great interview on Lifehacker with Mythbusters’ Adam Savage. He talks about how he always makes things [B]twice[/B] — once to learn it, and the second time to incorporate those lessons into a finished project. Kinda like a “rough draft” vs. a “final draft.” So you should consider the first time through the pattern as a chance to make mistakes and get messy, and then use all $95 worth of accumulated knowledge to make the sweater again in the KP yarn.
I’m taking this to heart with my next big project with expensive yarn. I’ll buy a cheap yarn in similar gauge, and run through the pattern making mistakes with abandon. If I take good notes on what I do (and especially what I do wrong) the second time through I shouldn’t have to stress expensive yarn by frogging quite so much.