The Quilting Lifestyle

So I am starting to catch myself blogging about quilting and my job at the quilt store in just about every blog I write.  This one isn't going to be any different. Recently, I was reading in the textbook about people's lifestyles and how these lifestyles formed a person's identity. It was interesting to read on page 470 that "people in the same social and economic circumstances may follow the same general consumption pattern" (Solomon, 2013, 470). I couldn't help but tie this to my current job at the quilt store.

It has been really interesting working with the customers at the store as a clerk.  The quilt store has a very interesting customer base which is unique compared to many other stores.  It is unique due to the fact that most of the customers that come into the store are middle to upper-class retired women. They are the people that own $12,000.00 sewing machines and will spend $200.00 in fabric in a day. Some of the customers come in every week to either shop, look around the store, or come to classes. These ladies are the intense quilters.  They have made quilting their lifestyle because they spend most of their time and large amounts of money on the hobby.  Quilting is an expensive hobby and takes a lot of time, but in my opinion a relaxing, productive way to spend time.  The expensive sewing machines, fabric, and projects one can make are the building blocks behind this lifestyle. 

The quilt store where I work isn't just a place where the women get their fabric, it is also a place that builds community among these quilters.  In the store, we all work really hard to memorize customer names, remember the projects they are working on, or even asking about their families (if they share that information with us).  The sense of community only fuels the quilting obsession and makes customers feel like they are more at home in the store and will more than likely spend more in the store. It has been interesting working at the quilt store and advancing more toward one of the ladies that have a quilters lifestyle. :)

The Customer is Always Right

If you didn't already know this about me yet, I work in a local quilt store in Bozeman.  I work as a clerk and help customers with questions and problems that may arise on their quilting projects.  The one thing that my job has taught me that has been very valuable for the future is the importance of good customer service. Good customer service at the quilt store is the difference between a sale and the potential customer turning around and walking right out the door.

Last week I was shopping for a new dress and was able to see the clear difference between good and bad customer service. I went into the first store and was looking at racks and holding stuff up and shuffling through sizes, I probably spent 20 minutes looking and pulled four dresses off the racks to try on.  I then proceeded to the back of the store toward the dressing rooms passing both of the clerks (who were talking to each other and didn't even acknowledge my presence).  I went to a dressing room and tried on my dresses.  I felt really out of place and even though I liked a few of the dresses I tried on, I left them there because I felt awkward being there. I walked out of the dressing room past the two clerks again (still didn't say anything) and right out the front of the store.

I kind of wanted to give up on the shopping process all together that day, but as I walked past another store I decided that maybe I would just look around and see if there were any dresses that I liked.  I walked into the store and was immediately greeted by the only clerk in the store.  She came up to me and asked me how I was and then asked what I was looking for.  I told her I was kind of looking for a dress and she immediately started pulling dresses off the racks for me to try on.  She got me into a dressing room and I tried on all the dresses and liked a few (the only problem I had with them was the quality of the fabric). I didn't end up buying any at that store because the fabric felt like poor quality and the workmanship on the dresses wasn't up to par. If I wasn't such a fabric snob (result of working at a quilt store) that store clerk would have had a sale! She even followed up with me when I was leaving the store and asked if she could find anything else for me. I felt bad leaving and I really did want to buy something from her. So how does good and bad customer service effect consumer behavior?

Customer service has a huge impact on how people spend money and where they shop. It all ties back to a person's emotions.  If someone feels unwelcome or threatened in an environment, they more than likely aren't going to stick around and are definitely not going to financially support it. People will spread bad reviews faster than a person can snap their fingers.  Take a gander at the picture below and absorb how much of an impact poor customer service can have on a business. I think it is important especially for smaller stores to greet every customer that walks in the door and make sure they are doing okay.  I work really hard at the quilt store (even when it is really busy) to give each customer the attention that they demand.  So in my mind customer service doesn't slightly effect consumer behavior, it DRIVES it!!!

Why Buy Local?

The mentality behind buying items locally versus the internet or corporate chain stores like Walmart has always fascinated me.  I remember my dad always driving his gas sucking pickup across town to go to the gas station that was more expensive, but was owned locally to fuel up his truck. I would ask him why he did that and he always responded with, "I like to help out the local businesses in town".  That was the only reason I ever got from him and it still always left me curious on why the heck he would spend more money and go out of his way for a local business?!! What's in it for him?

I also began to see signs of this mentality when I started working at a local quilting store.  Customers would come into the store and ask for off the wall items that a store like ours would never stock.  I would always direct these customers to a website or even Joann's Fabrics and more often than not they would come back with the response that they would rather not go to those places and wanted to get it locally.  So there we have it again...some people are willing to go out of their way and spend more money to support local businesses. So why is this? Is it something people do to make them feel good about themselves or is something that is economically sound? 

After doing some further investigation, I learned about the local multiplier effect. The idea in summary is how the more money one spends locally, the more money will be reinvested into the local economy. Think about it...if you spend money at a local store, that local business will use that money to pay their local employees and hire local service providers like accountants, etc.  These employees and service providers are the people who shop in the community and if they spend their money locally the cycle will continue, but if they don't shop locally the cycle will slow and negatively effect the local economy.  Let's say consumers decide to shop at Walmart instead of a local store.  The money that would have gone into local service providers is now being sent to Walmart headquarters where CEO's and other's salaries are being extracted.  That money is not going back to the community in which it came from, and instead is going to fund the Walton family bunker. (The video below is clip of a video my teacher in high school showed his class. Pretty enlightening even if it is 10 year old data.)   You can see more graphs about shopping locally in the graphs above. 

So not only does shopping locally give you a warm fuzzy feeling inside, it also boosts your local economy! So maybe my dad and the quilt store customers are on to something here....there are some major benefits to buying locally. This is something I am going to keep in mind the next time I decide to go shopping at a store. I need to ask myself...where is my money really going?