Dear Wal-mart Fabric Buyers

I made a stop to my local store today for my regular check of the clearance scrap bin.  Didn't find anything special, so I left the store empty handed.  I came home, thinking of my position here as an avid designer and creator of clothes, in a super small town.

Wal-mart is everything here, as you can imagine.  But I order my fabric online.  Sight unseen, hoping for the best, paying more than I should...
It's all about the quality and thickness of the fabric as well as emerging trends.

And I think you could do better.  Right now in the sewing influencer world,  independent designed patterns are all the rage.  Each sewist will make up the pattern and show their version to the world on Instagram--easily find-able by the style's hashtag.

I often pick patterns now based on how they look on the real sewist, where I can see it right after she made it.  Thanks to those influencers I also discovered the best fabrics for wearability and style and drape.  This  mix of comfort and quality just can't be duplicated in the discount clothing world, and a discount chain like yourself could be the MARKET LEADER in blessing sewists with this resource at a slightly lower cost than ordering it online.

I don't know your strategy for filling your fabric shelves at small town stores like mine, but every sewist knows your fabrics are looser woven, and basically just get used in a pinch.  Once someone gets serious about sewing (and don't live in a town with a fabric chain) they move on to ordering it online.

 Sure, online ordering is a wave of the future.  But when choosing a commodity that is selected for its feel and stretch, a lot of guessing and gambling is going on that wouldn't need to if the local Wal-mart was a real competitor for the fabrics that are currently on trend.

Double brushed poly, ITY drapey thin knit, thick ponte knits, Hacci sweater knit--these are the hot fabric trends for clothing in this season.  Linen blends, cotton lawn, and rayon challis in the summer are in high demand as well.  I assume you've avoided stocking these because they are such a higher price point than the printed cotton filling your shelves now.  However.

I have this stack of my latest fabric order from an online warehouse that got the solid double brushed polys down to 4.99 a yard.  Even less, significantly less up at the 5-10 yard order point.  Given that your low quality quilting cottons are near that price point, it doesn't make any sense to avoid these garment fabric trends.

I think the key to keeping your pricing margin where you want it would be to choose a small number of prints of each of the trending fabrics.  If you get a design heavy sewist or sewing social media influencer on board to choose the upcoming trending fabrics you don't need a lot of variety.

Secondly when these are stocked, do the current thing and get a couple of Instagram darlings to sew up their favorite indie pattern or self-designed pieces in your fabric to announce to the world the new, very real resource that is now in their hometown or neighborhood.  They are already buying their groceries there, why not stock their stash as well?

I would love to consult more about this, including pointing your social media team to the influencers most likely to turn the tide on your reputation as a more quality supplier--for still a LOWER COST.

Thanks, Bobi