Another storefront in Admiral will be vacant soon – but the business that’s leaving it is NOT shutting down. Monica Skov of West Seattle Fabric Company announced late today that their focus is shifting, recognizing how the retail world is changing. From the message sent to the WSFC mailing list:
We are making a big shift to our business, and although it is a bittersweet decision, let’s celebrate together. As a retail storefront, we have had the beautiful benefit of getting to know all of the people in our community. We feel so thankful to have made connections and friendships that we would have never encountered. Inspiring a community of new sewing enthusiasts fills us with so much happiness. And I cannot tell you the joy I feel every time a customer comes in and says ~ I come here to be inspired. But the days of dense neighborhood shopping districts & bustling storefront commerce are evolving into online shopping and home delivery. Honestly, we’ve seen a shift from increased online sales and less storefront traffic. Shopping online has become much more convenient and in order to grow in an ever-changing economy we are going to transition our fabrics to an online-only fabric shop.
But, she continues, that’s just part of the change:
Seeing this trend for some time, we’ve been turning our focus toward the one thing you can’t get online – Services. The thing that we love about being small-business owners isn’t selling new collections or decorating a shop (although that is fun). We truly love helping our community. Our team has taught hundreds of customers to sew & quilt, we’ve been a resource for all sorts of sewing related questions and advice, and we’ve already completed a large number of customers’ quilts in the past couple of months. In addition to all of our other services, the ultimate way that we can help our community is Repairing and Servicing Sewing Machines, which we will now be offering.
So next month, West Seattle Fabric Company will move to a smaller space on Harbor Avenue in the ActivSpace [WSB sponsor] building, not retailing fabric, but focusing on services and education – classes, repairs, quilt finishing, plus, in relation to the online merchandise, “FREE local pick-up for our local online shoppers …” First, the shop (at 2210 California SW, where it opened in December 2010) plans a liquidation sale starting at 10 am Friday (March 20th), 30 percent off everything in the store, and “incentives for buying in bulk.” You can read the entire announcement here.
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