Hello EVERYBODY,
Cashmere Cottage Yarn, Closed 2015
It’s that time of year again where I produce my year end report. As you know, America’s Knitting went live in August of 2007. It took me a year to get my bearings start reports, and keep numbers.
Creative Beginnings, closed 2015
After that first year I started a mailer that went out to all the yarn shops every September. This mailer gives me a chance to ask for monetary support from the shops, but it also allows me to also clean up the map and data base during the 4th quarter of every year.
Beach Basket Yarns & Gifts, closed 2016
During the course of the year, people notify me of new shops opening up, and stores closing. Some of this data I find on Facebook, some come from customers, and some of it comes from the shop owners themselves, and then the mailer.
Local Yarn Shop, closed 2016
So here we go…here are this years numbers for 2018! We started the year out with 970 stores across the United States. As of today, we have 937 stores. This brings us down another 33 stores.
Yarnhouse Studio, closed 2017
While the economy is much better than it has been, still, knitters are doing a great deal of purchasing online to businesses that don’t have a brick and mortar presence. All I can do is track the shops, do the math and bring you my findings. But you know what’s going on. It’s up to the consumer to decide where and how to spend their discretionary income.
Yarn shops have to keep up and work hard for your business, they have to earn it! I thank all of you out there who support the small business of the local yarn shop. I can’t help but wonder what it will be like with fewer yarn shops. It’s true that you can’t feel fiber and see true color through the computer or phone, but more than that, it’s the community lost. The personal contact, the friendships made, the relationships.
Yours in knitting,
Mary*