Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: The Necessary Evil Of Quilt Market
Some people live paycheck to paycheck. Me, I am living blog to blog. There is certainly a lot for me to talk about these days, so be sure to keep reading my blogs because things are going on in our industry..some for better, some for worse, but all very interesting. You aren’t going to want to miss it because I try to tell it how it is and give you the inside scoop as I see it from an owner’s seat. I guess the elephant in the room right now is quilt market…so how about my two cents.
To be quite honest, I am becoming more and more worried about the quilt markets and you have heard me discuss this topic before after the last market. This year, for one, is sure to be a dud as far as international customers are concerned, mostly because of the dollar strength. The irony is that this is called the international quilt market, yet, I have received a lot of RSVPs with the response…not attending. With each “NO” I cringe thinking about the time, effort and expense we put in to make this quilt market happen for our companies. As far as the domestic customers are concerned, I feel that a good bunch, more or less, checked out of quilt market a couple of years ago. The simple reasons are that it is just too expensive and it is so much easier to work with a sales rep in your shop. 
One can only wonder…..how many more years can we continue to assemble booths for the many companies under the Jaftex corporate umbrella? How many more times can we downsize before we appear unimportant? How can we keep cutting the number of people we need to bring to market? When are the costs of market going to stabilize and stop going up up up? I mean, the costs of the hotels went up this year by about $20/room and the deposits were non-refundable and non-transferable for a full 2 nights…talk about not being user-friendly. The worst part is that the hotels became non-refundable at the behest of people from Quilts Inc…so I am told. So let’s put this in perspective. Our companies have 60 nights at the hotel, so just this year we are paying an ADDITIONAL $1200 plus the increased taxes….talk about inflation and a rip off.
What other options are there? I have heard that some companies rent suites in the hotels and just invite their customers to the room. This is a very clever way to get around all the exorbitant Quilt’s Inc. and union fees that are just mind numbing. For example, to pay $630 to move a pallet to a booth from the back entrance of the convention center doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. It costs us less to ship the pallet from South Carolina to Texas. The bottom line is that we fabric vendors are running businesses and need to make business decisions about our investments in the quilt market and all that surrounds it. In the end, we may have to look for other routes because the quilt market is turning in to a bloodbath for our bottom line times 2 because of the 2 shows each year. I know that fabric is related to craft and hobby, but this is no hobby for the vendors attending the show…this is business and the quilt market is not supposed to be a loss leader or at least it never was before recently. 
Right now, I do not have solutions, but we definitely have been tossing around a lot of ideas in our offices. In any case, it is time for the powers that be in our industry to step up and take a hard look at quilt market before it is too late and self-destructs. I hate to be a downer about this, but the writing is on the wall and I think that this year may prove to be a pivotal one. We should start the discussions asap. 
Let me say one more thing before I wrap up. This is nothing against the people of Quilts Inc. per se because quite honestly, they run a great show and are very professional. I only have good things to say about them and consider many of them my friends. That being said, this is about reality, business and progressing to a more logical, economical show where the risk and reward are more balanced. I guess we will have to see what happens. Until next week. By the way, if you are an avid Tales Of A Fourth Generation follower, please make sure to stop by and visit me at booth 526 as I have a surprise for you. All you have to do is mention that you read my blog.
Thanks for listening and please please please give me your two cents.
Scott