Snobby Shop

Have you ever been in one of those stores, where you felt you were just, well, not welcome? Somewhere where the service was so non-existant and snooty you felt as if they'd really rather you not have bothered stopping in at all? You kinda' start to wonder if, in fact, the shop is just a front for something else, and they want you gone as soon as possible. LOL Because if they treat everyone this way, HOW could they ever sell a thing??? Or maybe you have to be in the club to shop there???

Well, I went to one recently, a yarn/knitting/crochet store not too far from where I live. I've passed it so many times. It was one of those, "I'd love to stop in and see what they have one day when I have time." Only I never had time. Well, the other day, I finally did...

It's a cute store, that much I could tell from the window, though it's very small. And right at the front of the store are chairs set up for knitting/crocheting, but as my daughter and I stepped inside, the three or so women sitting there, (at least one of which I know worked there), didn't so much as smile our way, say hello, how are you, or even acknowledge our presence, to tell you the truth. In fact, they seemed to get quieter, like I was disturbing their current conversation.

Anyway, we (my daughter and I) looked around for a good while before ANYONE bothered to come and ask if we needed any help or anything. And when she did, it felt more like, "Can I help you with anything so I can get you out of here?" The woman gave off no kind of genuine helpfulness. Of course, I was just looking, I didn't need help, but I really think that fact annoyed her. Really, I think my being there in the first place annoyed her.

And though they had a LOT of NICE NICE yarns, they were sooooo EXPENSIVE. In my sheltered crochet existance, I have never seen a skein of yarn that cost over $35!!! (and up...very much up...) Granted, I'm sure they existed somewhere, some nice luxurious blend of cashmere or something, but it was almost EVERYTHING IN THE STORE!!! Even what I thought would be considered fairly "normal" yarn. (and we're talking small skeins, barely big enough to make a small scarf.) And as I'm still kind of a novice going on intermediate, I can't really justify spending that much on a project I'm not 100% sure I can pull off anyway. Not that I was expecting to pay a buck for it, either, but the cheapest I found (a reasonable $3)--it was the ONLY one in the store that price that I saw. Most were at least $10 and up. And as I said, I'm still learning, so I didn't want to invest that much, and quite frankly, they weren't really making me want to give them my money anyway. I could literally FEEL the "get out of here" vibes coming off of them. So, I grabbed up my daughter, and we went back to the car.

Later, I went by Michael's and got some lovely green Wool-Ease from Lion Brand Yarn that was more suited to my experiments...I'm now working on a throw. I will show you a pic when I get more done, but it's coming along quite nicely.

And I won't be going back to the snobby shop. I'll order online if I need some specialty yarn later down the road.