I’ve been meaning to write about this topic for some time and recent events have pulled it to the foreground. The topic is cutting wool. The question is, “How far does my obligation go to you the customer?” For those of you who don’t have a cutting machine here is this shop’s perspective.
To start, it seems like a lifetime ago, but at one time I was a beginning rug hooker. Within two weeks of working on my first project I had my own cutting machine, a Bliss Model A, without it I would have been still in the water. Late at night, when Mary was in her bed asleep, as sweet as she is, she probably wouldn’t have appreciated a knock on the door in the wee hours of the morning, from an addict begging for more strips. Being a night owl, I was doing my best work after midnight and darn if I didn’t always run out as the high was peeking. So I purchased my own machine and with that came the freedom to hook when I darn well pleased, depending on no one for a late night fix.
When I opened shop, I sold cutting machines. Back in the day when our dollar was bestered by US funds at a 20% and sometimes higher exchange, they were expensive to buy and have shipped across the border. I had to buy a minimum number to get the highest discount which was basically a joke. I made so little profit I realized carrying them was only a perk for the customer, not me.
They were hard enough to sell in the early days, and then later with the introduction of Ebay and Kijiji, the inventory would then sit for years. Customers would come in to let me know they found and bought cutters everywhere but a shop and sometimes with shipping and duty they paid as much as buying from me would have cost. It certainly would have been nice to support a small independent shop. I realize where you shop is the right of the consumer, it’s just difficult to hear when you have thousands of dollars’ worth of inventory that sits gathering dust.
In recent years, the company who supplied the Bliss and Fraser cutters changed family hands a couple of times so the price went up twice in one year almost doubling what they were a short time ago. The wholesale price went up but the profit margin stayed the same.
People don’t like change, at first anyway, once it grows on them no problem, but the transition year of the new pricing killed sales as if a black plague swept through the cutting community. The new stock with the higher price tag hung around like a bad smell. I discounted them and sold them at a loss so I didn’t have to keep counting them in inventory. The mark-up on the cutter was low, then take into account the US exchange and the astronomical shipping for a box of that weight, well I was lucky to make 10%. 10% profit is not worth the paperwork. No business can survive on those numbers.
Sure I could have raised the price, but the rug hooking sisterhood is small and everyone knows what all the shops sell their goods for so we are bound to keeping parallel pricing or stock doesn’t move. So I made the decision to stop selling them, not only me but two other shops in the area independently came to the same conclusion, selling cutters is not good business.
And then something happened that turned me off even further. That company sold me a dozen defective blades. These blades aren’t cheap as the price escalated for them as well as the machines. Whether the company knew it at the time or discovered it later I’m not sure, but when they did realize it, they should have called their customers to report the problem, exchange good for bad. They didn’t and the result deeply embarrassed me when I couldn’t get #6 blades to cut on a new machine that I was trying to sell to a customer. I went through every blade thinking the problem lay with the cutter. Once the blades are tried they were now classed as used and could no longer be sold. With the machine not working properly it gouged those blades and without the smooth edge, I couldn’t flog them. They were cut wrong, not completely round on one side so it would skip where it didn’t connect the roller blade with the cutting wheel. It wasn’t visible to the naked eye, just a subtle flaw that made a big impact on the cut.
While I was demoing the cutter, another couple came in to inquire about machines and when they witnessed how much I was struggling, they walked out. Two potential sales lost in one day and my face was beet red.
I emailed the company to say that the machine I had was defective and explained what happened and was told in the reply, that it was the #6 blade, not the machine that malfunctioned, that they were cut wrong during manufacturing. They told me to send back the blades and they would replace them, which I did, but my faith in them went down the toilet. If I made enough money on the machines to make it worth my while carrying them I would have let it slide , I didn’t so why go through this kind of hassle? If you can’t have faith in a product you sell, take it off the shelf.
So in the meantime what does a customer do if they refuse to buy or can’t afford a cutter? How do they cut their wool? Hopefully there is a friend to help, a rotary cutter will do or a pair of scissors if working with wider cuts. The rotary cutter can be dangerous, and cutting with scissors leaves a jagged mess and the wool will be cut off grain and fray more. Not the best solutions but okay in a pinch.
So this leads to my question. How and why am I responsible for cutting the wool that I sell to you? This of course would not be an issue if when I say, no sorry we don’t cut wool and you say okay, it didn’t hurt to ask in a friendly way. The old saying you get more flies with honey and a smile can get your wool cut more often than not, the rule we have is not carved in stone. But instead, I’ve been abused. Customers have been angry with me, walk out of my shop leaving behind what they intended to purchase. Sometimes they get belligerent and say, “Well, what am I supposed to do if you won’t cut my wool?” You make it sound like I owe you something because you are spending money in my shop. When you buy shoes do you demand that they spray them with sealant? No, you buy the can, take it home and do it yourself. Do you get the grocer to come home and cook the lasagna you bought the ingredients for? Does IKEA come home and set up your furniture? Canadian Tire doesn’t arrive at the rink to tie your skates...really....if you want to play hockey....get a stick!
Back in the day when I first opened and only saw one or two customers a day, we had time to cut wool and I enjoyed that time to chat. But now, with the amount of traffic through the door, we don’t have time to offer extra services. Even if you wanted to pay us, there is just no time.
You all know I’ve been home with my sick dogs. The other day Shane called me to say a woman demanded that he hand over my home phone number so she could call and make me come into the shop and cut her wool, not even wool she purchased that day, but wool she bought weeks before, even though I told her point blank that we don’t cut wool.
So why don’t we cut wool.....so many reasons, let me count the ways.
First of all, we are too busy! While we cut that wool, other customers in the shop are ignored. We aren’t getting the mail orders out for people who have paid for purchases. Nor are we making stock for the shop to sell. Inventory is what is needed to sell and pay my employees! Cutting wool takes away from all that.
Second, it’s a blasted mess to cut wool. ¼ yard of wool makes enough dust that we have to get out the vacuum and clean not only the cut area, but the rugs and the stairs as it gets blown and walked around. Wool dust is a hazard, a liability, is as slippery as ice in a light dusting on a hardwood floor. I have kits to cut that sit because I’m too busy. It takes days, to cut them. If you see a pile of wool on my desk that is wool that needs cutting for kits....if I had the time it wouldn’t be there!!!!!
If we offered this service, I would have to cut the wool because if my employees did it we would go in the hole. I can’t afford to pay them an hourly wage to stand there and cut wool for people all day, because I assure you, if we offered that service that is exactly what we would be doing. We are even asked to cut wool for people who have cutters, they just don’t want to have to go home and change the blade and I’ve even been asked to cut wool so they don’t have to make a mess in their house. Another one, I’ve ask if they have a friend with a cutter to help them out and I’m told “Oh, I don’t want to bother my friend,”
Last, but not least, I don’t like being bullied or threatened and that’s what people have done, not only to me but my staff. “I won’t buy your wool unless you cut it” you say. “I’ll buy this pattern and the wool but only if you cut it all for me.” You can ask aa question without it being pushy, like “I don’t have a cutter, would it be possible if you could help me if I buy a pattern and the wool?” If you were nice about it maybe I would, if in a good mood, have some time to spare, if I like you or there aren’t any other customers in the shop that would be ignored, and I have many times because that person was sweet.....but I’ve been frowned at, had to listen to your whining, “How in hell am I supposed to hook then?” Well, the answer is easy, buy a cutting machine. If you don’t own one it is not my problem, my fault or my monkey to carry.
And then the helpful suggestion. “Why don’t we have a cutter so people can come in and cut their own wool?” My cutters cost me $1025.00 each. They are fine tuned machines that need a gentle hand and technical thinking. You can’t ram fabric through or turn the handle backwards when it jams. You have to pay attention at all times or it feeds in on itself. We’d have to post a rule, “our wool only”, but then have to police you as the polyester slips in. I used to rent out a Bliss cutter, $5.00 a day like the rest of the shops offered. The blade would come back brutalized, jagged and in bad need of a sharpening from cutting man-made fibers even though you promised you’d be cutting 100% wool. Repairs to the blade cost $7.00. Do the math.
I know of a shop that has a Boliver that people are allowed to use and it is out for servicing all the time, Mr. Boliver’s words not mine. The cutter has been misused and worn loose. People bring in all kinds of crap wool with synthetics that ruin the blades. I can’t afford to buy an extra machine for customers to use, and there would have to be two because you would need all the cuts.
I couldn’t afford the maintenance on the machines when they are wrecked, nor the time to drive them to Lahave to take them to Mr. Boliver’s workshop for repairs. I would have to be cleaning them all the time because they build up with lint and then run inefficiently and it’s a harder crank of the handle which leads to damage. I wouldn’t expect or want anyone without a working know how of the machine doing it, trying to clean the cutter heads is a delicate job or you will break the rubber O’rings and ding the blades.
We would have to take the time to give oral instruction on how to use it properly. Plus who will get stuck vacuuming the shop after each customer comes and goes? A simple sweep doesn’t cut it as the wool dust gets into everything and is more slippery than ice. Every time I cut kits I have to vacuum the entire area around it. You can’t be vacuuming during work hours with our big, old clunky, roaring Electrolux. When I cut kits, the wool fibers are all over my clothes and arms, and most would brush that off all over the place, the reason I do this after hours. It’s just a bad idea all the way around and the question is still there, why do I have to offer this service?
Our shop has no room to have a cutting area for customers. I’m cramped behind a desk where I need to work. No room for others. There is no space available that isn’t filled with quality product to sell and I am not about to downsize our inventory to make room for cutting.
The same, demanding woman harassing Shane to make him cut the wool, was in a few weeks ago and at a point when the shop was quiet I cut a few pieces for her to get started, but I told her very firmly, this was not a service we provide. Not to expect it in the future. I told her where she could buy a cutter and she did order one and then came back in the following Saturday for me to cut more. Up until that point she was hand cutting it, but decided she liked the straight cuts better. She coerced me into helping her by saying in an accusingly way, how much money she’d spent in my store, there were customers about and I could smell a scene coming so I cut it to keep her quiet. It was blatantly evident she felt she was more important and did not want me talking to other customers, interrupting every time I asked if I could help someone, literally pushed them aside by moving between us. I looked her straight in the eye and told her I had to address my customers, be available to assist them, my number one priority. I told her upfront we do not and will not be cutting more wool.
She did the same to Shane the day she came in when I was home with my sick dogs. He was cashing out a customer and chatting when the woman started inching her way along the desk until she had literally pushed the paying customer over to the front door carpet. Several times she interrupted Shane while he spoke to the woman being checked out. Shane said it was very rude, the customer he was talking to looked very uncomfortable and left.
Then she started in on the lousy service around here. He said he didn’t know how to cut wool, that I am the only one that does it. She demanded my phone number even after he told her I was home with sick dogs. There was a workshop going on upstairs and sound travels up and I am embarrassed that Michele Micarelli and her students had a front row seat to her lamenting. From what several heard, I was told that Shane was perfectly polite through it all, never lost his cool and was respectful.
The woman left her bag of wool and demanded that we cut it and mail it to her. Mail it to her? At my expense? I can’t even rap my head around the arrogance of it all. Shane said he let her leave the wool just to get her out the door because she was making a scene, leaving momma to deal with it and that’s okay, I’m the boss, they shouldn’t have to deal with those situations. Poor guy, I guess he is getting a taste of retail. He is wonderful with customers and people sing his praises. The man is a saint. He’s better than his mom in that he doesn’t let that kind of thing upset him, I told him he obviously got his father’s thick skin and my brain, the looks are a fifty/fifty split.
So that is why we don’t cut other people’s wool, and even if you offer to pay us, we just don’t have the time. I do have a rule that I will cut wool if you have never hooked before and want to start the first project, but after that, if you want to pursue the craft, a cutting machine is a must. I sell kits with all the wool cut and ready to roll, another option if you don’t wish to invest in a machine.
Of all the stock in the shop, of all the pretty things we sell, time is what we have the least of. I’m always behind and end up working nights to catch up and with me being out all week, Shane has been running the shop and not in the dye pan so he is behind in his orders as well. Right now, I’m so far behind if I look back I’ll see dinosaurs and this week will be catch-up, probably working every night to get ahead. Cutting someone’s wool doesn’t even register on my radar.
And the last word. If you don’t want to buy a cutter or maybe can’t afford one, hook with yarn, panty hose, T-shirt material, sari silk or ribbon! A simply solution, problem solved!
Coincidentally, a few weeks ago Shane and I had a meeting and decided we would offer cut strips on a rack. My son is in progress of designing a label and we will offer 1/8 and ¼ yd bundles of cut wool, probably in a #5 or #6. It will be what it is, off the rack purchasing; whatever is there is what is available. We will get on this as soon as humanly possible. Once it is available I will post it on the website and on Facebook.
And I would like to add, our customers get fabulous service at our shop and you receive free advice where others insist you pay. A customer emailed me the other day and said she took a beginning class with a teacher and when asked if she would help her colour plan her pillow rug the teacher refused because she had purchased the wool from me. Maybe if my wool was crap I could understand it but its top of the line. We colour plan a customer’s rug with whatever wool you bring in, for free and with a smile.
Our customers have a free website to peruse, where others have an annual fee, we offer many products to choose from and go out of our way to offer a premium product and offer excellent service. I think we go above and beyond. You may not like me, and there are those who don’t, but no one can say that we sell crap product or offer crappy service. I say this because that woman phoned this morning before I got to work wondering why her cut wool hadn’t arrived in the mail. Started in on Shane again with the same lament about our lousy service, how she spent $1000 in the shop, up from $600 in the last lament. Growing in increments like a fish story.
She called back when I arrived and lit into me immediately about Shane and his attitude, how he was rude to her and I’m sorry, that was the last straw. I had to holler because she was loud but I managed to ask her “What about my insisting twice that we don’t cut wool didn’t she understand? She said that it was my job to serve the customer, who is always right. I told her that I was not impressed that she made a scene for the workshop students to overhear. She said she was always nice, that Shane was lying. Well we have witnesses to the contrary.
I pointed out that she demanded twice that Shane hand over my phone number so she could call me so I would leave my sick dogs to come into the shop to cut her wool. She just turned on Shane again, said she never said that and how rude he was to her. Repeats and more repeats, just louder each time.
Then she started in with all the money she spends in my shop and I told her that the way she says it, it sounds like blackmail. I wish I’d said she got superior quality merchandise for her money but didn’t think of it then. She told me once again how lousy our service was. How everyone at rug school in May told her I was difficult to deal and now she knows they were right.
I asked her why she expected me to cut the wool and mail it to her at our expense. That was when she screamed again "the customer was always right" and barked more about what a rotten so and so I am, told me she would never enter my store again and smashed the phone down on my ear. I’m not bothered one way or another, I think I could afford to lose this customer; I don’t think doing a back flip could please this one. We bend over far enough; any farther and I’d blow out a hip.
I would imagine she will come by tomorrow for her bag of wool; hopefully she doesn’t go off on in front of a store full of customers. And if she does she won’t get a rise out of me. I’ll not give her the power of ruining my day or sinking to her level. There is no reasoning with her at all. I’m impressed the confrontation didn’t bother me, I’m either growing stronger or I cried so much over my pups there’s nothing left! My first full day back to work and I had to deal with this.....I hope this isn’t an indication of how the rest of October will be, I was hoping my discontent had ended.......
Update: Saturday the woman comes in with her husband in front of her, like a shield. I saw her peek out from behind him and I did a deep inhale.
I’m still wondering if it really happened. It was so asinine, so utterly ridiculous considering the previous 2 passive aggressive and then the 3 bad encounters with her. The woman opened her mouth and said. “Hi Christine, I love you!”
It took a few seconds to register and I paused ever so slightly before emerging from behind the work desk. As I walked towards them memories washed over me. Every time my first husband hit, kicked, or called me horrible names, the following day he would attempt to erase my hurt with proclamations of “I love you.” No matter what he did, he fully expecting to be forgiven and smiled at. The doctors called him a Sociopath.
So now I had a choice. I could rise out of ashes of this experience, be the better person, smile and hand her wool over without malevolence....or I could position myself so that she would never insult my shop, my person and my son again. I did a quick tally of everything she’d said and done and came to the conclusion that there would be more of the same. A person stocking that kind of attitude has more inventory piled in storage. I decided this was one customer that I couldn’t afford to have, we would always be waiting for the next eruption if everything didn’t go her way. I’m too busy to be tiptoeing on eggshells or dealing with senseless drama.
I walked past them, retrieved her bag of wool behind the sales counter, turned and handed it to her without a smile or a frown, just a flat lined pursed lip. She took the wool and looked at me without speaking. I turned and walked away from her letting my back convey what I was thinking. I heard her mutter something to her husband. There was nothing left to say. I may not have been the bigger person but I did what was right for me. I can’t be someone’s punching bag, not any more. If I’d wanted to be in an abusive relationship, I would still be married to the heel.
On our first meeting she told me, “If you want a man to treat you right, marry one with a handicap. She said her first husband was a quadriplegic and the current one is legally blind. I thought it a strange comment. My husband treats me like a queen and he’s not handicapped, except maybe when he’s racing sailboats. Hmmm....seeking out men that can’t run away from you.....
And lady, in your own words, if our shop is so lousy on service, if I’m so hard to deal with, why would you come in, smile and say you love me? It’s a contradiction; you can’t have it both ways. We’re either lousy or we’re not. Pick one and stick to it!
To start, it seems like a lifetime ago, but at one time I was a beginning rug hooker. Within two weeks of working on my first project I had my own cutting machine, a Bliss Model A, without it I would have been still in the water. Late at night, when Mary was in her bed asleep, as sweet as she is, she probably wouldn’t have appreciated a knock on the door in the wee hours of the morning, from an addict begging for more strips. Being a night owl, I was doing my best work after midnight and darn if I didn’t always run out as the high was peeking. So I purchased my own machine and with that came the freedom to hook when I darn well pleased, depending on no one for a late night fix.
When I opened shop, I sold cutting machines. Back in the day when our dollar was bestered by US funds at a 20% and sometimes higher exchange, they were expensive to buy and have shipped across the border. I had to buy a minimum number to get the highest discount which was basically a joke. I made so little profit I realized carrying them was only a perk for the customer, not me.
They were hard enough to sell in the early days, and then later with the introduction of Ebay and Kijiji, the inventory would then sit for years. Customers would come in to let me know they found and bought cutters everywhere but a shop and sometimes with shipping and duty they paid as much as buying from me would have cost. It certainly would have been nice to support a small independent shop. I realize where you shop is the right of the consumer, it’s just difficult to hear when you have thousands of dollars’ worth of inventory that sits gathering dust.
In recent years, the company who supplied the Bliss and Fraser cutters changed family hands a couple of times so the price went up twice in one year almost doubling what they were a short time ago. The wholesale price went up but the profit margin stayed the same.
People don’t like change, at first anyway, once it grows on them no problem, but the transition year of the new pricing killed sales as if a black plague swept through the cutting community. The new stock with the higher price tag hung around like a bad smell. I discounted them and sold them at a loss so I didn’t have to keep counting them in inventory. The mark-up on the cutter was low, then take into account the US exchange and the astronomical shipping for a box of that weight, well I was lucky to make 10%. 10% profit is not worth the paperwork. No business can survive on those numbers.
Sure I could have raised the price, but the rug hooking sisterhood is small and everyone knows what all the shops sell their goods for so we are bound to keeping parallel pricing or stock doesn’t move. So I made the decision to stop selling them, not only me but two other shops in the area independently came to the same conclusion, selling cutters is not good business.
And then something happened that turned me off even further. That company sold me a dozen defective blades. These blades aren’t cheap as the price escalated for them as well as the machines. Whether the company knew it at the time or discovered it later I’m not sure, but when they did realize it, they should have called their customers to report the problem, exchange good for bad. They didn’t and the result deeply embarrassed me when I couldn’t get #6 blades to cut on a new machine that I was trying to sell to a customer. I went through every blade thinking the problem lay with the cutter. Once the blades are tried they were now classed as used and could no longer be sold. With the machine not working properly it gouged those blades and without the smooth edge, I couldn’t flog them. They were cut wrong, not completely round on one side so it would skip where it didn’t connect the roller blade with the cutting wheel. It wasn’t visible to the naked eye, just a subtle flaw that made a big impact on the cut.
While I was demoing the cutter, another couple came in to inquire about machines and when they witnessed how much I was struggling, they walked out. Two potential sales lost in one day and my face was beet red.
I emailed the company to say that the machine I had was defective and explained what happened and was told in the reply, that it was the #6 blade, not the machine that malfunctioned, that they were cut wrong during manufacturing. They told me to send back the blades and they would replace them, which I did, but my faith in them went down the toilet. If I made enough money on the machines to make it worth my while carrying them I would have let it slide , I didn’t so why go through this kind of hassle? If you can’t have faith in a product you sell, take it off the shelf.
So in the meantime what does a customer do if they refuse to buy or can’t afford a cutter? How do they cut their wool? Hopefully there is a friend to help, a rotary cutter will do or a pair of scissors if working with wider cuts. The rotary cutter can be dangerous, and cutting with scissors leaves a jagged mess and the wool will be cut off grain and fray more. Not the best solutions but okay in a pinch.
So this leads to my question. How and why am I responsible for cutting the wool that I sell to you? This of course would not be an issue if when I say, no sorry we don’t cut wool and you say okay, it didn’t hurt to ask in a friendly way. The old saying you get more flies with honey and a smile can get your wool cut more often than not, the rule we have is not carved in stone. But instead, I’ve been abused. Customers have been angry with me, walk out of my shop leaving behind what they intended to purchase. Sometimes they get belligerent and say, “Well, what am I supposed to do if you won’t cut my wool?” You make it sound like I owe you something because you are spending money in my shop. When you buy shoes do you demand that they spray them with sealant? No, you buy the can, take it home and do it yourself. Do you get the grocer to come home and cook the lasagna you bought the ingredients for? Does IKEA come home and set up your furniture? Canadian Tire doesn’t arrive at the rink to tie your skates...really....if you want to play hockey....get a stick!
Back in the day when I first opened and only saw one or two customers a day, we had time to cut wool and I enjoyed that time to chat. But now, with the amount of traffic through the door, we don’t have time to offer extra services. Even if you wanted to pay us, there is just no time.
You all know I’ve been home with my sick dogs. The other day Shane called me to say a woman demanded that he hand over my home phone number so she could call and make me come into the shop and cut her wool, not even wool she purchased that day, but wool she bought weeks before, even though I told her point blank that we don’t cut wool.
So why don’t we cut wool.....so many reasons, let me count the ways.
First of all, we are too busy! While we cut that wool, other customers in the shop are ignored. We aren’t getting the mail orders out for people who have paid for purchases. Nor are we making stock for the shop to sell. Inventory is what is needed to sell and pay my employees! Cutting wool takes away from all that.
Second, it’s a blasted mess to cut wool. ¼ yard of wool makes enough dust that we have to get out the vacuum and clean not only the cut area, but the rugs and the stairs as it gets blown and walked around. Wool dust is a hazard, a liability, is as slippery as ice in a light dusting on a hardwood floor. I have kits to cut that sit because I’m too busy. It takes days, to cut them. If you see a pile of wool on my desk that is wool that needs cutting for kits....if I had the time it wouldn’t be there!!!!!
If we offered this service, I would have to cut the wool because if my employees did it we would go in the hole. I can’t afford to pay them an hourly wage to stand there and cut wool for people all day, because I assure you, if we offered that service that is exactly what we would be doing. We are even asked to cut wool for people who have cutters, they just don’t want to have to go home and change the blade and I’ve even been asked to cut wool so they don’t have to make a mess in their house. Another one, I’ve ask if they have a friend with a cutter to help them out and I’m told “Oh, I don’t want to bother my friend,”
Last, but not least, I don’t like being bullied or threatened and that’s what people have done, not only to me but my staff. “I won’t buy your wool unless you cut it” you say. “I’ll buy this pattern and the wool but only if you cut it all for me.” You can ask aa question without it being pushy, like “I don’t have a cutter, would it be possible if you could help me if I buy a pattern and the wool?” If you were nice about it maybe I would, if in a good mood, have some time to spare, if I like you or there aren’t any other customers in the shop that would be ignored, and I have many times because that person was sweet.....but I’ve been frowned at, had to listen to your whining, “How in hell am I supposed to hook then?” Well, the answer is easy, buy a cutting machine. If you don’t own one it is not my problem, my fault or my monkey to carry.
And then the helpful suggestion. “Why don’t we have a cutter so people can come in and cut their own wool?” My cutters cost me $1025.00 each. They are fine tuned machines that need a gentle hand and technical thinking. You can’t ram fabric through or turn the handle backwards when it jams. You have to pay attention at all times or it feeds in on itself. We’d have to post a rule, “our wool only”, but then have to police you as the polyester slips in. I used to rent out a Bliss cutter, $5.00 a day like the rest of the shops offered. The blade would come back brutalized, jagged and in bad need of a sharpening from cutting man-made fibers even though you promised you’d be cutting 100% wool. Repairs to the blade cost $7.00. Do the math.
I know of a shop that has a Boliver that people are allowed to use and it is out for servicing all the time, Mr. Boliver’s words not mine. The cutter has been misused and worn loose. People bring in all kinds of crap wool with synthetics that ruin the blades. I can’t afford to buy an extra machine for customers to use, and there would have to be two because you would need all the cuts.
I couldn’t afford the maintenance on the machines when they are wrecked, nor the time to drive them to Lahave to take them to Mr. Boliver’s workshop for repairs. I would have to be cleaning them all the time because they build up with lint and then run inefficiently and it’s a harder crank of the handle which leads to damage. I wouldn’t expect or want anyone without a working know how of the machine doing it, trying to clean the cutter heads is a delicate job or you will break the rubber O’rings and ding the blades.
We would have to take the time to give oral instruction on how to use it properly. Plus who will get stuck vacuuming the shop after each customer comes and goes? A simple sweep doesn’t cut it as the wool dust gets into everything and is more slippery than ice. Every time I cut kits I have to vacuum the entire area around it. You can’t be vacuuming during work hours with our big, old clunky, roaring Electrolux. When I cut kits, the wool fibers are all over my clothes and arms, and most would brush that off all over the place, the reason I do this after hours. It’s just a bad idea all the way around and the question is still there, why do I have to offer this service?
Our shop has no room to have a cutting area for customers. I’m cramped behind a desk where I need to work. No room for others. There is no space available that isn’t filled with quality product to sell and I am not about to downsize our inventory to make room for cutting.
The same, demanding woman harassing Shane to make him cut the wool, was in a few weeks ago and at a point when the shop was quiet I cut a few pieces for her to get started, but I told her very firmly, this was not a service we provide. Not to expect it in the future. I told her where she could buy a cutter and she did order one and then came back in the following Saturday for me to cut more. Up until that point she was hand cutting it, but decided she liked the straight cuts better. She coerced me into helping her by saying in an accusingly way, how much money she’d spent in my store, there were customers about and I could smell a scene coming so I cut it to keep her quiet. It was blatantly evident she felt she was more important and did not want me talking to other customers, interrupting every time I asked if I could help someone, literally pushed them aside by moving between us. I looked her straight in the eye and told her I had to address my customers, be available to assist them, my number one priority. I told her upfront we do not and will not be cutting more wool.
She did the same to Shane the day she came in when I was home with my sick dogs. He was cashing out a customer and chatting when the woman started inching her way along the desk until she had literally pushed the paying customer over to the front door carpet. Several times she interrupted Shane while he spoke to the woman being checked out. Shane said it was very rude, the customer he was talking to looked very uncomfortable and left.
Then she started in on the lousy service around here. He said he didn’t know how to cut wool, that I am the only one that does it. She demanded my phone number even after he told her I was home with sick dogs. There was a workshop going on upstairs and sound travels up and I am embarrassed that Michele Micarelli and her students had a front row seat to her lamenting. From what several heard, I was told that Shane was perfectly polite through it all, never lost his cool and was respectful.
The woman left her bag of wool and demanded that we cut it and mail it to her. Mail it to her? At my expense? I can’t even rap my head around the arrogance of it all. Shane said he let her leave the wool just to get her out the door because she was making a scene, leaving momma to deal with it and that’s okay, I’m the boss, they shouldn’t have to deal with those situations. Poor guy, I guess he is getting a taste of retail. He is wonderful with customers and people sing his praises. The man is a saint. He’s better than his mom in that he doesn’t let that kind of thing upset him, I told him he obviously got his father’s thick skin and my brain, the looks are a fifty/fifty split.
So that is why we don’t cut other people’s wool, and even if you offer to pay us, we just don’t have the time. I do have a rule that I will cut wool if you have never hooked before and want to start the first project, but after that, if you want to pursue the craft, a cutting machine is a must. I sell kits with all the wool cut and ready to roll, another option if you don’t wish to invest in a machine.
Of all the stock in the shop, of all the pretty things we sell, time is what we have the least of. I’m always behind and end up working nights to catch up and with me being out all week, Shane has been running the shop and not in the dye pan so he is behind in his orders as well. Right now, I’m so far behind if I look back I’ll see dinosaurs and this week will be catch-up, probably working every night to get ahead. Cutting someone’s wool doesn’t even register on my radar.
And the last word. If you don’t want to buy a cutter or maybe can’t afford one, hook with yarn, panty hose, T-shirt material, sari silk or ribbon! A simply solution, problem solved!
Coincidentally, a few weeks ago Shane and I had a meeting and decided we would offer cut strips on a rack. My son is in progress of designing a label and we will offer 1/8 and ¼ yd bundles of cut wool, probably in a #5 or #6. It will be what it is, off the rack purchasing; whatever is there is what is available. We will get on this as soon as humanly possible. Once it is available I will post it on the website and on Facebook.
And I would like to add, our customers get fabulous service at our shop and you receive free advice where others insist you pay. A customer emailed me the other day and said she took a beginning class with a teacher and when asked if she would help her colour plan her pillow rug the teacher refused because she had purchased the wool from me. Maybe if my wool was crap I could understand it but its top of the line. We colour plan a customer’s rug with whatever wool you bring in, for free and with a smile.
Our customers have a free website to peruse, where others have an annual fee, we offer many products to choose from and go out of our way to offer a premium product and offer excellent service. I think we go above and beyond. You may not like me, and there are those who don’t, but no one can say that we sell crap product or offer crappy service. I say this because that woman phoned this morning before I got to work wondering why her cut wool hadn’t arrived in the mail. Started in on Shane again with the same lament about our lousy service, how she spent $1000 in the shop, up from $600 in the last lament. Growing in increments like a fish story.
She called back when I arrived and lit into me immediately about Shane and his attitude, how he was rude to her and I’m sorry, that was the last straw. I had to holler because she was loud but I managed to ask her “What about my insisting twice that we don’t cut wool didn’t she understand? She said that it was my job to serve the customer, who is always right. I told her that I was not impressed that she made a scene for the workshop students to overhear. She said she was always nice, that Shane was lying. Well we have witnesses to the contrary.
I pointed out that she demanded twice that Shane hand over my phone number so she could call me so I would leave my sick dogs to come into the shop to cut her wool. She just turned on Shane again, said she never said that and how rude he was to her. Repeats and more repeats, just louder each time.
Then she started in with all the money she spends in my shop and I told her that the way she says it, it sounds like blackmail. I wish I’d said she got superior quality merchandise for her money but didn’t think of it then. She told me once again how lousy our service was. How everyone at rug school in May told her I was difficult to deal and now she knows they were right.
I asked her why she expected me to cut the wool and mail it to her at our expense. That was when she screamed again "the customer was always right" and barked more about what a rotten so and so I am, told me she would never enter my store again and smashed the phone down on my ear. I’m not bothered one way or another, I think I could afford to lose this customer; I don’t think doing a back flip could please this one. We bend over far enough; any farther and I’d blow out a hip.
I would imagine she will come by tomorrow for her bag of wool; hopefully she doesn’t go off on in front of a store full of customers. And if she does she won’t get a rise out of me. I’ll not give her the power of ruining my day or sinking to her level. There is no reasoning with her at all. I’m impressed the confrontation didn’t bother me, I’m either growing stronger or I cried so much over my pups there’s nothing left! My first full day back to work and I had to deal with this.....I hope this isn’t an indication of how the rest of October will be, I was hoping my discontent had ended.......
Update: Saturday the woman comes in with her husband in front of her, like a shield. I saw her peek out from behind him and I did a deep inhale.
I’m still wondering if it really happened. It was so asinine, so utterly ridiculous considering the previous 2 passive aggressive and then the 3 bad encounters with her. The woman opened her mouth and said. “Hi Christine, I love you!”
It took a few seconds to register and I paused ever so slightly before emerging from behind the work desk. As I walked towards them memories washed over me. Every time my first husband hit, kicked, or called me horrible names, the following day he would attempt to erase my hurt with proclamations of “I love you.” No matter what he did, he fully expecting to be forgiven and smiled at. The doctors called him a Sociopath.
So now I had a choice. I could rise out of ashes of this experience, be the better person, smile and hand her wool over without malevolence....or I could position myself so that she would never insult my shop, my person and my son again. I did a quick tally of everything she’d said and done and came to the conclusion that there would be more of the same. A person stocking that kind of attitude has more inventory piled in storage. I decided this was one customer that I couldn’t afford to have, we would always be waiting for the next eruption if everything didn’t go her way. I’m too busy to be tiptoeing on eggshells or dealing with senseless drama.
I walked past them, retrieved her bag of wool behind the sales counter, turned and handed it to her without a smile or a frown, just a flat lined pursed lip. She took the wool and looked at me without speaking. I turned and walked away from her letting my back convey what I was thinking. I heard her mutter something to her husband. There was nothing left to say. I may not have been the bigger person but I did what was right for me. I can’t be someone’s punching bag, not any more. If I’d wanted to be in an abusive relationship, I would still be married to the heel.
On our first meeting she told me, “If you want a man to treat you right, marry one with a handicap. She said her first husband was a quadriplegic and the current one is legally blind. I thought it a strange comment. My husband treats me like a queen and he’s not handicapped, except maybe when he’s racing sailboats. Hmmm....seeking out men that can’t run away from you.....
And lady, in your own words, if our shop is so lousy on service, if I’m so hard to deal with, why would you come in, smile and say you love me? It’s a contradiction; you can’t have it both ways. We’re either lousy or we’re not. Pick one and stick to it!
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