Where we live, it's all about trying to support our local businesses. I'm sure that sales from the internet are a great way to supplement income, but a lot of our local business rely on local business for most of their income.

A store like yours is exactly where I'd prefer to shop! I, too, enjoy looking at my pottery barn catalog, and also get many ideas from it, but have purchased very few pb items. I would MUCH rather have a unique item in our home.

I think you are on the right track, I do much more shopping in antique stores, one-of-a-kind shops, etc. than catalogs. I also also prefer those type shops over Kirlands, Hobby-Lobby, etc., not to say I never buy from those places, but they do not attract me like a privately owned shop (meaning a shop like yours).

tina

Darn, tinam61 and lukkiirish, I wish you were here! I think my area still feels it's cool to shop out of town (in a larger city).

I never catalog shop but I do internet price shop.

An example is I just bought a mirrored buffet from ZGallerie that I saw on Sarah Richardson's site. We tried to buy it locally but would have paid more for it. Some of the sites such as ZGallerie can offer lower prices since they sell volume and delivery is free. We would have had to pay for delivery also, if we bought locally.

I'm all for supporting our local businesses. We buy our rugs, custom drapes, and basically any custom work locally. We use all local craftsmen.

We try to support our local businesses, but when I can't find what I want or need locally, or if it's a much better price (note much) on the internet, then I have to go where my pocketbook leads me. For home decor items, I like to see, feel and touch the items IRL, so local is my preference. Plus it's much nicer to actually have a conversation with a sales peson or owner when looking for a specific item. I find that many times I think I'm looking for a specific color or type/style item but it ends up as something different after having a "meeting of the minds" when shopping at a local business. Personal shopping is another reason we choose local over internet, unless circumstances dictate otherwise.

I prefer the smaller shops as they have more distinctive, unusual things. We live in northern VA, so I love to hit our local Old Town Alexandria shops and other spots around here. I think it helps our small places that we are a tourist destination, so they also get that traffic. I also think it helps to have a website for your shop. Where are you Sally? Is the MO in your user name for Missouri?

"Do you think people really enjoy shopping locally (do they care about their local economy) or enjoy catalog shopping more?"

This could be taken as a rather insulting statement, you know, equating not enjoying shopping in local stores with not caring about one's local economy. Some of us really just hate the whole trekking-through-stores rigmarole and don't find shopping at all enjoyable, but that doesn't mean we "don't care about the local economy". It just may well mean that battling traffic and parking, fitting one's day around when those particular shops are open, schlepping through stores (that may or may not have what you want, and calling ahead is not always useful), dealing with salespeople (which can be a nightmare all on its own) is very low on one's list of pleasant things to do or an ineffective use of their time.

I'm not much of a shopper, but when I do need something that requires me to go into a store I prefer to shop locally. We have two awesome stores in my area that seem to cover most of my needs. A home Decor/Garden/Misc. place and a kitchen store that is kind of like a chef's catalog.

However, I don't have time to go shopping between work and commuting and an 18 month old whom gets all my free time, so I tend to shop online a lot. I can do that when my daughter is napping or asleep for the night or before she's up in the morning. Unfortunately the hours of these two local stores doesn't always work well for me either. During the week they close before I get back to the area after work so no stopping on my way in so often it means I'll just order it as I don't want to wait only to go there and find that I can't get what I needed/wanted.

I'm also not much of a shopper so don't really enjoy the shopping part that much. I do like browsing the two stores locally if I have some time because of all the cool stuff they have, but it rarely happens. When I do get the chance I generally end up buying something.

In the town I live in there aren't any nice little home decor shops of my style. Alas homeownership in the direct town that I live in is far outweighed by the high volume of rentals and of the rentals it's a general statistic that 90% are Section 8. There are places to shop but they tend to run either Mexican or African American style tchokchis, neither of which are my decorating style. The decor section of those places can usually be found next to the grocery aisle and cell phone aisle.

When I get a chance I'll try to hit Larry's but since the kids it's been a few yrs. Parking is a PIA and if you have a pulse you get hooted and hollered at children in tow or not.

Unfortunately the mega malls w/in a 10 min. drive in 2 seperate directions have sucked the life out of any Main St. store.

Then there are 3 Home Goods, 2 TJ Maxx, 1 Ross (I never shop there), and 2 Marshalls anywhere from a 5 to 20 minute drive from me. I do shop at some of them and here's why:

I know that there is such high merchandise turnover rate that not everyone in the world will have what I may buy. Time - I can breeze in and breeze out. I don't have to talk to anyone if I'm just looking and isn't that sad on my part? But sometimes I'm just despperately looking for some peace and quiet and I don't want to have to converse about anything. When I go into a small shop I feel, well, I don't know how to put it. I don't want the staff (who are always very friendly) to think that I'm not being social. When in fact I'm NOT being social but for reasons completely unrelated to what I think they're thinking. Anyone following me? And I don't want anyone to feel that way becuase of me.

That leads me to time. There just isn't any! And unfortunately if I do find anytime I end up going to the Mall becuase I know exaclty where everything is and there is no hassel parking. I'm in and I'm out. I'm never there to look as I've already sourced it out on-line or via catalog and have then called the store to verify that it is there for me to see first before purchasing it at the store. I've never bought via a catalog or store website.

Now that leads me to the tiny little town that I work in. Great little shops of all kinds, parking is readily available if I drive from my house and once you park you can walk to every store. The stores are w/in walking distance of my job and it's a great way to spend a few hours w/ my kids should I want to bring them along.

Unfortunately it can be a 1/2 hour drive from my house and I don't want to drive all of the way back when I was just working there the prior day. I don't shop on my lunch break but I like to look a lot. The down side to living 1/2 an hour away is 'Out of sight, out of mind'. If it's something that I really can't stop thinking about and I manage to save enough money then I'll walk up on my lunch break or I'll call the store, ask them to hold an item if they still have it and ask DH to stop on his way home from work.

I used to spend a lot of time looking on my lunch breaks but not so much anymore. Just can't really afford to buy and there's one store (that I love) where she's gotten kind of snotty w/ me when all I'm doing is looking so that I never forget her store and how amazing it is becuase SOMEDAY I'm going to be able to afford some pewter stemmed wine glasses and that fantastic buffet/ hutch painted in the glorious cream and taupe milk paint.

So that's my long winded story.

I've never bought anything from a box store directly on-line or via their catalog, but I have off of E-bay or their outlet store. Again - I don't walk in w/o knowing that they have a specific item.

Never shop in my hometown except for 2 thrift stores and only on rare occassion.

I tend to buy the neat things from 'local to my work' stores IF I remember that they had something I really fell hard for and save up.

Ugh - I just made a long post and it vanished. In a nutshell, I live in a small town and like to shop locally. But, sometimes I prefer the anonymity of shopping on the internet or in a large chain store. In some small stores around here, people think "just browsing" means follow me around and comment on everything I look at. Or, stare at me while I'm browsing. Sometimes I am just not in the mood.

Little home shops all the way..if they don't carry what I need, I just wait for it to show up in a garage sale or the thrift store :^)
Hugs to you Sallymo!!

Thanks for your views of shopping vs browsing, too. It has given me some reason to think twice about engaging in conversation with a customer. I know sometimes when I'm just out shopping (I actually used to browse more, didn't really need to buy anything specific), I can get into a zone and I, too, just want a quiet afternoon. I should not always talk about the weather.

I know time has a lot to do with going into a store, too. I remember not going anywhere but a Walmart (can't believe I have to admit) with a toddler and baby just because it was one stop and I could get almost everything and they could eat at the McDonalds that was inside!

I don't follow customers, but if they look at something very long, I do try to tell them a little more about it and very often people are glad because they didn't realize exactly what it could be used for. We also carry some unique jewelry from several women that make it from home and we like to support them, and we just appreciate their work for many reasons. Therefore, I like to talk a little about how they design their jewelry, and give a more detail into why we even chose it. But that's not to every person in the store, just ones that seem to take an interest.

I did not mean to imply that not shopping local meant you didn't care, I should have put that into two sentences. I realize many people don't care for the personal interactions you get in a smaller store, and that's what I was interested in learning. I was afraid the majority found it easier to shop from catalogs, online, or in a one stop shop (just for ease). My hope was there would still be a good number saying they liked to look in their smaller, locally owned stores too, and it sounds like many still do enjoy that.
Hey there jaybird, good to "see" you!!

And yes cyn427, I'm in MO (Sally was my late dog's name!).

I really dislike shopping in person. The whole deal with crowds, parking, looking and maybe finding or not finding, driving somewhere else. I do as little shopping in person as possible. I do a LOT of shopping on the internet. It's great....I can find exactly what I want and it's delivered to my doorstep.

My heart goes out to anyone attempting to make a living with a boutique that caters to regular folks. It must be difficult to find unique items that aren't found often at HomeGoods, etc. And even unique items must be priced with those competitors in mind. Example: I found a cute wrought iron-ish apron hanger at a shop like yours, but felt it was priced a bit too high, and guessed I would find something similar at Marshall's, etc, in due time.Aha! There is another rub: Boutiques are stocked with whimsical wants, not needs. Sure enough, the exact same item came into a HG store a few weeks later at a price I found reasonable( for my use/need). It was $10 less. Were I you, I would become very, very aware of all that the HG's have to offer, and the prices. Then, when at market I'd be able to hunt out special items unavailable at the Big Stores.
There is a local shop I love. She has quite the eye for the gorgeous and unusual, but not too pricey. I love to shop there for items I seldom see elsewhere: unusual baskets, trays, vases, door knobs,etc. I feel the mark-up can be somewhat unrealistic, but buy anyway because I can't find it elsewhere. I also prefer nice antique/consignment shops to HG, etc. And as outgoing and friendly as I am, ditto about all that TTODD said, especially about my time being valuable: do not chat with me while I peruse the shop unless I instigate it.
I love small shops and wish you all the best!

My thoughts: I like to shop at local stores. I prefer to see things in person before I buy. Too many stores though, at least in my area, don't have interesting things or else specialize in a style that doesn't interest me. Or they mix hand crafted with mass produced. Drives me crazy when I'm looking at what I think is an attractive handmade piece in a store that advertises "unique" items then turn it over and find a "made in somewhere" label. Another thing that annoys me: candles seem to be everywhere. If you have found a local producer of bee's wax candles by all means showcase them. Otherwise, get rid of the candles.

I don't think a shop can compete with the internet unless they offer something really different.

Would someone please open a table linens store near me? Where I know I can always find 70 inch wide tablecloths and 20 inch square napkins in natural fabrics in styles from formal to funky. Not a good business plan I suppose but it would make me happy. lol

Until the massive and wonderful stores hit the Internet, I always shopped locally.

We always use the appliance store here even though I know we pay more when we could just drive 30 min. to the City and get it cheaper.

The local stores here besides a couple of antique stores are mostly the run of the mill Flower shops with a bunch of over-priced knick knacks. I can find the same things online at better prices, because overhead is very expensive in small towns.

I will never buy furniture, rugs or appliances online though.

Now that I've gotten older, I really hate to shop. I will only go into a Mall once a year. lol. I do like going to stores like Hobby Lobby when I know they have some things I need. My dh likes the store too.

I do care about our local economy, but small towns really don't offer too much. And I've been really happy with all of my online shopping. I live in the country so it's saved a boatload on gas and my time.

Do you mix used items with new in your store? I think that is a good idea. Find second hand items that can be priced lower and mix with newer stuff--a little for everyone. Some people only buy new, some only used and some like a mix.

We look locally and shop elsewhere if it cannot be found.

Hope things improve!