So yesterday I went into the SAS at 1111 E Indian School Road, It was my first time in any of the SAS stores; I don't live in AZ, but I pass through this area and spend time here pretty often. I came in about 20 minutes before closing and moved through the whole store to check out what they had.
I eventually found a big bin (cardboard boxes) that was full of remnants of some great stretch lace. It was marked "$3.99" and "108 inch". I found 3 pieces that I liked and made my way up to the cut table areas. A younger girl who looked like a wannabe Betty Page with glasses eventually called me to her table. Just to be helpful and make sure she knew where the remnants came from, I said to her, "They're from the 108 inch bin." There are a lot of bins and a lot of fabric in the place.
Ignoring what I said, she turned the fabric length-wise and started to measure it the wrong way, 90 degrees from where she was supposed to. I politely said, " I think you're going the wrong way, it's 108 inch wide fabric. Since the remnant was actually only a yard long, the way she was measuring was going to make my total come out to three times the price that it was supposed to be. And since the other two remnants were about a yard and a half each, I was looking at being charged over $50 for $16 worth of fabric. Insufferable!
She picked the fabric up and held it out in front of her looking at what was clearly a cut edge, and said, "This is the selvage", and then went back to measuring it the wrong way again. She could have just moved her hands and eyes to what she was calling the end of the fabric and found the real and actual selvage in person, but somehow she did not dally there. She measured it out and came out with about 3 yards (yes, thats right, 108 inches) but still did not appear to make the connection.
Now, at this point I realized what was happening, she was cordially inviting me to a quick round of "Stupid or Liar". Anyone who knows the first thing about fabric knows the difference between a cut edge and a selvage; particularly someone who WORKS AT A FABRIC STORE. I guess it is possible that I happened to catch her on the first day of her cut table career, or maybe she had just wandered in off the street and no one had yet noticed that she had snuck behind the counter, but this seems unlikely.
Thus I can conservatively estimate the likelihood that she was lying to me was approximately 99.99% (with .0003% +/- margin of error).
The question is, why?
Does she want to inflate the price because she gets a fat commission, or because she is actually the owner of the store? These both seem very unlikely.
I can only surmise that she derives sheer pleasure from ripping someone off, even though there is no financial gain for her.
Perhaps she thought I was an easy mark because I am male, and not the more typical (or stereotypical) flaming male who would know a lot about fabric.
Maybe she is motivated by revenge on men because she recently took her car in to the shop, and the mechanic told her that the "number 6 transaxle injector stabilizer" needs replacing immediately and it will be $900 up front . She feels violated by a man who had her over a barrel due to her ignorance and now she wants to do the same to someone else. Who knows.
As it was late, the store was closing, and I was tired, I simply said to her, "Yeah that's OK" and walked out leaving the fabric on her table. And moreover, I'm not the kind of person who will go round and round with someone trying to tell them something that they should know already, I had already told her twice and that was probably one times too many; and she was in effect calling me a liar. If it's not a noticeable loss to do so, I think it's best to just step away from people like this instead of giving them some kind of weird fulfillment or satisfaction.
As I said before, this was the first time I went into an SAS fabric shop and I did not deal with any other employees, so I only have this young woman to base my review on. As for the rest of the store, I liked it a lot, which is the reason for the three stars; they had a great selection of just about any kind of fabric you could want, and lots of bins full of knick-knacks, zippers, D-rings, thread, etc, etc. And the prices were good and cheap. I'm used to California stores like this where you pay through the nose for everything.
In the future I will go back and have a better experience, I trust. read more