That's the Way to Do It!

On Thursday I received the Green Planet Yarns newsletter that explained their new birthday discount. Since my birthday occured after the shop opened but before this new program, I had 2 weeks in which to come in and take advantage of the BD discount. So I carefully checked Ravelry to see what projects I had in my Queue that I did not have any yarn that would work.

On Tuesday, I went to Green Planet Yarns. When I walked into the store, I was greeted by a woman I hadn't met. Gosh I just realized that if she told me her name I don't remember it. I blame that on the fiber fumes. I have trouble focusing in yarn stores LOL.

I told the woman that I wanted an alpaca/silk blend in a DK weight. She reached into her pocket and pulled out sheet of paper. She looked at it for about 20 seconds and took me to an isle where she pointed out 3 or 4 yarns, all DK, all with alpaca. After I checked out those, one I picked up as a possible, she took me to another isle and pointed out 1 or 2 yarns there.

I found the yarn in the second isle. A wonderful soft yarn by Blue Sky called alpaca silk. It's not really gray, it's not really blue but silvery with a light light blue undertones like frozen water. Can you tell I fell in love with the stuff.

I told her I needed 1440 yards. She again reached into her magic pocket and whipped out a calculator and said I needed 10 skeins. We grabbed the skeins, checked the dye lots, and I was off to the counter. This took about 4 minutes. Then she told me it was her first day in the shop!!!!!!

I couldn't believe it. In any other shop the sales person would wander around with me pointing out yarns and reading balls bands and doing pretty much what I'd do if no one was helping me. Then we'd have to go to the counter to get a calculator.

Now I know most people don't come in with very specific requests like I did. And I'm not much of a shopper. Usually when I come into a store it's to get something and I love if I can do that and be on my way. OK I'm not typical.

But having the inventory on a sheet the sales people carry with them, which has all the info, weight, fiber, etc. Is brilliant! And having each sales person carry a calculator is such a DUH!

If that woman hadn't told me this was her first day, I never would have guessed. She was so very nice and helpful. I usually find the ladies in a yarn shop nice, but often they don't really know the inventory. But how could they. The inventroy changes all the time. And it not just knowing the brands of yarn but all the details of every yarn. But that's how every other shop I've been to works, they expect the sales people to memorize all the yarns, weights, and fiber. LOL

If you haven't gone into Green Planet Yarn, you MUST. I do have times I just wander around looking and touching. But if you have something specific you want, go there.