An interesting thing about Paris is that the fabric district of the city is more accessible than fabric stores in America. The fabric stores that are near my residence in Cleveland require access to a car because they’re 30 minutes from my house and the products are expensive for no particular reason. I have immense anxiety about driving and the only choices I have are Micheals or Joann fabrics anyway. In Paris it was very eye opening to how many fabrics and sewing notion stores there were. The first store I went to had four floors that had a variety of items that I could buy and showed the affordable fabrics section and the more expensive fabric selection was in the back of the floor. There was also an elevator for people who needed assistance getting to different floors and workers readily available to help customers. There is a huge selection of shops, so if I didn’t like one I could go to the next.
In my hometown, the Michaels and Joanns stores are short staffed and the isles are confusing and assistance is needed to find things in the stores. It’s very hard to get assistance when you need to find a certain fabric or sewing notion and the store is understaffed and full of customers. In the general area of the stores, the buildings are falling apart or are vacant waiting to be used due to the mall losing popularity and revenue. There also aren’t restaurants around, and is surrounded by fast food and hardware stores. This wouldn’t be a place to take my friends or to hang out in because the area looks dilapidated and unappealing to the eye. There are lessons to be learned by observing how transportation affects Europe and how it affects areas as densely populated as Paris. It’s also great for the community to have more opportunities to engage in hobbies instead of forcing them to choose between two stores, or to just shop online. It would also bring more revenue to the area if there were beautiful restaurants established in these areas or parks and places to congregate. This is why the fabric district of Paris was more appealing than what is in my local area of Ohio. The fabrics that I encountered in the store were more eye-catching and unique compared to the fabrics I usually see in America. I wish that American fabric shops provided more diverse and beautiful selections of fabrics for consumers.
