Stitching Post has been serving Ohio for over
50
years. Since 1958, we’ve worked hard to become the world’s largest sewing
machine retailer by always putting the customer first.
Fulmer (Stitching Post owner) has transformed
the business since buying it from his father in 1986. The company brought
in $200,000 in revenue, employed three people and operated out of a
2,000-square-foot store. Today, Fulmer runs 10 stores, in Dayton, Columbus
and beyond.
What
turned things around? Fulmer decided to do more than merely sell sewing
machines. He turned the business into a gathering place where customers can
learn and make new friends.
But selling
machines is not Fulmer's real stock-in-trade. He has created a
stitcher's oasis-a place where people with a common passion come to
socialize, to learn, to advise- and by the way, to buy. That's how
Fulmer grew his father's modest shop by building a
community of customers.
People used to sew their own clothes
to save money; the downtown sewing store was a mainstay of most communities.
Then clothing prices dropped, the big chains began carrying sewing
paraphernalia, and the mom- and-pops slowly failed. To survive, Fulmer knew
he had to woo a new breed of customer-affluent
needed more of them, and he needed to keep
them coming back. Women who
sew because it's relaxing and creative. The Stitching Post had always
attracted brand-conscious customers who were so dedicated to their craft
that they would spend several thousand dollars on a sewing machine.
