Lorraine Fabrics began its life in the late 1800s as Lorraine Manufacturing Co. At that time the business, which was started by Frederic Clark Sayles and his brother William, was a fine-quality wool manufacturer, with a small retail component.
By 1953, the manufacturing portion of the business had been sold and moved south, but the retail store is still going strong.
“This is an institution,” said owner Dave Taylor. “Not just in Rhode Island but in New England.”
Taylor, who has 42 years’ experience in the fabric business, bought the retail store in 1997 – from Linda Blazer, whose father had bought it in 1953 – with the intention of keeping that tradition alive.
At the time when he bought the store, he also owned a chain of nine fabric stores (eight in Connecticut and one in Massachusetts), Affordable Fabrics, which he had opened in 1969. But by the early 2000s, he had closed eight of the chain stores and had passed on the last one to his son and daughter-in-law.
“You can’t do two things at once,” he said of his decision, adding that he chose Lorraine over his chain because it was unique.
“There are almost no stores like this,” Taylor said. “There are only about nine or 10 others in the whole country.”
But that doesn’t mean that keeping the business successful has been easy, especially in a time when people simply don’t sew as much as they used to and the typical consumer demand is down.
“Whenever I meet people, they say, ‘Oh, my grandmother goes there, or my mother goes there’ – no one ever says ‘my wife or daughter goes there,’ ” he said. “The old-fashioned sewing business is gone, and you just have to live with it and work harder.”
Taylor said the old stores are closing because it simply doesn’t make sense to stay open in many cases.
“The value of the real estate usually exceeds the value of the business,” he said. “That’s what’s happened here, but I just like the business.”
An in a strange way, he said, the lack of demand has actually helped him.
“There is a decrease in demand, but there’s also less competition,” he said. “By being the last game in town, that’s how we stay in business.”
He mentioned how chains such as Wal-Mart are beginning to back out of the fabric business, while many old stores are closing and new fabric stores are almost nonexistent. He said he believes that, as the old stores close, there just aren’t entrepreneurs out there with the desire to open such an inventory-intensive business.
“I couldn’t afford to open this store today,” Taylor said. “We have – at cost – more than $1 million in fabric. I enjoy having the fabric and I like having the business, but if you had $1 million, would you buy fabric?”
It isn’t just the lack of competition that has bolstered Lorraine Fabrics, however, As the traditional consumer demand has died off, Taylor has increased his commercial accounts. He now gets business from Rhode Island School of Design students, the theaters and local restaurants, offsetting the business he has lost in other areas.
“I’m positive that demand in those areas will stay consistent,” he said. “We lost it in one area but picked it up in another.”
Through it all, Taylor has worked hard to keep Lorraine Fabrics true to what it is known for: variety and good prices. “We have very low prices, and I’m proud of that and work hard for that,” he said.
But what truly makes the store special is the variety. With its 21,000 square feet of retail space (including a 9,000-square-foot section where everything is $1.99) plus another 18,000 square feet of back stock, any store would be hard-pressed to beat Lorraine Fabrics’ selection.
“We have thousands of SKUs. Is it 20,000 or 30,000, I don’t know, but it’s thousands and thousands,” Taylor said.
And that selection doesn’t end with fabric, he noted. “People will call and ask if we have buttons, and I tell them we have 6,000 different types of buttons.”
Keeping that level of selection at low prices is no easy feat, Taylor said, but he loves the challenge and plans to continue to do it as long as he physically can.
“If it was easy, everyone would do it, and we wouldn’t make any money.”
Company Profile: Lorraine Fabrics
OWNER: Dave Taylor
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Fabric retail store
LOCATION: 593 Mineral Spring Ave., Pawtucket
EMPLOYEES: 7, not including owner
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1888
ANNUAL SALES: About $1 million
