Today I went to the annual Sewing for Pleasure show at the NEC, Birmingham, UK. I like many from the UK was interested to see what the Sweet Pea machine embroidery stall was like. Sweet Pea have just set up a base in the UK. The stall looked vibrant, as it was just half an hour into the second day of being open I was somewhat surprise to find that the stabiliser I wanted was sold out and a casual 'oh its available on the website' reply. Yes it is on the website but at a higher price. I then was charged £18 for the length of gold zipper and not the correct price of £9. I did get my money back. Will I buy fabric etc from them again? To be honest I am not sure.

Glad the show was a success...but sad that Sweet Pea didn't "deliver" a great experience...I have been to hundreds of shows over the past decades and it is literally impossible for vendors to predict how popular or unpopular each of their items will be...That said, at all that I have attended, if a vendor has run out of stock, I have always been offered a mail shipment, prepaid, for the item(s) I can't purchase because they are out of stock at the show...I pay for the things I want, the vendor ships them to me prepaid, and all are satisfied... Sorry this was not offered by Sweet Pea...and a bit disappointing as well. I would send an e-mail through their website and explain what happened. I would think they would send you what you could not get, prepaid, and honor the show special...that's what I would do to give the owner a chance to make right of your situation.

I'm so glad you had a wonderful day with your friend. What a shame the folks running the booth underestimated how popular their booth would be. Hopefully, they will be better prepared the next time.

I hope you still had a nice day with your girlfriend. It spoils my mood if you want to rip me off at a stall, you've lost me as a customer. Fortunately, there is Konkurenz on the one can evade. At my last fabric market visit I was cut 10 cm too little, which was then missing when cutting. . . now I pay attention exactly when cutting to the length and am an "annoying" but satisfied customer. Beautiful weekend , Maria

So glad you didn't let the price error, etc. spoil your day with a friend. Sounds like lots of inspiration.