How close is your LSS if you have one you shop at?

There's a small craft store where I live, and the country's largest store is am hour away. There is no way I'm making that drive during the winter, but during the rest of the year, it is well worth the drive. 

I’m very lucky. I have 2 in under 20 min from me. I also work 10 min away from the Marker Pop warehouse. They allow customers to come and shop. Let’s just say my wallet wishes that they weren’t so close because it’s just too easy to get my hands on things.

There’s one about 15 minutes from me but they don’t carry much that I’d want. They usually have only 2-3 sheets from a collection and a lot of their paper is themed stuff. Also some of their items are 5+ years old and we are not talking sale bin here. There’s another LSS about 5 minutes further on that I haven’t been to yet. I’m so used to ordering online that I actually forget that other store is there. I really need to check it out.

I am fortunate enough to have a wonderful LSS/Stamping/Mixed Media store about 15 min away. There is another in the state that is just as good but about an hour away. I am seldom in that neighborhood, but make a point of stopping in when I am.

We have some big box stores, M's and HL, as close or closer, but I won't buy there. M's prices for main stream lines (e.g. Hero Arts, Ranger, Golden, Liquitex, etc.) are above MSRP and HL and I don't see eye to eye. Plus the big box stores sell mostly private label copies of the better brands. In the end, I find it's just not worth my time or energy to buy at the big box stores.

I will once in a great while order from an online retailer, but rarely. Often sales tax vs shipping are the same. So I only order online when it's something I can't get from my local store.

BTW, my local store will special order. She also takes phone order and ships. She also has a loyalty program and weekly deals. PM me if you want the name.

The LSS closest to me closed this year. They focused mostly on rubber stamping and Tim Holtz and Graphic 45-style products (which is great, but didn’t have much to offer a clean and simple scrapper like me), and didn’t get in new product very often. I never saw any American Crafts brands there (except older WRMK), and always made a point to ask if they were getting any in.

I make a trip to a wonderful LSS about an hour and a half away each year for my birthday, and sometimes am able to visit it one other time during the year.

I have an LSs about 40 minutes away but I won't shop there since last year. I was eyeing everything in the store (and it's an extremely small store, and no place to hide) and I had my big purse that day. I like to look at every single item because I'm addicted. I spent well over a hundred dollars that but she INSISTED I leave my purse with her as I started building a stack of stuff to buy. Like I was going to steal. Of course I had so much stuff, I didn't want to put it back so I paid and never went back. She had rubbed me the wrong way a few times but that one was the final nail in the coffin.

I shop at citrus twist and paper issues online and it is so worth it because both of those owners go the extra mile to keep their customers happy. <3

Oh how I wish everyone had added where these stores of scrappy goodness were located. I'm always up for a road trip.

I live in Evansville, Indiana and up to 3-4 years ago we had still had 3 LSS. Two have closed and the one remaining is for sale. All of those stores are/were withing 15-20 minutes of where I live. There is one in Newburgh, IN about 30 minutes away, but I have not been to it. There is also one in Princeton, IN that is about 45 minutes away, but I haven't been to it either (not wheelchair accessible).

The out of town LSS I go to the most are The Doodlebug in Jasper, IN about an hour away, The Scrapbook Factory in O'Fallon, IL about 3 hours away, and Daisy Lane in Mattoon, IL also about 3 hours away. Going to The Doodlebug tomorrow (after going to Santa Claus to mail Christmas cards). I usually go to The Scrapbook Factory twice a year - once in April during CKC - St. Louis and sometime in the fall. It's been a few years since I've been to Daisy Lane.