Business Data & Benchmarks · United States
Fabric and Sewing Supply Store Revenue Benchmark
A fabric and sewing supply store sells fabric by the yard, patterns, notions, yarn and quilting and needlework supplies, and often runs classes and sewing machine sales and service alongside. Cutting counters, deep inventory in many colors and a community of regular makers define a trade that lives on repeat visits.
Average Fabric Store Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census
The 2022 Economic Census counts every sewing, needlework and piece goods retailer with paid employees, from an independent quilt shop to a chain fabric store, and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of stores gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.
≈$1,116,000 /year
Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment
4,155
Employer establishments in the United States, 2022
as published $4.6 billion
Combined annual gross revenue of employer establishments, 2022
How this is calculated: about $4.6 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 4,155 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,116,000 per employer establishment.
Scope: Sewing, Needlework, and Piece Goods Retailers, NAICS 459130. The category covers retailers of fabric, sewing, needlework, quilting and knitting supplies. Craft supply stores are counted with toy and hobby stores, and clothing alterations are a service category. Classified separately in group 4591: 459110 Sporting Goods Retailers; 459120 Hobby, Toy, and Game Retailers; 459140 Musical Instrument and Supplies Retailers. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.
Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026
Five-Year Survival in the Retail Sector Sector-level
Federal data does not track survival for fabric and sewing supply stores specifically. The honest closest measure is the sector that contains them: Retail Trade (NAICS 44-45). Here is the most recent fully observed five-year cohort.
59.8 percent of Retail Trade establishments opened in the year ended March 2020 were still operating five years later. Five-year survival was similar across these two consecutive cohorts: 60.7 percent and 59.8 percent.
Read this as sector base rates, not as a promise for this specific trade. This continuation curve is a broader Retail Trade benchmark, not a survival series specific to fabric and sewing supply stores. The sector contains many business types with different economics, and survival for any one of them can sit above or below the curve. Fabric retail has been reshaped by online sellers and by the closure of large chains, and an independent shop's survival depends on its class program and its local community of makers.
Source US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Employment Dynamics, Table 7 · Scope Retail Trade sector, national · Observed through March 2025
Source and definition
Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data
Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Annual payroll share of receipts, United States | ≈14% |
Payroll share of receipts, Sewing, Needlework, and Piece Goods Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
Approximately 14.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share for retail that nonetheless sits above many goods categories, because cutting fabric to order and advising customers takes staff time at the counter.
Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish cost of goods, so nothing on this page shows what a store keeps after paying its fabric suppliers.
Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data
How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Paid employees per employer establishment | 8.8 |
| Employer establishments per firm | 1.29 |
Scale and ownership, Sewing, Needlework, and Piece Goods Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.
The average establishment employed about 8.8 people, and the industry averaged 1.3 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could staff a cutting counter, a register and a classroom.
These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.
Explore More on BusinessNES
Neighbouring benchmark pages built from the same verified data, plus BusinessNES guides on the same subject.
Data Source Notice
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.
Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis
Fabric and Sewing Supply Store: why inventory depth and community decide this trade.
Before you rely on this benchmark
- How deep must the inventory go? Fabric sells in many colors, prints and weights, and a bolt that does not sell through still occupies shelf space and cash. Inventory breadth per dollar of sales is unusually high in this trade, and markdowns on dated prints are a normal cost.
- Do classes and events drive the store? Quilting, garment and knitting classes bring makers in every week and sell the supplies each project needs, but they require space, teachers and scheduling. A shop with a strong class program behaves differently from a pure retailer.
- Are sewing machines part of the business? Machine sales, service and trade-ins bring large tickets and repeat visits, often under dealer agreements with machine brands. Whether a store carries machines changes its revenue mix and its staffing.
- Who competes online? Fabric and yarn sell online at scale, while feeling the cloth, matching colors and getting advice keep customers in a store. A store's mix of commodity and specialty goods decides how exposed it is to online pricing.
- Chain or independent? Chain fabric stores and independent quilt or yarn shops share this category with different buying terms, rents and product ranges. The establishments per firm figure shows both exist, and the average sits between them.
- How seasonal is the year? Holiday sewing, school projects and cold-weather crafting create peaks, and summer can be slow. An annual total flattens a calendar that a shop owner plans around.
Sources and Methodology
Revenue, establishment counts, payroll, employment and firm counts on this page come from the 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics, published by the US Census Bureau. Averages and shares are BusinessNES calculations from those published totals, and each one names the two figures it divides.
The Census counts employer establishments, meaning each store with paid staff. Craft supply stores are counted with toy and hobby stores, and an online fabric seller working alone is not counted.
The survival curve is a sector-level series from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and describes the whole Retail Trade sector, not this business type on its own.