The bougie sewing machine

My aunt, about 8 months ago, decided to pick up sewing. She borrowed her mother’s sewing machine, which hadn’t been used in well over 20 years, and started experimenting. Over a short period of time she found herself struggling with the old machine, but absolutely taken with the craft itself. Over a couple of weeks she became more and more sure that this skill was something she wanted to pursue and grow in. So she started saving up to buy a nicer modern machine.

She shortly went to a local sewing shop that had existed for around 50 years. While small, it has a large loyal fan base mostly because of the people who work there. My aunt had gone there a few times to purchase fabrics and other sewing materials, so she had had some conversations with the few staff members who worked there. When she went to the shop, she had a specific sewing machine in mind, having done a lot of research into benefits, features, and expense. One of the ladies of the shop came over to my aunt and started talking with her about the sewing machine she wanted. They did have that sewing machine, but the woman was hesitant to let my aunt buy that model. She spent over an hour talking with my aunt about different features and benefits of models and spent a long time explaining to my aunt that she (my aunt) was learning sewing techniques at such a fast rate she would soon want to do projects that the machine she was intending to buy wouldn’t be able to handle. This sales lady took a long time explaining all the opportunities my aunt could pursue with a different, and significantly more expensive, model. After over an hour of conversation my aunt did by the more expensive model the sales women was “pushing” on her. To quote my aunt “She upsold me, but she was right; I am already making projects that the machine I intended to buy wouldn’t be able to do.”. In short, there are times when being upsold is a good thing; but you have to be careful and make sure you are really trying to address current pain and future struggles.