I'm A Scarf Knitter

Project 365 - Photo #16
Originally uploaded by Elabeth.

Those of you who have been following my Project 365 on Flickr have already seen this photo. It's the scarves from my coat closet that I forget to grab most of the time so they never see the light of day. I've never really thought of myself as a "scarf knitter", but I guess the evidence doesn't lie. haha
Lately I've just been working on things that aren't very fun to look at. Mostly a black stockinette top-down raglan which is past the shaping and into the looooong boring bodice part. Sometimes I work on socks, but they are boring stockinette too. I just don't have the attention span needed to work on the Summer In Kansas Shawl without losing my place, and really that is the only even slightly complicated thing I have in the UFO box right now.
I'm distracted. I've been working on a business plan for opening a yarn store. I know, probably every other knitter on the planet thinks about doing this from time to time, but I am pretty sure I can pull it off here. The main challenge will be drawing in new customers from the Hobby Lobby set.
See, there is NO LYS here. The closest one is about 50 miles away and people DO make the drive. I am not worried about getting those people to drop into my store since I plan to make sure my stock is almost completely different from the other store's and that the atmosphere in my store is more friendly/inviting. I'm hoping people will shop in both places because if they do, then maybe I can draw customers from that town as well.
But, like I said, I'm not too worried about getting those customers. It's the local craft store knitters I'm after. I want to convert them. I want to make sure I have nice things that come in at a price point they won't be afraid of...kind of gateway fibers to get them hooked and make them want to try better things.
So, what is your favorite cheaper but nice yarn? What was the first really nice yarn that you used back when you were a brand new knitter? What was the first yarn that made you buy it even though it cost maybe a little more than $5?
Oh, and if anyone knows where I can get market analysis data for fiber arts type stores in metro areas of around 120,000 or less please shoot me an email.