So I want to give Lightning a shot to avoid the crazy transaction fees, but would in still have to pay the same crazy transaction fees to open a channel in order to make a Lightning payment?

I get that it is only a one time thing, but how does that work exactly if I want to make a payment through Lightning to a different merchant.

For example...

I want to buy a hat from merchant A for 0.0001 btc. I head over to my Electrum Android mobile wallet and open a Lightning channel for the first time. What's the minimum amount of btc I should use to open this channel? I suppose the coat of the hat (0.0001 btc) + the mining fees...correct? If so, then at current mining fees of 0.0001088 btc, the transaction fees will be higher than the price of the hat. But let's say I go ahead and open the channel anyway, and I do so for 0.0002088 (0.0001 + 0.0001088). I then send 0.0001088 to merchant A.

1 month later, I want to purchase a bracelet from the same merchant, would I have to open another channel?

What if I wanted to purchase from a different merchant this time; merchant B? Do I have to open a new channel? What if had opened a channel for 0.0004 btc the first time with merchant A (which means I have a balance of 0.0001922), and the bracelet I now want to purchase from merchant B is for 0.0001922, would it be possible to make this purchase? No? Why not?

Appreciate clarity on this!