Joann Fabric Closing - How Will it Affect You and Yours

[BHopkins]

My wife just shared an article with me, where the owners of Joann Fabric and Crafts is closing all their stores in the U.S.

My wife makes a few blankets each year, and by far, Joann is her go-to source for her fabrics and sewing supplies. There are three other nearby stores that sell fabrics, a Hobby Lobby and two independent fabric stores. But none of these have the selection, that always drew my wife to the Joann store. I think another thing that attracted my wife to Joann for her fabrics, was she could almost always find a sale or coupon, saving her money.

I'm sure my wife will adapt, and start shopping at one of the other fabric stores. But for now, having all Joann stores close, seems like a hard thing for many in our area.

Do any of you have anyone in your household, that will be impacted by the closing of all Joann stores?

 

[dogememe]

In all honesty, I have never set foot in one.

Bummer they’re closing but I’m also not particularly surprised.

 

[MNgopher]

Joann was my wife and kids primary source of fabric and yarn for their projects. Neither Michaels or Hobby Lobby has the same selection or products of combination of price and quality that they would like. All are frustrated but note that the Joann stores were rapidly going downhill over the past year plus...

 

[opus1]

Joann was my wife and kids primary source of fabric and yarn for their projects. Neither Michaels or Hobby Lobby has the same selection or products of combination of price and quality that they would like. All are frustrated but note that the Joann stores were rapidly going downhill over the past year plus...

^This. Went into one before Christmas to try to find some plastic sheeting to go over a table cloth and it looked like the place was already shutting down.

 

[PF52]

I've purchased headliner material from them, for a couple of cars. Other than that, I've never been in one.

 

[DriveHard]

my mom is a quilter, and will be sad to see it go...

 

[CorvairGeek]

Headliner and upholstery supplies. I keep cars way too long.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Once again, the boomers, are disappearing. They are the ones with the old time skills. Also, most of those fabrics are made in Asia, mostly in China. With the T word, there’s nothing to look forward to about future pricing.

Also, creative hobby stores went the corporate route when the first boomer hit 65. That was about in 2010. By 2023, half front end boomers have passed away, and each subsequent year they are disappearing and not being replaced in numbers by the subsequent generations. Not at least in dress making and quilt making.

 

[MrGraybeard]

My wife didn't have a lot of good things to say about the quality of the fabrics they carried. Maybe other stores did better than our local one.

 

[vwmaniaman]

My wife loves to shop there. Maybe fabric manufacturing will come back to US and they'll open up again.

 

[chainblu]

My wife likes going there, but the closest one is almost an hour away, so she didn't go often.

 

[samven]

I use to go in once in a while, they were the only ones that had a high density foam for cushions and a marine grade vinyl, but the selection was getting very thin the last time and I had to go to the web.

 

[Kira]

I just returned with one yard of black, solar resistant polypropylene fabric for my A-pillars.
Having some quality "black out" fabric in reserve is not a bad idea. It's useful.
FYI: You see it in use all the time at car shows to mask interiors and items in trunks.

I never thought to ask a JOANN employee about headliner material.

The employees at the store I went to hadn't been given a final closing date. I was told, "how the sale goes" was a factor.
I wouldn't be surprised if a few remain open for retail AND online ordering processing.
They could end up like the leather findings stores (I forget the name) once operated by Tandy

 

[dnewton3]

My wife worked/managed a store when we were young and engaged. It's typical retail life.

The industry it serves is dying. Mom's don't teach daughters how to sew, quilt, etcetera, because there's very little interest in those skills in current generations. Why learn to sew when you can order an item online and have it the next day?

 

[rijndael]

No impact.

All of my daughters can knit, they can actually dye yarn too. None of them took to sewing.

 

[walterjay]

Wife and sister are quilters. They are both saddened to see it go. It will affect them both.

Wife told me there is a resurgence of people becoming engaged in the art.

 

[Oliveoil2]

Life moves on and keeps changing. I never understood how they made money having huge locations for needle and thread DYI?

 

[4WD]

Making things from fabrics was a generation back in my family

 

[svtrit]

My daughter, who is trying to save for her half of the college bill, started working there 2 months ago. They don’t have a timeline yet for closure.

 

[AutoMechanic]

It won’t affect me much but grandma gets most of her quilting supplies there. Her name is Joanne as well lol. I hope she is still able to get plenty of supplies to make quilts with. I’m not sure how much longer she can make them because her arthritis is catching up to her but hopefully she can for a bit. Sad to see the store go but I never really went there. I’m sad about Big Lots too.

Now Hobby Lobby I love that store so hopefully they are here to stay.