Joann (Fabrics) Is Dead To Me

Michaels

There just isn't enough demand for these type of places to support multiple, nationwide chains. It is "sad", but Joann's should be sold to Hobby Lobby and Michaels.

There was a classic thread here about the guy who got thrown out of Joanne’s because he called the sewing instructor a cunt. EST but a good one.

So SAD! I remember the crochet and hook rug BUSTLE of the 1970s there.

Michaels sells fabric? Joann's always had a lot of different fabrics, Michaels is more of a general arts & crafts store.

Where will people who sew get fabric? Not everyone can make a run to Mood in NYC

Yes they sell fabric but not a wide variety.

Terrible customer service, tacky fabrics (mostly for quilting), bait and switch “coupons”… good riddance.

What is a bait and switch coupon?

Joann's used to carry some good fabrics. For a while they carried some nice upholstery fabrics and I stocked up.

It’s restructuring, not going out of business.

[quote]Where will people who sew get fabric? Not everyone can make a run to Mood in NYC

...or L.A.

Joanne’s really is an enormous store footprint for quite a bit of shit. They really don’t need to be that big.

No great loss. Joann is a whore’s name anyway.

My mom could spend hours in that store and always dragged me along when I was young . Every single one of them could burn to the ground and I would not care.

[quote]What is a bait and switch coupon?

For example, 50% off one item, but the catch is that items “on sale” do not qualify for the coupon. So the most popular and expensive items were always “on sale” (in other words, marked up and then marked down) or completely excluded in the fine print. Other retailers do this, but Joann’s was the worst, in my experience.

Yes, r16...see CVS.

Aren't Michael's and Joann's owned by the same company? It's strange that they offer almost the same items, except that Michael's does not have fabric. I prefer Michael's now that they have self check out.

There are many online fabric stores, including a great selection on etsy, with better prices than Mood. And decent customer service.

Thank you for that explanation.

No Joan’s is not owned by Michaels

That would be stupid

I remember that R15. The boredom.

Michaels is actually a good store for student artists because they have a big selection of student and pro grade supplies. They’re also less restrictive with their coupons, so you can get some good deals. Joann’s art supplies are more geared towards kids and grandmas who like to bedazzle.

just about impossible to buy fabric online. One needs to feel the quality and needs to see it in person as the internet can enhance the looks of it. Sometimes you need to see how it will drape which you can't do online. I have yards of fabric I got from Joann's years ago. It looks and feels like suede. Makes great purses, etc. but I would never buy that kind of fabric online.

Do any older D-listers remember being drug to Joanne's (or its ilk) by your Mother who would spend HOURS pouring over clothes patterns and fabrics selection? Of all the shopping we had to accompany our Mother on, Joanne's was the most painful.

I used to buy things like Halloween decor/lights and Christmas lights dirt cheap after the holidays. Also things like under bed rolling storage boxes, shelving, Nobody puts that stuff on sale anymore. Things cost 15x what they used to cost.

I made some decent money from Michael’s stock in 1990s. At the time people were doing a lot of home improvements so there were as many men in the store as women buying things like tape measures, levelers, stud finders, shelves, paint, brushes, removers, scrapers, etc. As Home Depot and Lowe’s expanded, Michaels carried fewer and fewer home improvement items.

Now I’ll never finish knitting my Christmas sweater!

Thank s drag queens

I was at my local Jo-Ann just last week and noticed a lot of empty shelves and the lighting seemed dim. It had the sad appearance of a store about to be closed before they make the official announcement. I thought their fabric was overpriced anyway, and a lot of it was mostly cheap looking fleece. What in the hell people do with fleece, I'll never know. As for the coupons, if you didn't use them regularly or at least get your flyer scanned, they'd drop you from the mailing list fairly quickly.

My mom frequented a big city quality very "old world" fabric shop that was in a barn next to a mansion. It was the mistress of the manor's little project that ended up lasting a few generations. They had amazing old stock, like you used to see in those fabric and notions shops on streets below 40th Street in NYC. So by the time I was 10 I spent much more time there than my mom. I was fingering all the laces, silks, taffetas, velvets and fancy trims. I still have some yards of paste jeweled trims and French ribbons, 50 years later, as a souvenir.

I was in there years ago with my eleven year old spitfire daughter , who wanted a sewing machine. God knows why.

So I get her this machine . Then we get some fabric . I say ok we have to get a pattern. My then wife ( many years ago) had told me this is what they did in sewing class.

My daughter pitched a fit “ Nobody is gonna tell me how I should sew anything .” At the top of her lungs . The little old ladies were quite in shock and kept trying to convince her otherwise .

So we left . Did I still buy the sewing machine ? Yes I’m an idiot . She never used it

Fuck you, Beverly, you BITCH!

It's not at all nearly impossible to buy fabric online. Obviously it's preferable to touch it on the bolt, but when all the fabric stores shut down in your city just as your design business is growing, you have no choice but to order online sample swatches and take leaps of faith to make it work. Fabric technology has grown so much in the past 20 years; ultrasuede for example is a different animal by now. Anyway, Joanne's was always the bottom of the barrel with the worst buyers and never a good source of anything. Good riddance.

I’m verklempt!

Joann!! We love you!! GET UP!!

[quote] Where will people who sew get fabric? Not everyone can make a run to Mood in NYC

Even Mood’s online selection is. Or what it was 3 years ago.

And I will never get over Fabric.com selling to Amazon and during down their site. It had the best search engine bar none.

^ is not what it was

[Quote] Good riddance

R33 I hate to be the bearer of bad news but they are not closing stores. They’re restructuring.

R31 An exercise in futility.

[Quote] Do any older D-listers remember being drug to Joanne's (or its ilk) by your Mother

D-list what?? D-list celebrity?! I’m not that or s D-list human being either.

[quote] I was fingering all the laces, silks, taffetas, velvets and fancy trims.

Then Mother would say "stop playing with the merchandise Hisstopher. We're not from common stock."

And then it was off to the doctor for the weekly enema.

Joann why can’t you be true?

Jesus H. Christ!! Is EVERY SINGLE brick and mortar business going to FAIL, so that the only way to obtain merchandise is from the Great God Bezos??!!

People are FAT WHORES too lazy to tear themselves away from their fucking screens long enough to LEAVE THEIR HOMES and GO OUT TO SHOP!! WTF!!!

R43 the stores, sans Joann’s, are still busy and occupied by every demo where I live.

It’s an old ladies store and they’ve been driving businesses into the ground because they’re so cheap.

Thank you for your dumbass opinion r45. You are in Joann’s demo

The idea of buying everything online scares me. In Australia, if a merchant sends you goods not as described, PayPal make you return them, but you don't get reimbursed for return shipping.

Joann, why you do me like this?

I honestly don't know how most retailers can survive Amazon and online retailers. I rarely shop at stores these days outside of groceries

Why stop at five or six stores, when you can shop at one!

They’re as messy as a Dollar General, and twice as stinky. And their prices have the nerve of a toothache! $98 for an electric iron? $9 per yard on non-branded fleece? How’s a Krafty Kween supposed to work with these prices?

R46 it’s not dumb, it’s the truth.

I work for a business (in management) that has a chain of stores and we have an old lady problem.

We eliminated samples because the old ladies would spend $5 and demand samples with their $5 purchase when the most they’d ever spend in the store at a time is $5. And then like half of them will return whatever $5 thing they bought in a few days.

Companies are already eliminating samples because young generations see products on TikTok and don’t care to try it before they buy it.

But anyways, yes. They drove Bed Bath & Beyond into the ground among other retail stores lol.

R52 Noncompetitive pricing and a lousy website killed BB&B. You can buy towels and dildo wax anywhere, and usually a lot cheaper than that store, even with their ever-evolving coupon nonsense.

[quote]just about impossible to buy fabric online. One needs to feel the quality

I have an erection

[quote]got thrown out of Joanne’s

OH DEAR.

[Quote] I was fingering all the laces, silks, taffetas, velvets and fancy trims.

Is that why today you have a fetish for ladies' underwear?

[Quote]You can buy towels and dildo wax anywhere.

Wait, you're supposed to wax your dildos?

Their customer service is awful.

At my local Joann, the fabric cutters are sullen, older women with a deathly pallor. I think it’s from long-term exposure to carcinogenic preservatives in the fabric.

I would have to think Hobby Lobby is taking over the low/mid-range fabric/crafts business these days. I won't shop in HL for obvious reasons, but during a recent trip to JA fabrics, I was disappointed about the meager & shabby selection they had of anything other than fleece or novelty fabrics.

I hope they reduce their footprint (their stores are chock full of crap) and improve their inventory - go to HL if you want to make a "Too Blessed To be Stressed" wall hanging, but go to JA fabrics to make nice curtains, pillows, or something like that. They could also improve by having people work their who are knowledgeable about sewing machines & their products. Most people who work there don't know shit. Like others, I don't want to buy that kind of stuff entirely online - I like to see & feel it - but they've got to improve the quality and selection of their core merchandise.

Bring back ribbon clerks!

R38 Well, you're statement didn't age well.

The chain announced today at 12 noon that 500 STORES are closing for good.

No sarcasm intended, but who shops at these stores?

Lots of people. They are often the only hobby or art supply store in the area. One of the few places that you can get decent fabric— cotton, linen, etc.

[quote]r3 There was a classic thread here about the guy who got thrown out of Joanne’s because he called the sewing instructor a cunt. EST but a good one.

My sister bought half a yard of fabric to make a single cafe curtain for over her sink, and the sales lady said in kind of a lecturing way, “Now, this is [italic]silk,”[/italic]as if it would explode or something if handled incorrectly.

My sister just stared at her and said, “Yeeeessss?” The lady said, “Do you already have silk thread to go with it?” And just to piss her off, my sister chirped, “Oh, no. I’m just going to use my glue gun.”

She said the lady’s eyes got huge.

Surprised it took this long. Fabric/cake deco supplies online and you won’t get shot by trump militia-win/win

Just think of all those rural drag queens who will now have to shop at Walmart or Hobby Lobby to get their fashion fabrics. Very sad.

I'm the only JoAnne in town!

The old ladies are dying off.

The old men could die off a little faster

Love your sister R64. I'm sew but I'm not sew snooty...which reminds me...

Where will we get our little clever magnets "stitch queen" "Inspiration is as it seams" "Scissors anyone?"

First Beverly's, now this.

There should be a sewing button saying [italic]SCISSOR SISTER

I went into a Joann's once about 15 years ago. My Mom wanted upholstery pins; things I never knew were things until then.

I'll admit, once I got to looking around, helping Mom find them, I was amazed and enjoyed browsing. I bought a couple of small crafty things.

Nice memory...

I'm glad my years included bricks and mortar shopping in its heyday.

We Fraudole you.

[quote] Of all the shopping we had to accompany our Mother on, Joanne's was the most painful.

I'll see your Joanne's and raise you a Lane Bryant.

Years ago I was looking for a place to mail order fabric/sewing supplies. Joann's had a ton of complaints for the kinds of things posters here have mentioned. So the problems were not just external.

Joann?

Welp, there goes my project for my crochet sex swing!

I just spoke to Joann. She says you’re all a bunch of bitches.

Place is sad and full of CRAP! GOOD RIDDANCE!!!

Joann was right r79

I went to Joann Fabrics last summer, looking for something to replace the fill in a couple pillows. The store was huge and smelled like a Goodwill. I wandered the floor, up and down the aisles, and there was nothing I could use. There were a few bags of fiberfill, but they were wadded up and dusty. I found some more sitting open in a bin and it was dirty and even more flattened. Everything was so expensive - the bags of matted batting were $16 each.

Subsequently, thanks to TikTok's spy algorithm, I started getting videos from Joanne employees, saying that all signs pointed to an imminent bankruptcy/closure, exhorting people to use good coupons and gift cards now, and to not wait for the clearance sale, when everything would be doubled in price, then discounted 10%, and gift cards would not be honored. It took Joann awhile to do it but here we are.

PS: For my pillows, I bought a couple cheap pillows from Sam's Club, cut them open, and used the fill in those for my pillow. I think the pillows I bought were rebranded MyPillows.

R81 TMI

anyone remember the hunky Santa fabric pattern they carried maybe 10 years ago?

DataLoungers who sew their own kaftans and muumuus shop there?

Better be nice to Joann. She sells scissors.

R81, is my response any more TMI than the 60+ responses you posted to the 'name a product' thread?

[quote] Not everyone can make a run to Mood in NYC

And they wouldn't use it wisely.

I heard you talking real dirty about Joann.

Maybe Kool & The Gang could do a benefit concert?

R89. Yes, but Joann(A) would get all the proceedings.

^^^^proceeds

Walmart sells knitting and sewing supplies and they're cheaper.

It's official - Joann Fabrics announced today it's closing every single store in America. It announced a few weeks ago it was closing 500 out of 800. Now they announced all 800 are shutting for good.

I used to have the classic Joann thread bookmarked, but I changed computers and it didn't transfer over . However, I did copy the following from it. (In editing I made the R numbers consecutive. Replies were really from throughout the thread.)

Re: I Was Asked To Leave the Fancy Joann Fabrics

The OP’s story:

“It was a two hour class and we spent the first half hour going over the mechanics of the sewing machine. Fine. I was bored by the time we finally started on our place mats.

“First, she asked me if I had forgotten my reading glasses because of the way I was seated with my head held back away from the machine. I don't even own reading glasses.

“Some time went by and then she asked me why I was making faces while sewing. I didn't want to mention Selina Kyle in Batman, so I just said it was difficult keeping the stitch straight. Wrong excuse.

“She clicked her tongue and told me I was sewing too fast. She asked me to get up and she went through the entire process on my assigned machine- from shutting off with needle down to starting with a backstitch to lock. I thanked her and asked if I could continue on MY project.

“She circled the other students without saying a fucking word to any of them and came straight back to me - repeating that I needed to 'Slooowww dowwnnn'.

That's when I asked her to fuck off.”

The Responses:

R1: I sense a pattern here.

R2: I'm beginning to think that this story is fabricated.

R3: Yes, [R2], it's an elaborately woven tale stitched together for our amusement.

I don't cotton to such things myself.

R4: Some of the responses have me in stitches.

R5: You're not on the fringe, OP, people here are flocking to your support. I would have felt the same way if I had been fleeced like that.

R6: At the risk of adding tension to a thread that's already fraying, I'll add my final point on this elaborately embroidered story.

R7: OP needs to realize that he and the instructor are just not cut from the same cloth. Rather than continuing to needle her, he needs to admit that he came apart at the seams and patch things up.

Vale, Joann.

The nomenklatura give up and cash out.

A tale as old as time

[quote]R93 It's official - Joann Fabrics announced today it's closing every single store in America. It announced a few weeks ago it was closing 500 out of 800. Now they announced all 800 are shutting for good.

Goddamn Elon Musk is behind this, I just know it.

Yes he hates overpriced fabrics sold in yard sale conditions

Just like Hitler

At least this senselessly premature closure will turn a lot of right wing suburban housewives against him.

#NeverForgetNeverForgive

#Justice4Joann

Say what you may, but go ahead and try to find various types of 9' wide light-blocking (blackout) fabric at different price points - "near you" - that you can examine in person for thread count, density, and blocking properties.

Nevermore.

(I'm sorry too that crabby ol' bitches are going to be out of a job. What are they going to do? Never mind, so are a whole bunch of other people.)

Are those...PUSSYwillows?

Is the curtain lady holding vigil?