Their sales women were very rude too. I miss Piece Goods Shop.
My wife would occasionally buy quarters [I think they are called?] for quilting.
I didn’t think there were many people buying fabrics for sewing like there used to be.
I do recall an indifferent sales staff...
I used to hours upon hours shopping at Joann Fabrics. They had helpful staff, and sold fabric you could use for clothing. My friends and I LOVED Joann.
Now the staff is nasty, and ignorant about sewing. Most stores rarely have fabric suitable for clothing, with only crafting stuff — 100% cotton, fleece and flannel. Some stores have NO blends for clothing.
Artificial flowers, baking equipment, tchotchkes, ornaments. If they’re dying, it’s by suicide.
bkmk
I can see why they’d close the Ithaca, NY (aka The City of Evil) store.
Wrong demographic there.
Think about how much it costs to ‘re-brand’ a business; Everything has to be changed- from the sign to the placards to the employee pay checks and name tags. And the ‘specialists’ that will be hired to ‘handle’ and ‘co-ordinate’ the re-branding will be paid up front.
You’d think that someone in the CoC would realize that the changes made to modernize are what’s killing the stores and do a rollback rather than a rebrand.
It seems to me investing that money in the company would do more to save it than changing the name.
Oh, I loved Piece Goods!
Now Big Lots are closing as well. Then there is another big name store closing - I can’t remember the name but thank you, Joe Biden!
Part of this has to be the fact you can get craft stuff at Walmart.
Forced? This was self-induced. The chain was loaded up with debt since a leveraged buyout in 2010.
A beloved craft and fabric retailer with a history spanning over 80 years has quietly closed several locations across the country in recent months.
Guess it wasn’t all that “beloved”.
My wife is a regular at our local Joann Fabrics. I have a reserved seat at the cutting table.
Joann is that it started as family-owned, moved to “professional” management a few decades or so ago, then maybe 15-29 years ago was bought by a holding company that also held Party City and Rite Aid, among others—all now failing, while the Ivy League boys have skimmed their cut off the top for the past.
They managed all their stores very badly, as if cutting fabric and knowing how to cater to dressmakers, tailors and other needleworkers is exactly the same as hanging blisterpacks of cough drops on a hook in Rite Aid. Minimum wage, horrible managers, total tolerance of monumental amounts of retail theft and items resold on eBay, etc.
They deserved to fail. I’m glad another company bought it. I hope the new company can resurrect it, because while some other companies sell various types of yard goods, no other company within 20 miles of this area has all the speciality items and fittings.