Most new Walmarts replacing fabric with "Celebrations"

[notyard]

Two Walmart stores that I shop occasionally rebuilt as Walmart Supercenters in the past couple of years. Even though the stores upsized massively in size, they downsized the fabrics sections to almost nothing. One store went from ten aisles or more of yarn and fabrics to TWO short aisles! It would be fine if there was anywhere else to buy fabric, but Walmart killed off the two local fabric stores downtown years ago. You now need to drive 50 miles to reach a JoAnn's or Han**** Fabrics.

My Mom went looking for fabric last month in her area, and ended up at Walmart as she couldn't find what she needed elsewhere. This Walmart she visited will upsize to a new building as a Walmart Supercenter in the next two months. The clerk told her that they would not carry any fabric at the new store at all. The clerk also said that Walmart plans at this time to reduce cut fabric to only 600 to 800 of their stores. :(

Walmart responded to my enquiry with: Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding the fabric department in your local store. In
keeping with our emphasis on being a store of the community, Wal-Mart is converting the
fabrics and crafts department in some stores to a newly expanded assortment of merchandise
that focuses on life's celebrations. We are thrilled to offer our customers this exciting
new crafts and celebrations center that makes available craft and party planning needs
along with information on current trends and new ideas in the area of life's celebrations,
such as holidays, weddings and birthdays.

In those stores where the new crafts and celebrations center is placed, merchandise
commonly referred to as 'notions' will be included in the product offerings - such as
sewing machines, yarn, needles, thread, etc. As a part of this conversion, most of our
new and remodeled stores opening in early 2007, as well as a small number of existing
stores, will feature the new crafts and celebrations center in place of cut fabrics.
Wal-Mart will continue to carry cut fabric in most of our stores. Due to the continued
evaluation of our stores, we are unable to share a list of existing stores scheduled to
receive the new crafts and celebrations center at this time.

So, if you want to sew instead of party, forget legging it into any of the newly remodeled or upsized Walmarts. "Most of our stores will continue to carry cut fabric" is fine, IF one of them is in your county, otherwise forget it. They killed off the two local fabric stores years ago, and now they can't be bothered to carry fabric in their new upsized Walmart. Well, since I now have to drive a 100 mile round trip to purchase fabric and gas remains precious, I guess I can't be bothered to make the 22 mile round trip into the county seat to visit Walmart any more.

[mom2fussbudgets]

I think the main problem is that sewing is a lost art. When I was a kid, every kid's mom sewed! Moms made our choir dresses, our softball uniform shirts, stuff like that. Nowadays, how many people do you know who sew? I can't think of any! My mom, who sewed me countless dresses and shirts when I was little, no longer even sews.

Also, I don't believe Home Ec is even offered in schools anymore. That's a huge blow to the sewing industry as well.

I feel badly for you!

[Cpogie]

Unfortunately this is what Walmart is good at, I personally bought fabric there because it was priced right, they seem to change items according to who knows why? they usually wipe out small businesses near them because trying to compete with them is very hard for them to do. I live in a very small community and the only "big" store we have is a small Kmart, and they are not user friendly at all! I have to drive 50+ miles to get to a store with any type of the items I want. I am sorry about what has happened to your Walmart, I don't think there is anything else you can do about what has happened.

[notyard]

I don't know lots of people who sew clothing, but I know all kinds of people that quilt! I have several friends who quilt independently, and also several in clubs. My home church holds a weekly quilters' circle, as do most of the churches in the county seat. The Walmart, until they decided everyone wants to party instead of buy fabric, carried many selections of coordinated fabrics that worked specifically for quilting. So, unless, the independent quilters and the quilter clubs want to make quilts out of Mylar balloons and party invitations, I guess all of them will be going elsewhere other than Walmart, too.

[Cpogie]

I sew, I love to make custom curtains, and I use to sew almost everything you can imagine, even bathing suits! I loved it! I agree it is a lost art unless it is taught by moms/grandma's or if it is still offered in school, I took 4 years of it when I was in school back in the dark ages.....but I agree there are alot of crafters out there and quilters!! I love going into a fabric store and looking at all the different fabrics......

[Carly's Mommy]

All of our Wal-Mart Supercenters are closing out their fabric or have already done so. It's pretty sad. The only other store in town where you can buy fabric is JoAnn's - and they have the WORST customer service and their lines are always so, so LONG. Everyone is so rude from the managers to the check out people!

I recently heard that we are going to be getting a Hobby Lobby. Does anyone know if they carry fabric? I can't really tell from their website. They look like they'll be very similar to Michael's and Michael's doesn't carry fabric.

My grandma belongs to a quilters' circle at her church and they live in a very small community. I can't imagine where they will get their fabric from if their Wal-Mart closes out it's fabric department.

I wish we still had a H a n c o c k 's here, but they closed about 10-15 years ago.

[notyard]

[QUOTE=Carly's Mommy;14868]I recently heard that we are going to be getting a Hobby Lobby. Does anyone know if they carry fabric? I can't really tell from their website. They look like they'll be very similar to Michael's and Michael's doesn't carry fabric.QUOTE]

I haven't been to Hobby Lobby in years. There's one of those in the city where I will now go to get fabric anyway, so I need to find out, too :D Based upon what I find in About.com and from textile manufacturer websites that sell their fabric through Hobby Lobby, I would hazard a guess, and say that Hobby Lobby apparently does carry fabric. Whoo--sigh of relief--another fabric source to check out on those 100 mile shopping trips (dis)courtesy of Walmart which cannot be bothered to carry fabric any longer at their store in our county seat, since they killed off the two nice local fabric stores long ago.

[GeorgiaMom]

Let me start off by saying I am NOT defending Wal-Mart...I worked for Wal-Mart for years. I was in management when I left so I had to deal with all kinds of paperwork including profits/losses statements. When you sit down and look at those statements, you really see why businesses make the decisions they make. Concerning the merchandise Wal-Mart chooses to carry in their stores..it's a basic business principle to carry items that are going to bring more profit and do away with the items that aren't selling so well. Unfortunately for those of us who enjoy sewing, the fabric department at a lot of Wal-Marts is wasted space for the store. It's been almost 4 years since I left Wal-Mart to begin working for myself(no boss..yay!!). The issue of the fabric departments was being studied back then so it's not a decision they made overnight.

[mom2fussbudgets]

Ya, I agree with you. I'm gonna have to pay attention next time I go to Walmart and see if mine still have them.

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of business do you have?

[GeorgiaMom]

I'm a realtor now. Basically, I work when I want to. Hubby's job pays the bills so my money is all "fun money." It's the best thing I ever did for myself. I used to work 70 hour weeks with Wal-Mart so I was hardly ever home. Now I never miss anything my kids do. I was even able to coach my older son's soccer team!!!

[mom2fussbudgets]

That's wonderful! My mom used to be a realtor, and she always had trouble telling clients no. Therefore, she was working all during the day and night. How do you set limits with your clients?

I love to look at houses, so I wouldn't mind being a realtor at all.

[GeorgiaMom]

I don't give people the chance to make me work when I don't want to. I more or less just tell them when I'm available and they can pick one of those times. A lot of times too, I bring my kids (3 and 5) with me which most people seem to like. I always make sure the client is ok with it though. If they have kids, it keeps them all occupied and keeps them from getting bored. If they don't have kids, it seems to kind of take the pressure off so they don't feel like I'm pushing them into buying something they are unsure of. Either way, this is a career where my kids come first...I wouldn't trade that for anything.

[mom2fussbudgets]

That's wonderful! Thanks for telling me about it. :)

[notyard]

Let me start off by saying I am NOT defending Wal-Mart...I worked for Wal-Mart for years....Concerning the merchandise Wal-Mart chooses to carry in their stores..it's a basic business principle to carry items that are going to bring more profit and do away with the items that aren't selling so well. Unfortunately for those of us who enjoy sewing, the fabric department at a lot of Wal-Marts is wasted space for the store. It's been almost 4 years since I left Wal-Mart to begin working for myself(no boss..yay!!). The issue of the fabric departments was being studied back then so it's not a decision they made overnight.

Yes, it's all about "enhancing shareholder value," as we could chant in our workplace by heart, too. So did they take into account that the fabric and yarn department was the only unique thing that differentiated them from Kmart, Target, and many others? I now have to make a 100 mile round trip to the big city to buy fabric and yarn, as they killed off both our local fabric stores years ago (I shopped the local stores right through their going out of business sales--there was no more I could do for them at that point). I'm not wasting gas on a 22 mile round trip to the county seat to Walmart, because anything they carry there now I can pick up at my local IGA, Ace, drugstore or other local stores within four miles of home or on the big monthly trip to the big city. I'm not going to the county seat Walmart Supercenter at all now, due to the lack of unique goods (otherwise known as no reason to go there instead of someplace else!), so the store's sales are reflecting not only the loss of my fabric, craft, and yarn purchases, but also my incidental purchases every time I went in there--milk, bread, fruit, ice cream, plants, power strip, and so forth. You know, the old, "as long as you're going to town, could you pick up..." purchase list from parents, friends, and family...now, it's turning into the, "hey could you see if Hobby Lobby carries...tooling foil, rose pink satin fabric to coordinate with this ribbon, foam ornaments for pinning, " or some other crafting requests :)

[GeorgiaMom]

Even though you are probably not the only consumer to stop frequenting Wal-Mart, they still don't lose anything by getting rid of a department that was only shopped by a very small percentage of their consumers. The new departments that replace the fabric departments or the expansion of other departments already there make up more than the amount of money they lose when a few people stop shopping their entire establishment. They actually make more money because they bring in products that the majority of their consumers are more likey to buy than just a select few who like to sew. The fabric department in most Wal-Marts became a big loss for them. Most fabric is seasonal..meaning all four seasons bring in new product. New product means previous season's product has to be marked down just to get rid of it (they can't hold on to it until the next year). Since there is such a small percentage of people who shop the fabric department, the department was constantly losing money. Why would any corporation continue to carry a product that was costing them more to sell than it was making?

[mom2fussbudgets]

It's all about Economics, unfortunately! But, Walmart is a business, after all. Bottom line is, they are there to make money.