GailG

I found out today that the WalMart that is 60 miles from here does have a great fabric dept. We go to that city two or three each month. So the next time we go, I'll plan to stop and check it out. OUr need here isn't as urgent now since we have a new LQS about 8 miles away. She is a quilter and wants to accomodate her customers. I hope the small business survives these slow economic times. Although our area hasn't been hit as hard as some areas. Of course, we do hear that it's coming.

lyndawn

Mine closed this week. I found out on Wed but couldn't get into town, so I stopped in early thurs afternoon and there was not a scrap left. I was sooo depressed.

Lynette

Darlene

I am glad to hear you all appreciate Walmart's fabric dept. like me. As far as I can tell there are no fabric snobs on this board. I think I said this before but it is refreshing to hear that as a lot of other boards have those Walmart snobs and the same goes for Joann's which I frequent often too.
I think because they have reasonable prices people think the fabric is no good If you know what you are looking for you can do well with their fabrics.

GailG

Amen on that.

gangles

Spooky, you asked to read the letter from Walmart Corp Hqtrs and here it is:

Date: Monday, March 23, 2009 8:02 PM
From: CUSTOMER REPLIES <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Response from Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Ref #000000022639496)
Size: 5 KB

Thank you for your message.

Dear Ms. Mitchell,

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding the fabric department in your local
store. As with any merchandise decision that we make, we have based our
decision to reduce the stitching and fabric departments on customer demand,
which does not appear to be as high today for a full stitching and fabric
offering in some markets as it may have been at Wal-Mart in the past.

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 that opened earlier this
year, as well as a small number of existing stores, will feature the new crafts
and celebrations center in place of bolt 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.

Thank you,
Wal-Mart Customer Relations



For further correspondence regarding this issue, please reply to this email.

butterflywing

did you reply to the email and tell them what to do with their "holiday celebrations department"? :evil: :evil:


just wondering. LOL.

gangles

Yes, I did. I told them that I thought there were enough Michaels Crafts Stores, Hobby Lobbys, and speciallity wedding shops, Party stores, etc. to cover those things adequately.
Gangles

butterflywing

good girl!

let 'em have it between the eyes!

Sheila Elaine

The only place close to me to get fabric other than Wal-Mart for collegiate fabric (within 30 mile radius) is $2 more than Wal-Mart per yard. I need to restock that for my scrub hats. I e-mailed them, got overnight reply, but they don't know which ones are slated to close (or aren't announcing it). They said if they take away a stores fabric dept away, they replace with new craft items and life celebrations items (holidays, B'days). OK, but that means we have to pay much higher prices.

Sheila Elaine

Same form letter they sent me. Guess we're getting through to them & they know we're not taking this sitting down. LOL....if it's top secret, we'll only know when we walk in & our fabric is gone.