It seems that most of the WM's in the Raleigh area are getting rid of their fabric dept. My daughter went to a few in surrounding towns and she said that most of the fabric was already gone. Sad isn't it, with quilts becoming more and more popular that ists getting harder and harder to find affordable fabric. I don't like the service at Wal Mart but will shop thee if the fabric is a good price. I am not real crazy about the kind of service or price at the fabric stores either. Went to Joannes last week, same old tired fabric that they have always had. They need some new designs or designers either way. The calico was 3.99, marked down 30%, but I was hard pressed to find some colors and/or designs that I really liked. And since most of what I make is given away to others, I really want affordable prices and good quality. I guess nowadays that might be a bit too much to expect. LIke everyone said its all about their huge profits and nothing else. But what goes around comes around and maybe us quilters will rule and they will realize the bottom line isn't as nice as it use to be once we aren't there anymore. How many of us have gone for fabric and gone out with 6 or 7 other things that we thought of while in the store? Well, I can probably get the other things elsewhere if there isn't any fabric to go look at in Wal Mart.
Okay, stepping off my soap box and clamping my lips together. LOL Enough from me!!!!

To all of you that have noticed your Joanns stores going downhill on the quilt fabric: One of the employees told me this past weekend that they were told they will not receive any new fabrics until they get rid of most of their clearance fabric. Our Joanns has moved their clearance fabric 3 x's in the last month, and they fill up the shelves with more fleece. I just don't get it.

Ben Franklin???? Gosh, I did not know they existed anymore, anywhere. They are not in my area, and when I go to WV/MD there are never any. They used to be a good place to shop for fabrics, even if they did have what used to be called "flat folds" to choose from. That makes me feel good to know they still exist in some corner of the world.

June

I didn't even know there were any Ben Franklin stores left! We lost our BF in the 80's or very early 90's! I was just a kid, but I loved that store then!!!! :!:

JUne, I didn't see your post before I repied. I'm in WV. I haven't seen ANY BF's since our local one shut down when I was a kid.

Gosh, I never knew "Ben Franklin" stores EVER existed. And I'm no spring chicken either. What kind of stores were they? I already wish they were still around.

We still have one in Burney, CA. It is like a dime store. This one replaced Sprouse Ritz. Has a little of everything. A really, really small WalMart without the groceries.

Just like Nora said.....like an old fashioned dime store...or 5 and dime, as they were called in my childhood. I grew up inthe 40's and was permitted to go downtown by myself when I was about 10. That would be 1944. I loved the 5 and dime stores...McCrory and JJNewberry. Does anyome remember any others? And did some of them carry fabrics. When I first moved to Cincinnati in 1963 there was a big GCMurphy store in a shopping center near my home. When I had my "night out" I would go there and buy fabric. I met the girl who covered fabrics and we became friends. We still visit by phone after 40 years, Those were the days of really good prices and some good fabrics.

Seems as though everything was better back then, But my 73 year old memory is not always too sharp.

June

We didn't have any Ben Franklins around here when I was growing up in the '50s, but we had plenty of Newberry's, Woolworths, and Kress's. Those five and dimes were the only places I could shop within a school girl's budget. They used to have a lunch counter where you could grab a quick, cheap bite to eat and they had fabric for all your home ec classes that used to be required in junior and senior high school. We took streetcars and buses downtown to these stores to see what our $1 per week allowance would buy and then stopped at the public library where the highlight of our week was reading, reading, reading. We roamed the downtown area on our own without fear, and this was a major city, not a small town. How I miss those days.

I remember a Ben Franklin store in Elgin, Ill where I grew up. We had to buy our gym clothes from there. The school wanted us all to match. Haven't thought about that in a looooong time. Boy those were the days. Mama used to send me to the store with a quarter to buy bread or something and I'd spend her change on candy. Boy was my butt red. In those days parents didn't have to worry about their kids being abducted. What has happed to our world. Sometimes I wish it would quit spinning so I can get off.