I am so sorry for you that are just now or recently lost your Fabric Dept @ WalMart. I do know & underdstand what a hardship that might cause some folks. We lost our Fabric Dept in 2 Stores sev yrs ago. And let me say that there was plenty of phone calls and emails & written letters to Corp. Did it matter or make a diff.? Hell no. We got the same generic letter that many of you received. There is a Hancocks across the Street from one of the WalMarts here & it has just got crap in it. Fleece mostly. And Home Dec. items. Approx 20 miles there is a Jo Ann Store. There is a variety of fabric to choose from, but their prices are rising also. I am not in the least bit impressed with the FQ's they are now carrying. Some are no more a FQ than I am.
Ohhhh & our WalMart Stores do not have pkg'd fabric either. No Fabric at all!!! We never got it here. Emails, phone calls and letters are still being sent, but it has done NO good at all. Yes, they have lost a lot of business over it & still won't bring it back. It makes me livid that WalMart is carrying less brands of food now trying to force their brand on people. They are just bullies. Greedy, selfish, thoughtless bullies. So a lot of us in the community flat refuse to shop there at all anymore. Carpooling, a few have decided it is more pleasant to go into the City to a Store & do their grocery shopping. I so agree.
Now, what to do about the loss of fabric dept.? Shop online, watch sales, may have to resort to Goodwill & Thrift Stores, do whatever we have to do. Our forefathers had no selection of Stores & Shops & the women still quilted. We have to be creative. Some just shop less for groceries & stick to a grocery budget. Cooking & freezing left overs or meals cuts costs some. More money for fabric that way. WalMart removing their fabric dept does not have to mean the end. Just have to get creative. And I would bet all of my stash that they will not bring back the fabric dept. Not for a few yrs if then. They have a Target CEO now & the stores are being fashioned more like Target. So like it or hate it, it is what it is. Now we as quilters have to figure out how to deal with it in our personal life.