So far I have been fortunate to live in an area where our WM is keeping the fabric dept. I buy alot of my motif type fabric there to make some of my product. It is way too expensive even at Joanns to be cost effective for my customers.
They keep telling me they are not going to close ours down, but I'm always afraid they don't really know. They have a full time general manager and 4 full time employees that work in that dept. And they keep them hopping all the time. They are always complaining about the amt. of work they have to accomplish in their shift.
So I have to agree with Patrice about supporting your local store(if you want them to keep the fabric dept) by buying what you can. I need our dept there, so will buy as much as possible from them when I can. I'd hate to lose it.