I know someone who works at Joanns. This is what they had to say. I can't name them, as they are being careful, but they allowed me to copy and paste their answer to my question.
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Total rumor. But don't take my word (I couldn't tell you even if I knew differently)-- here's a link to the investor info, which calls for a continuing strategy of closing older stores and opening new ones with overall gain in number of stores:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....&p=irol-IRHome