I guess I'm lucky. While I only have one LQS nearby, my Joann's is nice. It's always clean and for as long as I can remember the entire length of one side of the store is fabric, I suppose it's "L" shaped, but I don't spend much time in the clothing-fabrics. There is plenty of wide open space and the only time you even notice more than one or two other people is when you're waiting for them to cut your fabric.
I love when my sale flyer comes, as it always has at least one 40% off coupon sometimes more. I've never heard of that "craft-item Ruth, perhaps I haven't been on the mailing list long enough? It's hard to figure out where some of the stuff is for the newbies, as the big names like Fons and Porter are in with the fabric, while the standard names of the same stuff, dritz ect are someplace else. We have two book sections that are good size, one is much more "crafty" and the other is once again buried in the fabric section. But truly, it's nice I would shop there everytime I was out if I could.
I haven't noticed a price hike, but years ago my mom did suspect that they mark stuff up to make up for when they put it onsale. I watch the flyers so often it's sometimes hard to use my 40% off coupon, because it's all on sale.
My neighbor told me you used to be able to mark the sale price back up to the reg. price and then get the 40% off, which a good part of the time would have been the better deal, but they haven't done that since I've been quilting.