The three most reasonable sites recommended so far have been:
Hancock fabrics main website
( http://www.hancockfabrics.com/index.jsp ) - check the clearance stuff first
Joann ( http://joann.com/ ) - again, start in the clearance selection
http://www.thousandsofbolts.com/ where their regular prices are lower than the sale prices on every other site I've seen except the 2 above.
I, too, have been a captive customer of WalMart. Our department has been drastically cut. thanks to the person who found the thousands site, I finally feel less trapped by my income.
:-)