I just got home from Jo-Ann Fabrics. I havnt been there for awhile because I have been working so much, so its been about 3 months or so. I saw a few fabrics I REALLY liked on the calico wall, and they are $1 off a yard, so I thought good deal. Nope, they went up to $9.99 a yard on most, how sad. When I got up to the register, the young lady asked why I looked so sad, I told her the prices have gone up so much since I have been there last. THEN she tells me they were bought out last week by the people who own Pet Smart, and fabric is going up NEXT WEEK $2-$3 more per yard, I almost cried.

Bummer!!!!

I will go and check on our Joann's in a week or two, I am hoping not to find the same thing :(

I read somewhere that the cost of cotton is going up due to floods overseas. It has nothing to do with the buy out.

I'll shop online first. It wouldn't be so bad if the quality was better. I have not been pleased with a lot of their fabric lately.

I was at my Joann's yesterday, got some fabrics from the clearance section that is an additional 50% off. When I went to the cutting table I asked about them being bought out, the clerk was a bit snippy and informed (straightened me out) that they have not been bought out just will be merging. Don't know why she was a bit defensive.

This is true for future purchases, but their stock on hand was purchased prior to this flooding overseas.

I agree, why do they have to raise the price on fabric they bought years ago????

GREED!! :XD:

prior to the flooding... the USA dumped 40% of their cotton crops in favor of planting soybeans...then the floods hit and ruined the crops overseas.

amma, our Joann's have been at $9.99 for several weeks already
up here NW

Wow, I find that really amazing....9.99 a yard? At Joann's? It makes the fabric at Keepsake Quilting seem like a relative bargain.

I guess I had better use my 50% of coupon tomorrow! Thanks for the heads up on this one. Dang it!

I guess there will be many people that choose NOT to shop at JoAnns. It sounds crazy....

Unless of course it is on sale for 20% off, or $1 off per yard.

Pet Smart bought JoAnn's... Huh? That just seems crazy. You'd be better off buying your fabrics from a quilt shop when they are 20-40% off or such. The fabrics are of a much higher quality than JoAnn's who I think has no business charging so much for "lesser" quality fabrics (for the most part). I also do a fair amount of sales shopping on line.. top of the line fabrics for less than JoAnns has the nerve to charge! I only buy notions there.

They were not bought out by Pet Smart...

HUDSON, Ohio -- Jo-Ann Stores Inc., one of the few national retailers that prospered during the recession, has agreed to be acquired by a private equity firm in Los Angeles for $1.6 billion.

The deal with Leonard Green & Partners LP promises a premium for shareholders and should mean few changes for consumers at Jo-Ann's 756 stores, analysts said.

I'll buy my fabric at the quilt store before I pay there high prices. They will find out they are going to lose big time with the increases.

I'm a reclaimer. So, I use cotton table cloths, curtains, dress skirts and shirt backs a lot. It's about all I can swing. Lots of my acquaintances save things for me. Some I just give to Goodwill, which is a great source.

WE'll have to dream of a new way. We all need to grow bamboo, huh! learn how to harvest and spin it into thread to weave into our fabric. Well, if you are dreaming, just dream.

~ sign ~

Especially if you shop in the sale section of the KQ store and on-line. It irks me that JA's prices the goods so close to LQS' prices but the quality isn't even close.....off my soapbox.

piney

I went to JoAnn's here in Corpus Christi, looking for a fussy cut ruler, they had quilting supplies in 5 different locations throughout the store. Haven't noticed extreme price jumps lately. Hope we in the US don't go the way of the Swiss with fabric $25 a yd. We'll revert to using old clothing to quilt like our granmothers did.

Seems to be going the way of gasoline $$$!

I will be going to other shops if Joann's is raising the prices that much! I am not all that thrilled with them anyway! Today a local QS had 30% off the whole store...now I wish I had bought more.

And here I am trying to reclaim my dining room from the fabric I bought when my brother closed his store. Maybe I need to rethink and instead of trying to sell in the classifieds here I should be finding more inventive places to stash it for the future. Bird in hand.... :)
Hummm there is that shower in the spare bath that we never use. Had to go and check.. Totes fit and stack nicely 4 high and the shower curtain covers it all. Out of sight out of DH's mind. LOL

Yes the cost of cotton has gone up and we'll also see online stores having to raise their prices accordingly too as the manufacturer's raise theirs...ongoing cycle.

Take heart though, I have an Australian friend who pays almost $20-$25/ yard for fabric! LOL, when she comes to visit me every 2-3 years she stocks up like a madwoman.

doesnt surprise me

I was going to say the same thing! And as long as people buy it the prices will keep going up. You can buy a quilt through a catalog for less than it costs to make one. But we are a breed unto ourselves and we like to make a quilt or two or three or four, but don't like to have to pay for "big business" in a small business area. I will keep going to JoAnn's because somehow, someway in that store (every time I go), I find a bargain and it is good fabric and I like it/love it and that is all I need.

Gas, however, is something else. $3.00 a gallon. Here in St. Paul as other places there is a card we get from Roundy's, our grocery store, where they take off 10 cents on so much bought at the store. A few days ago, my husband bought gas at BP (which I don't want to buy from in the first place) for $1.30 off the $2.96 a gallon price. Now, they have discontinued the gas thing at Roundy's. Hey, you out there - remember when gas was 25 cents a gallon and cigarettes were even cheaper? I don't smoke anymore - haven't for a million years, but I still remember the prices. I remember practically filling a tank for $1.00.

So, we will look for bargains any where we can and pride ourselves in the good deal we got.

KEEP MAKING AND PROCESSING OUR OWN COTTON IN OUR OWN COUNTRY. I'd rather pay more for fabric made in our own country and keep people in work and keep our own country going. It seems to me that quilters are going to be the ones that are going to save this country. Edie

The calicos in Joann' s has always had variable prices. Some were $4.99 and some were $6.99. They have a lot of 30% off sales.

Have you tried fabric.com in Marietta, Ga? I was always leary about shopping on line for fabric because I like to actually see the fabric. Sometimes the colors aren't really true. I've bought from them several times and have always been very happy with whatever I bought there. They do have a return policy as well. My pet pieve is buying plaid and it's cut at an angle so there's usually some waste. They don't cut like that.

They also have some really good cleance prices.

I was at Joanns Friday 12/31 and there was a lady at the cutting counter that was complaining about the prices going up so much and wondered why. I was only getting some belting cut so after I was finished I went to ck out a few bolts to see and sure enough the same fabric I bought a few weeks ago had gone up ....

I remember when the fat quarters were 99 cents - they are now $1.99 and Hancock's are the same price. Consider yourself lucky to get one for $1.29. I think I have gotten to the point where I will buy 1/4 yard of fabric now (actually, I liked the design on some of the fat quarters and it was a lot easier to pick out ten rather than stand and wait for 10 quarters to be cut by the attendant. They don't particularly care to cut 1/4 yards. So, their loss. If I can find a yard of fabric for $4.00, I'll be back to my fat quarters of 99 cents plus a penny! Edie

Spoke to the a lady that owns our LQS and she said Moda fabric are NOT raising their prices. Good news to me.

Corporations use an accounting method called FIFO..first in, first out. So, every product's price is raised to reflect the replacement cost, regardless of when the original product was purchased. This accounts for the cost of carrying the inventory (maybe for a year or two), the opportunity cost (what they could have done with the money they have invested), and a certain amount of overhead.
This is more info than you may have wanted, but it's how corporations work. The same applies to gas prices when they are going up.

HUDSON, Ohio -- Jo-Ann Stores Inc., one of the few national retailers that prospered during the recession, has agreed to be acquired by a private equity firm in Los Angeles for $1.6 billion.

The deal with Leonard Green & Partners LP promises a premium for shareholders and should mean few changes for consumers at Jo-Ann's 756 stores, analysts said.[/quote]

Could this company also own Pet Smart? companies are bought and sold all the time.

The same reason the price of gas goes up 2-3 times a week. That was purchased earlier also.

While it saddens me too, they are only hurting themselves. If they think they can charge was the LQS does, then people like us will stop buying there and that will hurt their sales. They have gone down hill in the last couple of years---they just keep reducing the "fabric" side of the store and increasing the novelty side. If I want to buy "garden, holiday, or floral" there are plenty of other places to go. As for the fabric--I have a nice stash, and I have been ordering more and more on line. Saves me gas and I can do it in my pajamas. They will learn really quickly!!! Hang in there girls.

Don't think our Joanns has a clearance section, or maybe I just never saw it.

That's true. Looks like quilting will soon require big bucks.I was in Goodwill recently & men's dress shirts were $7....so I guess the cheap stuff is gonna be gone everywhere.

If it happens at the gas pumps, why not in everything else?