Newport News, VA AC Moore - fabric pulled from store
 

What a shock I got when I went to my local AC Moore today to look for blender fabric and it was gone- all of the fabric. Over the past few months the fabric department was semi-neglected after a long-time employee retired (following an illness). The store moved all the fabric over to the side back wall on 3 tables with no room for wheelchairs or strollers. That should have been the "writing on the wall" for me. When I went in today, I couldn't find an employee right away so I went to floral department and the young woman told me the store would no longer carry fabric. AGH! Double AGH!

Very sad. I can feel your pain! :(

I felt the same way when all the Hancock Fabric stores closed. It was my go to store for net. They carried the best quality net and a large selection of colors.

It's sad to see all the fabric stores closing, and the fabric departments in other stores disappearing! It certainly limits our choices of where we can buy fabric and forces us to shop online more and more. Nothing wrong with shopping online, but it doesn't quite to compare with being able to feel the fabric and see the true colors before purchasing.

I don't understand this seeming decline in availability of fabric in the brick and mortar store, when ( I think ) there seems to be an increasing interest in home sewing and crafting with fabric.

BCM I wonder the same thing???

Sometimes it is not the fabric sales as much as the mandated cost and penalties of employee health insurance. We have lost quite a few retailers because of this.

It seems like the brick and mortar general fabric stores have been on the decline for some time. My go-to stores when I lived in Phoenix were Cloth World and House of Fabrics. There was also Sally's in Mesa and 35th Avenue Fsbrics on the west side - which is doing great guns as a quilting destination. I rarely if ever went to Hancocks - our closest store always seemed messy. And when I stopped getting the mailers - I won't drive down just to browse and hope they had something I liked, wanted or needed. We do have Mary Jo's in Gastonia, NC but it is changing too. Mary Jo is in an older people place and her son is running the store. They added Babylock and some furniture a few years back, and have now reduced the quilting fabrics and regular fabrics - they seem to be going the upholstery way. But they still have a great selection of quilt fabrics and I will drive the 50 miles or so to go. Plus there is a great quilt store close by and Tony's Ice Cream too.

All kind of a shame as sewing has been growing by leaps and bounds.
Sandy in Mooresville, NC

You're absolutely right! We're losing and continue to lose those wonderful, friendly, and helpful "mom and pop" stores that give a locale its "flavor and uniqueness"... So many towns are building cookie cutter strip malls that all look the same and have the same merchants (chain stores). Aside from increased employee costs, and increases in the basic cost of doing business as mandated / required by local, county, state, and federal governments,many merchants (in my area, at least) are finding that the biggest challenge is increased rents. I live in an area of the country that has some of the highest commercial and residential rents in the country (it's not uncommon for a 1 br. apartment to rent for more than $2500/ month; a 4-br. house for more than $6500 / month). In many cases, commercial property owners are raising rents more than 100% per month at lease renewal time, for their current tenants. (Rent control does not apply to commercial properties) Landlords will not negotiate. Pay it or leave is the attitude. Sometimes the cost of doing business just isn't worth the cost in time, energy, the paperwork of complying with regulations, and dollars. Consider the number of locally-owned bookstores, shoe stores, card and gift shops, small clothing stores, flower shops, hardware stores, gardening and nursery shops, as well as service oriented shops have disappeared from the commercial landscape. I enjoyed visiting those local shops and spending my money locally, but no longer do so, primarily because those merchants are long-gone. I positively HATE going to a big box store or the mall (BTW, they're in trouble, as well for all the same reasons as the local stores) and dealing with all the chaos, confusion, and crowds. Many of my dollars, now, are spent on-line. Yes, living in CA I still have to pay sales tax for on-line purchases, but dollars which would have been funneled into local businesses are now spent on-line...and the purchase is delivered to my door or office within hours or a couple of days.

It surprises me too,that some of the little strip malls would rather have a store sit vacant than accept a lower rent. We have lost a lot of local stores due to severe rent hikes and then the building sits vacant for years. Just how is that cost effective?