Fabric.com is shutting down.
 

This is disappointing to hear. They were wonderful for fabric samples. I have been purchasing nearly all of my home dec/drapery fabrics from them for a couple of years.

The article says it was because of the labor costs of cutting fabric. I would occasionally buy from them when searching for a particular fabric. They bought at such a high volume, they would often have an out of date fabric for longer than everyone else.

California was considering raising minimum wage to $21/hr. Many businesses located there said they would be pulling out if this happens because the cost of labor would exceed product sold. I hope Fabric.com's closing is not a trend for on-line fabric shops - especially with many of the lqs closing since covid.

So sorry to hear this! We all used Fabric.com.

I am sad to hear this! It is one of my go to places for fabric, their service was alway top notch and they always contacted if an item was short or of they could not fulfill in continuous yardage. It is where I bought all of my OBW Fabrics, I will miss them, but my wallet won’t.

That's so sad. I've often found just what I wanted at fabric.com. Sadly, when minimum wage goes up, it drives all the other wages up and makes it very hard for businesses to be competitive.

Gina Pantastico, Co-founder and Director of Operations at Cloud9 Fabrics and Felicity Fabrics.

“This will be an adjustment for fabric manufacturers, but once we all get over our initial shock and surprise I think this could be a positive change for the fabric industry as a whole,” Pantastico said.

Hard to understand how it can be positive to the customer.

I don't understand what she's saying is going to be positive for the consumer. We'll pay more money for the product because labor costs are higher? We have less choice because sites close down? I can see some positives for Gina but certainly not for the consumer. I think it's just spin.

Okay, I just did a bit of skimming. She's saying it will open up new "opportunities" for independent fabric shops. It might cut down competition so there will be more market share for independent shops, but if they all have increased labor costs to deal with and we have higher prices that will also mean a shrinking market as people can't afford to buy as much (I know I can't) so a larger share of a smaller market doesn't necessarily add up to more sales or even an "opportunity" for small independent stores. I'm not sure this is very positive.

I guess I am okay with folks making a living wage. I've never bought from them directly but do use amazon on occasion.

WHAAAAAT???!!! Oh, I hate to hear this! I love fabric.com. I wonder if any fabric will still be offered on Amazon, or will that be gone too? I mean will there be no fabric sold on Amazon anymore . . . I expect Amazon itself will be around for a long time.

Think of all the employees out of jobs... very sad.

Yeah, I like it when they are paid living wages too. For one thing, they generally stick around a bit longer, so they actually know something about what they are doing. It is usually chaos at a shop where only minimum wages are paid as there is constant turn over as the workers leave as soon as they can find a better job. I don't think a lot of employers, especially smaller employers' figure in the amount of time it takes to constantly train new workers in and then have them leave in short period of time. I have a fairly big stash of fabric that I paid $6-8 a yard while I was working and it was good quality stuff, so I am not really buying much fabric now at all other than if I need something special or if I really think I need a treat of a fat quarter or something on sale. We have lost about 1/2 of our quilt shops in the past few years. We did have one long arm dealer start to add fabric to her shop to fill in the void

I will miss fabric.com. Ordered a lot from them.
It seems like the whole world is going crazy for one reason or another. Me? I just keep sewing. Even if I never bought another yard of fabric, I have enough to last another 50 years or quilting.

Say it ain't so! I've never had a bad experience with them. Love the ease of their website. Another site could benefit from a referral from them. I'd check out a site they endorsed! Better go check what's in my Cart.

My first email was from Fabric dot com.

As of October 20, 2022, we are no longer selling products on fabric.com. Amazon.com continues to offer more than a million fabrics and sewing supplies, and we encourage you to explore the Amazon fabric shop to meet your creative needs.

We will continue to process all orders and transactions placed on or before October 20, 2022. If you have additional questions please view our frequently asked questions page or contact our customer service for more information.

Thank you so much for supporting our business over the years. We appreciate the role we played in bringing your creations to life, and wish you the best as you continue to make this world a more beautiful place with your handmade designs!

I got the same email this morning.

Wow they certainly did not give any notice at all. I wonder if this is going to be the new norm now with inflation and labor issues, just a few hours notice and DONE.

Since Amazon owns this it sounds like it is just folded into Amazon. You will probably be able to buy all those fabrics there. It's frustrating to hear people complain about the minimum wage going up; you know, so people can make it on one job. Then in the same breath complain about quality and shipping issues from companies overseas. You can't have it both ways.

Not a surprise
 

In the fall of 2010, I placed my first order at Fabric.com, when it was privately owned. I loved the "Stephen's Scrap Bags" and found sales of great quilt fabric cut to order. Loved when I got "JACKPOT end of the bolt", especially when it was a wide backing. Then Amazon bought it. Gone were the scrap bags and personal service but the JACKPOT bonus stayed the same. I wasn't surprised when I saw the announcement. Wages/benefits, energy costs and other overhead are driving closings of businesses or the cost up. Only time will tell if Amazon continues to sell quilt fabric.

Whether or not there is fabric on Amazon won't just depend on Amazon selling fabric.com fabrics. Many of the fabrics on Amazon are sold by other sellers so if they keep selling there, then there will keep being fabric sold on Amazon whether or not Amazon is selling it.

Did I read the original announcement wrong? I thought it said that fabric.com would be selling through Amazon from now on. If this is correct, it's really not going away totally, just being swallowed up by Amazon.

Fabric.com did sell some things through Amazon. They are shutting down completely. The notice to vendors, referenced in the original post, states:

"Fabric.com will close down on October 20. Employees have been offered a severance package or the opportunity to seek employment in another Amazon division. "

That article also states:

"About six months ago, Amazon reached out to Fabric.com vendors to say that all fabric would soon need to be sold directly on Amazon.com. Vendors were told to upload all of their products to Amazon in one, three, or five-yard increments"

So Fabric.com's suppliers would need to sell as third parties on Amazon.com, and list in fixed yardage cuts.

Click through aashley333's link to the AMAZON Fabric Shop - it certainly appears Amazon is committed to supporting our craft and, as others have noted, may have folded in the fabric.com products under the Amazon site. Consolidation is not surprising given the economic circumstances.

One of the problems with buying fabric from Amazon is that a lot is precuts or set amounts. It says "by the yard" but when you click thru to the item, it's a 1 yard or 2 yard cut priced BTY. Makes it hard to buy a continuous cut of larger pieces.

Too many different statements. some swear the fabric will be gone. some say it won't. Always no shortage of rumors.
I buy only from local stores so this doesn't affect me.

I tried to shop fabric on Amazon yesterday. Not as user friendly to narrow the 10,000 choices as Fabric. I'm spoiled. I guess I'll have to find another fabric seller online.

I am sad to hear this. I buy a LOT of my quilting cottons online as I have no quiltshops nearby...they all take a considerable drive to get to and it is hit and miss in terms of getting what I want. I used fabric.com often over the years.

I liked the variety fabric.com had, but I didn't shop often there--- maybe in the early years, but not recently. I sometimes get fabric on Amazon, but sometimes find it hard to tell if it's good quality or not and some of the fabric has been...a bit poor quality. Sometimes I do find the fabric comes from a quilt shop though, through Amazon, which is good. I found chicken fabric on a quilt shop site where you could order it through Amazon and get prime shipping, so that was good. I guess it just varies.

I agree. Not really user friendly or easy to search like a quilt shop site.

One of the things I liked about Fabric . com was that you could put things on a "design wall" to see how they looked together. That feature isn't available on Amazon. Also only cuts in yard increments as far as I have seen.

I wonder how many of them actually will.

Very, very few, I would suspect.

Suppliers to fabric.com were the warehouses and manufacturers. Fabric.com purchased entire bolts. Most of their suppliers aren't set up for retail cuts (with the exception of pre-cut bundles) or retail labeling (individual pre-cut bundles, as opposed to a case of them).

That's what I suspect.

Agreed 100%

I'm also the lone wolf here who's had some issues with fabric.com, I've been doing other online shops (since most of my B&M shops here have recently gone to retiree hours) there are two "local" shops that I absolutely love but they are an hour drive away so not worth the gas when I can go online