the most wonderful thing!
 

JoAnn Fabric is moving right into the empty Hancock's Fabric building in my town of Hattiesburg, MS the sign is already up......YEA anyone else's town having this happen to them

It's better then no shop at all. LOL

I'm very happy for you Regina. I know how excited I was when I moved to a new town and saw a Joann store. What a wonderful thing for you!

That is wonderful! I'm right up the road from you in Florence....

If JoAnn's is savvy enough to do that in one location, I'm sure they are planning to do it in others. Why not move in and take advantage of an already established market? Makes perfect business sense.

The alternative wasn't 'no shop at all'.... Hattiesburg has a Hobby Lobby and several quilting shops. But I get it... you were making a veiled comment that you don't like JoAnn's. Ok, to each their own. I personally can't stand to shop in a Walmart.

I don't have a problem with JoAnn's.

I would love to have a JoAnn's in the area where I usually shop. There is one in a town nearby, just not very convenient for me. JoAnn's stores can differ greatly from one town to another in cleanliness, friendliness, and even in product. The same can be true of any store, including Walmart. I think a lot depends on the on-site management. The fact that your JoAnn's will be new probably means that it will be well organized, well stocked, and clean, with a new staff that is excited about opening a new store. How exciting!

There wasn't a Hancock in my area.

I imagine the buildings are being sold off to various companies. I know that Michaels Crafts bought up their remaining inventory and the rights to their branded products so it's reasonable to assume that some of the buildings will become larger Michaels stores.

Cari

I would love for a Joann's to move into our vacated Hancock Fabric. The nearest Joann's for us is in Knoxville, which is a couple hours for me. Although my DD loves to go to Knoxville and we make a day of it.

We have a nice Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Ben Franklin Crafts and a couple quilt stores to still by fabric from. I am not crazy about Walmart and their fabric selection never varies. Same thing they have had for years.

So far I have not seen any activity in the area. But I will be going over that way later in the week, will check. The Hancocks space was pretty small though.

I haven't seen a Ben Franklin around here for years.

I go there if the price of an item I want is cheaper with a coupon then elsewhere. Their coupon nonsense is frustrating to me.

I love that there is a Joann's near me. But I agree that their coupons make me frustrated. I can't tell you how often I have made a special trip to their store excited about using my coupon for a favorite piece of fabric, just to find it on sale instead for only a minimal discount. This happened just last week again. It is annoying.

Our Hancocks is tiny. I wish Joann's would move near me since I love to shop their storage, notions and rulers. Michaels not so much. Went up to visit friend when I used to live and Hobby Lobby is going in a new shopping center. That means Joann's , Michaels, Hobby Lobby and a wonderful LQS will be about 1/2 mile apart. Wish we hadn't had to move.

We had a Hancock's - it closed and now Joann's is opening in that spot -- not sure when but they are advertising for help. We also had a Ben Franklin until just recently. Never had a Joann's to shop in - it will be interesting to see what they carry!

I agree with Dunster that it seems like the management of the JoAnn's stores make such a difference--unfortunately the one closest to me has a male manager that is not nice to either customers or employees--days he's not there it does seem better.

But a general grip here--I am SO TIRED of businesses not hiring enough employees! Not just retail, where you can never find a clerk, but also in businesses where you phone and wait, and wait, and wait--or worse, get stuck "talking" to a machine! I'm willing to pay more to businesses that actually employee people to make my life easier!

I believe the one in Warner Robins GA will become a Joann.

A fairly local JoAnn's is moving to another location in the mall--just for more space. Should be nice. :)

My experience also. I live 80+ miles from the nearest Joanns and had Hancock Fabric 130 miles away. would make a trip to Hancocks before stopping at Joanns because I liked their sales and they honored Joanns coupons. will miss Hancocks and I see that a Joanns is coming to that store location too.

We are also fortunate to have Joann's moving into Marshfield, WI location. So happy about that as there is nothing in our area and we had one of the only Hancock's that made money. Thrilled that we can at least buy basic supplies without traveling 40 miles.

Where I live (well, a half an hour away) there was a Hancock and Joanns. Now the Joanns is so slammed it's not worth going to. I went in the other day to check on a roll of batting. There must have been 20 ladies waiting at the cutting counter. NOTHING is worth that wait.
When most everything needs to be purchased online I guess UPS is doing a good business.

I like to use coupons but like many of you really dislike the technique of putting most everything on sale when the coupons are valid or all the exclusions and then you can't use them. Geeez!

Karamarie, Isn't that a clever strategy?! It's an underhanded way to get you into the store. They know that once you're there, you'll likely search high and low for something worthwhile to use your coupon on, and along the way you'll load up your buggy with other items. It's a smart way for them to generate profit. I love getting the 50% off coupons when I can use them for something substantial, but I find that they are all to often applied to some minor thing like a sewing notion.

If you are getting the emails or flyers for Joanns, you can see if your item is on sale before you go to the store. This saves the frustration of a coupon vs. sale item. For the person who has an unpleasant manager at their local store, on your receipt it has a link for you to mention that. Also, if you have a great experience with an employee, also note that at the link. These comments are read and action is taken. The district manager will get notified and it is so great to get the feedback that a customer appreciated your assistance. The shortage of employees is rampant in retail - and it will get worse (sorry). Any store is given so much for payroll hours. Every time you increase the minimum wage, you decrease the number of available hours. Unfortunately you don't decrease the amount of work! So now you have less workers who have to work harder. Or, you increase the cost of product and the public hates that. For every customer that I try to take that extra minute to assist in a fabric question, I have one who is standing tapping their foot or complaining loudly that they have to wait. It is a very thin line we are walking trying to help everyone in a timely fashion. I have had items actually thrown at me because we were busy ON A SATURDAY AFTERNOON. Of course we were busy, if not, we would be closing down. I am truly sorry for your inconvenience, but please remember, we are trying to help you and get you home to start your projects as quickly as possible.

that happened to me and I asked them to give me the discount from the original price. Saved a few dollars more. got the store manager because of the discrepancy.

Great. I hate empty store bldgings!

Dunster, what you are saying is so true. A trip to our "old" JoAnn's was about as unpleasant to me as a trip to the dentist. But sometimes it just had to be tolerated. Now since they have moved to another location, there have been all kinds of changes -- in space, cleanliness, attitudes of workers, organization,....I could go on and on. I love going there!
do admit the coupon issue is still pretty irritating.

I just heard the same about our local Hancock Fabric building. JoAnn's should be opening yet this fall. I do most of my fabric shopping at LQS but there are some notions and so forth for bags and such that you just can't always find at a LQS or their hours aren't usually suited to mesh well with my work hours. I work until 5, it's hard to get to a shop that closes at 5.

Anyway, Happy for you, reginalovesfabric! And happy for me too! :)

I agree with laughingquilter. While I don't work anymore, hours aren't an issue, but I do shop at JoAnns for some things the LQS doesn't carry.

I am happy you are getting a JA. They carry most everything you need. Prices are up and down, hard to follow and coupons are kind of mean. But I buy there when I have to and need to and am glad they are there. When it is not an emergency, I play the coupon game with them, if the coupon doesn't work,, I leave the purchase behind - on the counter if I am in the store or in the wish list if I am on line. After all, new and different coupons come out every week, so I just wait. It can take me months to make a quilt, or I can work on another (I have too many quilts in process with no real dead line to meet).

Our Hancock's building is still empty. I am hoping another fabric- related will move in. We have a Ben Franklin in Old Town-about an hour and a half away and it has a wonderful fabric section.

I wish!!!! The closest Joann's is 45 miles away from me. Hancock's Fabrics was about 9 miles and I stock-piled fabrics, but I still need solids, so I'm doing it online right now. The Hancock's closest to me only had mostly blends in solid colors, and there were times I just didn't feel like fighting the strings from the cut ends of the blends nor the shrinkage from an iron that was too hot.

Just a side note: I had never been to a Joann's Fabrics until about 11 yrs. ago when we moved to Wisconsin. They didn't have any Hancock's there, and we didn't have any Joann's in north Alabama. I loved Joann's there, and thought I'd miss it, but the Hancock's here was just as good.:thumbup:

We finally got a Hobby Lobby within 20 miles of us. We have a great, well-maintained fabric/craft department in our local Walmart.

I saw an ex-Hancock employee last night and the JoAnn's here will open in October. I also heard a rumor that our Michael's is going to start handling fabric anyone else hear anything like this?

I love to have access to JoAnns, though I don't shop there that often. They do have the occasional quilty thing I might need, but they also have things for my other crafty hobbies.

Happening in Abilene TX also. Really hoping for one of the big ones like there is in Brandon FL.
Robin in TX

If I have a 50% JAS coupon and the item I want is on sale, I always have a couple items on my wishlist - interfacing, quilted fabric, rulers and templates. I know all these will not be on sale, so I pick one up. Then my workroom is always stocked and I have been able to use the 50% (or for sure a 60%) coupon. I do not use this plan with a 40% because they have items at 40% often. About 8 years ago, they stopped letting customers change the sale price to regular to use a coupon. They were the only store that still did this and it was an inventory/sales nightmare. One area that seems to cause problems is the difference between instore and online coupons. Most are good both ways, BUT, if there isn't a bar code printed on the coupon, look at the top of it. It will say online only and can not be honored in the store. Hope this helps.