Really Surprised
 

I know a lot of you have quibbles with Wal-mart but I went to a store close to me yesterday and was amazed with the fabric selection and the quality..Yes as the saying says you get what you pay for.. in this case it was 100% true they have fabric from $.99 fat quarter to 7.97 a yard quilt shop quality..You just have to pay attention to what you buy.. I purchased several pieces and brought them home and since I prewash everything I did so with them nothing bled and everything pressed just as good as stuff I had paid 11.00 a yard for, all of these were in the 3.97 to 4.44 a yard range..as a matter of fact 1 piece of it,, there is the same thing at a fabric shop close by and it 9.97 a yard same fabric....Also their counter person there was helpful and polite which is more than I can say for some other.. Again maybe I just happen to be lucky and this store is an exception, but lets all give them a chance with prices continueing to go up we all may have to lower our standards just a tad...I am not a Wal-mart employee or affiliated with them and lord knows I have had my share of problems with them, but ever now and then they might surprise you, as they did me yesterday.....

I was just reading the other thread about Walmart fabric...ours just has the pre-cut fat quarters. I am hoping they eventually go back to having a good fabric dept...before ours local one was phased out I felt like it had went to the cheaper fabric almost exclusively. I suppose it is whoever is in charge.

The Walmart in our area never lost the fabric dept. I have to honestly say that they really do have some nice fabrics. They also have some cheap, crummy fabrics. I don't think it's in my best financial interest to dismiss Walmart fabric just because it comes form Walmart. Personally, I think some of the fabrics at Walmart are better quality than a lot of the fabrics I see at Joann's. I also have a real problem with Joann's "coupons". I love to buy fabric from my LQS, but lately we have been on a really tight budget. So my choices are, Walmart and continue to make quilts, or only make quilts when I can afford the LQS. I choose to keep sewing.

Unfortuantely our Walmart has no such fabric. It has bolts in what they call quality fabric starting at $4.95 to $7.95 a yard and it is of lesser quality than the LQS in a neighboring town that sells theirs at about $5.95 a yard and of decent quality and the LQS better quality is no higher than $7.98 a yard.

Our Walmart never lowers there prices for fabrics yet I can go to that neighboring town that has the LQS and stop by the Walmart there and find a better quality fabric than what is in my town and we are a much larger town but also a military town and I've seen them keeping this Walmart with trashy products of all sorts for high prices and go to the next one out of town and find better prices for same stuff or better stuff for a dollar or two more.

Our Walmart also does not keep the store clean like other Walmarts and reason I seldom venture in there.

Ours has pre-cut fabric...great quality...but wish thy would get the bolts back...still a good deallll and the ladies were always very helpfulll....

Our Walmart never lost the fabric dept either & some of their fabric is decent. Some is not, but the same could be said for Joann's too. The people in the WM fabric dept are nice too & I haven't had any bad experiences waiting forever to have things cut. Most of it was priced at $4.97/yd. The solid flannel I bought was $3.50- I washed it & it's fine. I see a lot of posts on here for fabric at WM priced $1 & $2/yd but I have never seen it that low at ours. It must depend on the manager or buyer for that particular store.

I don't want to bash WM but it is so much fun. It is wonderful that they have brought back the fabric dept. I just don't agree with any of their business practices and how they treat people so IMHO I will not give them my money. I make scrap quilts and save my money up to pay more at an independent LQS when I want to make a special quilt. Call me stupid but cheap isn't always better for me, morally and ethically.
peace

Our Walmart got rid of their fabric a few years ago. I asked the head guy there one day if they were going to have fabric again, he said that they were planning to but did not know when. That was about four months ago. When we had our fabric dept., they never had sales on the regular fabricl, just a large table with a few nice fabrics, but mostly second.

Someone mentioned that their Walmart was not kept clean. Generally, the store as a whole is kept very clean except for one thing that bugs me so much. The plastic case that holds the plastic produce bags is so filthy, and I do mean filthy. I could not stand to look at it anymore and recently spotted one of the managers, not the regular ones. I think this one was maybe a visiting manager. I told him about the dirty holder and he said he would take care of it. Well, it is still grimy and has never seen a cleaning rag. I am tempted to take some cleaner and a rag and do it myself, except I may get in trouble.

Another thing that bothers me is our Walmart is infamous for not having available items on the shelves. I went in there the other day and the cold section where the ass't types of sausage are usually kept was just about empty. There were about four packs of sausage on the shelf. Needless to say, the Sweet Italian Sausage I wanted was not available. This happens too often as far as I am concerned. Thanks for letting me blow off some steam.

Sometimes I feel the same way. Then again, there are local people working, even if not full time. It's a dilemma for sure. Our Walmarts got the fabric back but still have the precuts.

I made a quilt for one of my DGDs with all the fabric from Walmart. It turned out really well, but I had to go to the WM in the neighboring town. Ours has still not gotten the fabric dept. back yet. I had asked one of the "associates" last year and she thought it might be January. Well, it's now February and still no sign of it. I just don't get their reasoning. There is only one ver small LQS in this immediate area and no other fabric stores, nor any other craft stores. They would have no competition! Yet, with a Best Buy just about around the corner, they enlarged their electronics dept. when they closed their fabric dept. I am so tired of having to go way out to the mall area to find fabric. I just want to quilt.

i totally agree with you luv, we have a few walmarts here and some of them have very very nice fabric. i really like it a lot. in fact, i go there first before i'd go anywhere else to look for something. i wash all of my fabric also as soon as it comes in the house and i haven't gotten anything there i didn't like - except mistakenly bought a couple of those 5 yards for $5 bolts and of course it was so thin i don't think i'll use it for anything but other than that i love our local walmarts fabric selection.

my local wal-mart is cutting back to very few crafts & no fabric i was squaring up some expensive quilt shop fabric today and got very upset about the waste. Name brand does not mean any thing today

We live in rural TN, now we lost our fabric years ago. We have a big number of amish here. Letters and phone calls were sent. I finally was told to go to the district manager......I did.....never got a hold of her, just her assistant. Found out her home base is in a larger town 1 hr away........so she did not try to get us our fabric back, she went all out in their town, with their walmart getting fabric in.........so I refuse to buy ANY at ANY walmart unless they would have brought ours back..........still angry about the whole situation.

A person has to watch and look over fabric no matter where you get it. I have gotten some very nice fabric at Walmart.

I shop many places and even go to Wal-Mart if the have what I want. In talking with the employees they have told me wonderful things about working there, so the local management staff is not always the corporate policy. Sometimes it takes e-mails to to corporate offices to make them aware of what is happening. More than once I have written to corporate offices to make them aware of a bad situation. You would be surprised what can happen if you complain to the big office, especially when they find out you started with the local office.

Just to make things clear and not misinterpreted, I have and hold nothing against the people who work at WM. They are just almost making a living just like me. Company policy and the people who carry out the directives is another matter. Enough said,
peace

Thanks for posting a good and positive outcome. Very refreshing.

I have had the same experience with fabric and fabric department employees at Walmart in Maine. Be sure to look over the fabric and be sure that it has good "feel". Not all is worth buying but it is certainly worth looking!!!

We had a nice fabric department in the smaller store on the south side of town when it went to the super store fabric dept. was cut to a small section and the help is there but not much fabric

The lady who manages the fabric dept. at my Walmart is a quilter. She orders great fabric. You have to know your fabrics when you shop there because the also have to carry lesser priced fabric.
.

I agree our walmart has very nice fabric for same prices!!! Just bought some for 3.97yd. and fat quarters for .97. Now the clerks leave alot to be desired though!!!!

I am a walmart associate but one thing I do know is the higher priced fabric that is sold, in stores that still have fabric, is good quilting fabric. I have projects from years ago that are still holding up under all 13 of the grandchildren.

We still don't have fabric in our Walmart. They still continue to carry some sewing notions and Machines. But, no fabric. Phooey!!!

I agree with you. We do not have a Wal-Mart that sells fabric butwe do have a Hobby Lobby. They have many different quality fabrics. I check quality before I purchase and have never been disappointed.

Yesterday I went to my Wal Mart. What a surprise I got. They had Batiks. My girl (counter) said they are changing the fabric dept in April.

The Walmart here in my area never closed their fabric dept, and recently enlarged it. The woman who runs it is pleasant and helpful. There's not much other choice, without driving 75 miles, so I do buy from them.

I have learned from traveling in ND that all Walmart are classified differently. The fabrics at our store are totally different than the store 90 miles away. We have 2 Walmarts in our town, one on the north side and one on the south side. Prices for dairy are cheaper than the north store because of the people living in the south part of town. So like everything else, it pays to shop around.

It seems that the WM's vary from town to town and state to state. We travel a fair amount (full time RVers) and I see some WM's without any fabrics, some that have a nice selection of fairly decent fabrics and just as I do when I go to independent fabric stores, I check the fabric very carefully. I think we all should do that even at JoAnns (maybe I should say especially). It's difficult to be away from areas that have fabric when we enjoy quilting. I just can't seem to get myself to buy fabric online regularly. I enjoy feeling and seeing the true colors. We are lucky in Alabama where I'm spending the winter that we have a Fabrics by the Pound which has quilting cottons by the yard besides the upholstery fabric by the pound. I check it over carefully and buy what I need. $6.29 lb with my quilt guild membership card. Not bad at today's cotton prices.

I just purchased 4 different fabrics (same design, different bright colors) to complete a QFK quilt. I don't really go by where I buy it as much as I go by feel. I can't tell the difference in the feel of the one I got tonight and the one from a quilt shop that I already had for the quilt. I paid $4.97 a yard at WalMart. I think you just have to be careful. I've looked at the fabric several times and this is the first time I've found a collection that I was impressed with there and the price was great!

Not all small business owners are niced to their employees, even LQS owners.
I work for a small business and my boss recently let one person go because we couldn't afford the position anymore. We all took pay cuts a few years ago. Then about a month after the other girl was let go he hired his daughter for a made up position.

i wish our Walmart was that way, it is a find someone to help you ,and the little bit of fabric they have is $7.97 a yard nothing cheaper the whole dept takes one small isle

Always said you shop for quality wherever you can find it, not just in 'quilting stores' or name brand fabrics. I'm glad you found fabric you like. Keep quilting.

I use to buy fabric from Wal-mart but when they built the super store here they did away with the fabric and have what they call a craft center. It is one roll of junk.

I am glad to have the option to shop at Walmart for fabrics. You need to be sellective but I have found some good fabric and gotten some deals. I do think it is not LQS overall but since the prices went up and the economy changed I definitely am using some. If I want to keep quilting I need to look at other options and those include using my stash, buying "used" fabric from others off this board and Walmart.The LQS here are very expensive at $11 and up. Even Walmart now has $8-10 fabrics.

my quilting friends and i take a few hours about once every 6 weeks or so to drive to a walmart about 40 min from our house to buy fabric sometimes we just get a little sometimes its alot. we have a walmart 10 min away that has less stuff what they do have is jumbled up where you cant find anything and you can wait up to 30 min to be served
there never seems to be anyone on duty. the last time we went to the other walmart the store mgr herself waited on us as she was close by and she must have cut 35 -40 yards of fabric for the 3 of us and my friend likes hers cut into 1 yd increments as well and she laughed and joked with us and chatted like wed known her forever and we had never met her although the others ladies who work the dept are really nice too, she was happy to have us drive 40 min to shop in her store. we looked carefully at our fabric we paid anywhere from 1.50 to 5.97 a yd and were thrilled with our fabric. i sometimes buy emergency stuff (quilting wise) at our store but i have learned if i need service or more than a couple yards to make the drive. i hope i can continue to do so its going to depend on exactly how high gas gets.
carla m

I don't buy much fabric at Walmart and yesterday confirmed why. I needed a piece of off white cotton to embroider a quote on, and both pieces of fabric I had purchased at Walmart months ago were defective. Course it is my fault I didn't check out each piece when I got home; I just cut off the tag they attach to each piece, folded it my way, and stashed it in the cupboard. Most of the pattern on each piece along the salvage was gone or mottled, and the tan background in some spots was darker than the rest of the fabric. I don't know how I missed seeing this when she cut it or I folded it. So bummed I placed them in the pile of scraps (these are 2 yd pieces) for doll quilt backings or stuffing new dog beds. Went to LQS and purchased good Kona fabric for my project. Our Walmart prices have gone up, but they do have a better selection now too. Still prefer my LQS.

"My" Walmart in Myrtle Beach is very good, too. No complaints at all, except that they don't staff the fabric/craft area after approximately 8:00 PM. I can work around that...