The bottom line is that they don't care :cry: The fabric dept is a service deptartment and they don't make zillions of dollars in profits from it, not to mention that they don't believe in customer service any more. Since Mr Sam died, customer sevice has gone out the window. Very few Walmarts give good service any more. I live in North carolina and the best one that I hae seen is in Spruce Pine, NC. The people are soooo nice and friendly. Like they really care whether you shop there!

They really don't care. I have to drive over 40 miles one way to get to my "usual" Wal-Mart. If this Wal-Mart doesn't have or can't get what I am looking for I have to drive over an hour to get to a different one from my house. I don't mind the drive but after you get there and the sales people are either not helpful or rude to you, it makes you really change your attitude about Wal-Mart. However, my "usual" Wal-Mart is the only one I have found where usually everyone is so nice, especially the fabric department. At other stores, most of the time, there is no one there to cut your fabric, so you have to ring the bell (which I don't like to do because I feel like I am saying "GET OVER HERE AND CUT THIS") which I do if I absolutely have to but even if I don't they act like it is the most dreadful, awful thing to have to come and help a customer, then if I can't find what I am looking for ...heaven forbid I ask a question. :(

I really hate this. I still sit and wonder what ever happened to the good ole' days when everyone said please, thank you and your welcome, or when someone didn't mind helping someone else, not because they had to but because they wanted to. I mean really, where did that go?

I think when Wal-Mart does discontinue their fabric departments in most stores, they will realize how much business they were bringing in from the fabric department and go oh, that was a dumb move.
AT LEAST I HOPE SO...

I really feel for you quilters, our local walmart closed its dept. last month, it is full of artifical flowers. cemetary flowers. I thought that they would be keeping everything that wouldn't have to be cut. but they had all bottons and zippers, even ribbons marked half off. everything is gone now and it won't return. it's to late for our store

By Walmart getting rid of there fabric that is not the only money they lose as there will be no need to go there are better buys at other grocery stores. So they will be losing in two areas not just one. Filling the space with atrificial flowers, what do they expect a big run on deaths or something? That does not make since. :(
Adal

Heather The signatures are at 30941 this morning. when we send the link it would be interesting to note how it has grown. I signed 12/28 and was 4346. This has really rolled on...but it seems they are NOT listening. Now with Hancock closing stores, and JoAnn going down hill, well, where will be go? I don't want to buy on line. I want to see and touch my fabric before I make a purchase.

June

FOr our Wal-Mart, I was told everything would be gone around 1 June. I've been told they would still have thread and things like that, but I'm wondering why the embroidery thread was marked down when I went to WM Sunday?!?!?!! scary. That's ok. I got some on eBay way cheaper. That makes me feel a whole lot better about hating WM. BUT>>>I don't want to buy fabric online, either. I wanna feel, see, and...oh well.

There seems to be conflicting feedback going on out there about WalMart's fabric dept. Some quilters have reported that a few WalMarts are bringing fabric back due to the barrage of phone calls and online petition hits that were received. I guess we will just have to wait and see. This is a real roller coaster ride.

My question: (not to be a smart answer)

WHO ASKED US ANYWAY?

They do not care about us...only the bottom line.$$$$$$

Our local Ben FRanklin store has a quilter running the fabric department, and it is getting better. Thank goodness for that. I will be shopping there, even if it is a little more expensive than WM.

It seems that most of the WM's in the Raleigh area are getting rid of their fabric dept. My daughter went to a few in surrounding towns and she said that most of the fabric was already gone. Sad isn't it, with quilts becoming more and more popular that ists getting harder and harder to find affordable fabric. I don't like the service at Wal Mart but will shop thee if the fabric is a good price. I am not real crazy about the kind of service or price at the fabric stores either. Went to Joannes last week, same old tired fabric that they have always had. They need some new designs or designers either way. The calico was 3.99, marked down 30%, but I was hard pressed to find some colors and/or designs that I really liked. And since most of what I make is given away to others, I really want affordable prices and good quality. I guess nowadays that might be a bit too much to expect. LIke everyone said its all about their huge profits and nothing else. But what goes around comes around and maybe us quilters will rule and they will realize the bottom line isn't as nice as it use to be once we aren't there anymore. How many of us have gone for fabric and gone out with 6 or 7 other things that we thought of while in the store? Well, I can probably get the other things elsewhere if there isn't any fabric to go look at in Wal Mart.
Okay, stepping off my soap box and clamping my lips together. LOL Enough from me!!!!

To all of you that have noticed your Joanns stores going downhill on the quilt fabric: One of the employees told me this past weekend that they were told they will not receive any new fabrics until they get rid of most of their clearance fabric. Our Joanns has moved their clearance fabric 3 x's in the last month, and they fill up the shelves with more fleece. I just don't get it.

Ben Franklin???? Gosh, I did not know they existed anymore, anywhere. They are not in my area, and when I go to WV/MD there are never any. They used to be a good place to shop for fabrics, even if they did have what used to be called "flat folds" to choose from. That makes me feel good to know they still exist in some corner of the world.

June

I didn't even know there were any Ben Franklin stores left! We lost our BF in the 80's or very early 90's! I was just a kid, but I loved that store then!!!! :!:

JUne, I didn't see your post before I repied. I'm in WV. I haven't seen ANY BF's since our local one shut down when I was a kid.

Gosh, I never knew "Ben Franklin" stores EVER existed. And I'm no spring chicken either. What kind of stores were they? I already wish they were still around.

We still have one in Burney, CA. It is like a dime store. This one replaced Sprouse Ritz. Has a little of everything. A really, really small WalMart without the groceries.

Just like Nora said.....like an old fashioned dime store...or 5 and dime, as they were called in my childhood. I grew up inthe 40's and was permitted to go downtown by myself when I was about 10. That would be 1944. I loved the 5 and dime stores...McCrory and JJNewberry. Does anyome remember any others? And did some of them carry fabrics. When I first moved to Cincinnati in 1963 there was a big GCMurphy store in a shopping center near my home. When I had my "night out" I would go there and buy fabric. I met the girl who covered fabrics and we became friends. We still visit by phone after 40 years, Those were the days of really good prices and some good fabrics.

Seems as though everything was better back then, But my 73 year old memory is not always too sharp.

June

We didn't have any Ben Franklins around here when I was growing up in the '50s, but we had plenty of Newberry's, Woolworths, and Kress's. Those five and dimes were the only places I could shop within a school girl's budget. They used to have a lunch counter where you could grab a quick, cheap bite to eat and they had fabric for all your home ec classes that used to be required in junior and senior high school. We took streetcars and buses downtown to these stores to see what our $1 per week allowance would buy and then stopped at the public library where the highlight of our week was reading, reading, reading. We roamed the downtown area on our own without fear, and this was a major city, not a small town. How I miss those days.

I remember a Ben Franklin store in Elgin, Ill where I grew up. We had to buy our gym clothes from there. The school wanted us all to match. Haven't thought about that in a looooong time. Boy those were the days. Mama used to send me to the store with a quarter to buy bread or something and I'd spend her change on candy. Boy was my butt red. In those days parents didn't have to worry about their kids being abducted. What has happed to our world. Sometimes I wish it would quit spinning so I can get off.

Debbie, as long as there are people like us on this world, we have hope. We moved to a small town, 150 people, and we made our own reality, but in the city, we keep the guard up. Here, it is not like the old days, but it is good enough for now.

Ladies, you can get really good "quilt quality" fabrics online from a whole lot of shops. Quilt shops. Some of them, like www.fabric.com have free return shipping within 30 days if you decide you don't like it.

I have NEVER been disappointed with my orders. The websites have very good photos of the selections, and will indicate sizes of prints. If you check back occassionally you'll find super deals!

I recommend fabric.com, fabricdepot.com, artofsoul.net and 5bucksayard.com for starters. You can google "quilt fabric" and get unlimited websites to go to.

Also, if you are looking for quilt pattern ideas, I found quilters warehouse shops website shows beautiful photos of patterns they sell.

You could spend all day just surfing the net and think of the gasoline you won't be using driving around!

Hope this helps!
Wendy

Our local stores were. WT Grants, Economy store, Clark's we had a lot of them. My favorite was woolworths I liked to buy pearls for 49 cents. We used to giggle over the foam bra inserts. They had candy by the pound and you could mix it up........they enjoyed the kids.
then you have to stop and think of the flu and ther iron lungs for polio.........not all good.......
Does your Walmart have check outs where you do it yourself? :shock: . I refuse to do that, more people lose a job

Speaking of Woolworth's......my Dad got his first job at a Woolworth's in WV when he first arrived in town from the farm. He asked his aunt and uncle if he could stay with them. He was 15 years old. He was born in 1907...and this would have been 1922. He recently celebrated his 100th Birthday and still talks about sweeping the sidewalk and the floors in F.W. Woolworth store as his first job.

A ladies dry goods stoe owner asked him to come work for him, gave him a key to the door, said to let the girls in and lock up at night, and keep the sidewalk swept. He stayed there until he retired. A content life, doing what he really enjoyed doing. (of course, he did not sweep the floors the rest of his life. He was promoted to manager in time.)

It was a sad day for him they they went out of business.

Well, last time I checked the signatures totaled 31,714. This is 31,714 people, or at least email addresses. LOL. But that many people purchase products whether it is fabric, thread, yarn, crafts, etc. from a company who apparently does not care how many people support their business...so will it really even matter in the end how many signatures there are? Will 31,714 wallets break Wal-Mart if they do take out the fabric departments, if the people who vowed to stop shopping there if they quit selling fabric stay true to their word?

Wal-mart sells crafts that children use in school to make projects for various subjects. Can they take this away from them? I mean really, not EVERY store sells the same products that Wal-mart does and especially not at the same price. They are not even considering their customers or their future customers, the children. How can we be CREATIVE if we cannot buy products that assist us with our projects? I know, being a future teacher, how many times I have made trips...especially midnight trips to Wal-Mart to get items for the next day for a science class molecule project or paints and paper or glitter and glue, or scissors and pencils, etc. It doesn't matter what it is, it has all came from Wal-Mart...


Okay, I think I have had my "vent" for today, lol. Everytime I think of this, it makes me so angry and disappointed all at the same time. :!:

Heather, I was told it is just the fabric and patterns that is going. They will still have the crafts. I've also heard they will still carry thread and sewing machines, things like that. I do NOT know for sure. If they get rid of ALL that stuff, they're CRAZY! They're crazy anyway. I'd love to see an ACMOORE come closer.
Is the one in Clarksburg the only AC Moore in WV????

Well as far as stores go and before Wally World, we had Ben Franklin and TG&Y. My girlfriends mother sewed and was a fabriholic like I am today. We used to giggle about her mothe because she would go to TG&Y and buy fabric and come home and put it in this big ole dresser that she stored her fabric in. Oh how we giggled about that! But it's come back to haunt me :lol: I am jsut as bad. If she is looking down on me from Heaven she is probably laughing so hard that she has tears in her eyes. That what I get for giggling about people especially fabriholics :!:

Miranda,

The only other AC Moore we have here in WV is in Barboursville.That is even farther than Clarksburg. Isn't that disheartening?!


Vicki,

Funny you mention laughing at your friends mother, I used to think my grandmother was so silly for having all of these large containers and dressers full of fabric. When I was little, I thought what is she going to do with all of that, now I am thinking wow, if I only had all of that,just think of what I could make. Haha. It is funny how the tables have turned. Everytime I go to Wal-Mart, I always buy tons of fabric that I know what I will use it for in my head but actually doing it has not caught up yet,lol. I have so man PIGS that it isn't funny.

If we could feed the fabric whatever it is we feed the PIGS to make them grow, our STASH WOULD GROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, my gosh..Ben Franklin and G.C. Murphy along with Woolworths and Sears were the ONLY shopping places of my girlhood!! Great cheap prices, good varieties, and lots lots lots of things for us to look at, touch, and purchase with our dimes and nickles.

Some of my first embroidery pieces came from there, stamped pillow cases. lol lol

Sharon

We just returned from Austin, TX to Dallas by going through a lot of little towns, and in Jewett, we saw a Duckwall's that looked like it's still in business, but closed on Sunday. I can't remember how many years it's been since I saw one. Had it been open, I would have gone in and bought fabric (if they had some) just cuz! I did spend a huge amount in a little store in a little town on the way to Austin. She had so much cute stuff that I could have spent hours (and $$$), but I restrained myself. :)

they finally closed the Ben Franklins here in Tucson,but it only carried craft and sewing item,it was the total craft store.it had everything

They already got rid of all the fabric and patterns at my Walmart, and they moved the sewing machines and craft stuff to the front of the store. As one of the other posters mentioned, there a re a lot of other stores that I can do my grocery shopping at, I mainly went to check on fabric, glad I bought a lot of what I wanted from there when I did.

As for JoAnns, yes, seems like more and more fleece, and the Calico's are always on special.

Didn't hear about Hancock's closing down, shopped there a lot when I was much younger, before I started quilting, lived fairly close to one growing up.

I lived within walking distance of a BF growing up in the 50's and it even expanded to include a phamacy. The last time I was by after moving was back in the 80's and it was still there then. Haven't been back since, the area has gotten to be a bad part of town and I don't live in the town now either, I'm a state away and glad of it. I signed the WM petition and still they took all the fabric out of the one closest to me and doesn't look like it will ever come back. If Dad would move his perscription business elsewhere I might not have to ever go back, it makes me blue everytime I have to do any shopping there. :( I don't like having to give them any business any more.

I no longer get my prescriptions filled at Walmart either, since the hours changed, used to open at 7, now it's 9, I like getting things done early, so now I drop them off on my way to the gym at CVS, they have it ready on my way back.

I live in Indiana, and so far we still have fabric in my Wal-Mart SuperCenter. I am sooooooo glad, because that is where I get most of my AFFORDABLE fabric.
Over the weekend, we took a trip up north to Shipshewana, In. and they have a Yoder's store with lots of beautiful fabric, but I can't afford the $7 or $8 a yard fabric when I am making a queen size quilt, so I come home and go to my local Wal-Mart to shop for the fabric I need. They carry most of all I need.

Have a good day. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" Phil 4:13

Pat B.

I will be up in Helen, GA from Aug 9th - 12th, are there any quilt shops or Walmarts with fabric in that area?

Will also be near the Tennessee border, not sure how far if there are any in the south part.

Thanks in advance,
Mary

Oh my gosh! I haven't thought of these stores in years. I grew up in L.A. and shopped "downtown" with my mother and went by streetcar. Had Woolworth's, Newberry's, and Kress. I didn't know about Ben Franklin's til I moved to Arkansas. Here there were Sterlings, TG&Y, Ben Franklin and the first Wal Mart I ever saw was in Booneville in 1973. WOW! Now there is nothing but Wally World as they put everyone else out of business by under cutting their prices and now they are pretty expensive on a lot of their stuff, especially their food. I can get better prices at a regular grocery store. So far, we have not lost our fabric dept. It is real hard to pay $8 or $9 a yard for fabric.

I just signed this- there are now 36 thousand (and some)
signatures! Let's hope that our signatures make a difference :)

Yeah! I remember Ben Franklin as one of those stores that had all of those little glass pretties, my mom made us cross our arms over our chests as we passed through that department so we could'nt touch anything!