Our Wal Mart just recenty reopened the fabric dept. We have a full time clerk there, and the fabric is right around $6.00 a yard.

I was with our WalMart fabric department for three years and each year our remodel layout (size of department and where it would be located) was determined by home office. I left fabrics when the department was eliminated two years ago.
I also have been told that cost of merchandise is determined by the area of the country the store is located. I am sure the cost of material is much higher in NY than it would be in Alabama because everything else is more expensive also. IMHO The only thing that costs close to $8 py in our area is the collegiate material and it is still at least $4 py less than the LQS collegiate material.

Four WM stores in my area with no fabric. They do carry sewing machines, yarn and crochet item, buttons and other notions, but no yard goods. A fifth store, within the same driving distance, has a fair selection, albeit small. Their largest section is home decorator fabrics. I haven't gotten any cottons because of the low quality and poor design choices. However, a store I frequent in my travels to WV is loaded with good fabrics - of all kinds. It was a store I enjoyed buying from. Unfortunately, when they remodeled, and moved the department, they also rearranged the fabric grouping. Now, everything is jumbled together by PRICE. Quilting cottons next to rayon, next to denim, and home decor, then another couple of summer cottons. That's fine if you only want to spend $2.50 per yard, but what about the "better" fabrics? I find something I like in the ~$5 a yard, and have to go back to the lower end to see if the companion pieces were in the mark down area. It's a night mare!

Silly her! She'll be replaced by someone in a "New York minute". Why should she care, unless she REALLY likes to also shop there.
Personally I avoid Walmart... esp. since the fabrics are gone. I haven't even been in a new superstore (2-3 years old) nearby... hearing from friends, there is very little on the shelves, nothing stocked, etc. Walmart went downhill years ago in my book. Why don't they call it China-mart?? Tho' most fabric comes from China now, even at JoAnn's and our LQS...read the end labels... caveat emptor!

My good friend had to return Chinese fabric to JoAnn's - they did refund her money - when a section of material was flawed and "missing". Too bad no one saw it when it was being cut.

Good luck to the Retiring Fabric Dept Manager.

I was in Walmart yesterday, noticed some new fabric. There are no fabrics over $5.65. We have fat quarters .97 cents. Looks to me that we are getting new fabric. I am now wondering, if our fabric dept will expand a little further.

I don't shop at Walmart-- for anything-- because of their corporate policies. I would rather pay more money at another store.

You can get lovely REAL LQS shop fabrics online at great clearance prices on many sites. I've been paying $5-6 a yard for them, and that is WITH the shipping factored in...

Our local Walmart has fabric but I haven't been there for awhile so don't know the prices. What is the quality of the higher priced fabric some of you are seeing in WM? Those prices are pretty steep. I don't buy fabric there because I don't want to mix it in with LQS fabric even though the colors/patterns might work.

My Walmart, thankfully, never lost its fabric department. And yes, I've seen the $8.00 per yard fabric. The manager told me ALL of the fabric will be going up soon. She has been getting lots of new fabric, but at those prices, I'm afraid.......the only good thing (for Walmart, that is) is that there are no other fabric stores within 1 hour driving of me...

With the cost of gas, groceries, and everything else, I'll be pinching pennies and spending less!!

Our WM has what they call "discount fabric". They display it out front the day it comes in and then stuff it in the back bins later. I got some really nice red print fabric for my log cabin for $2.00 a yard, but when I went back a few days later, I had to search for the fabric in the back.

Next time you are at WM and have some time to spare check out the prices on the bolts. The discount fabric is blended in.

Check the size of those fat quarters. They are definitely not 18 X 22. I was disappointed to see that they do not have knowledgeable buyers in Bentonville. I was a store manager for WM for several years and the fabric and crafts dept was a real draw in my stores. The cutting table was the busiest service area in the store even before quilting became the staple. You have to be creative and have people working in that area that know fabric, techniques, resources and can talk to people. The walls were covered with projects made by associates and customers. I am not happy with the imported fabrics of such poor quality and mystery content that are available now. The home office determined the sq footage allotted for each of the 40 departments in a store from the demographics of the area of the country where you are located. Every year I would receive a schematic that would give the size of the area allotted. The fabric and crafts area has shrunk and the electronics department has exploded. Such as the times of our lives with technology owning the floor space. Twenty-five yrs of retail allows a lot of hindsight. :)