I'm way behind at getting these posts read, but they are interesting.
We almost lost the fabric dept at our WM when they did their remodel, but ended up keeping it because of customer feedback at the possibility of no fabric. The dept was a little smaller when the remodel was done, but I noticed some of the fabric was of better quality...the $2/yd stuff is still pretty thin, but that which is priced at $4 to $5/yd is pretty nice and I don't mind working with it.