Carol34446

Our local Wal-Mart has a medium sized material/sewing department and two ladies that work there, (one at a time) full time. We only have one local quilt shop and I cannot afford their material. WM has poor so-so good and great material. You have to check each bolt, but I have clothes made from wm material and they are still around after a lot of years. Just the other day found they had a selection of upholsterery material now. But because we are rather in the cuntry that makes a difference. One WM in Oxford(The Villages)FL that didn't have any material now has material. We were told locally that a lawsuit made WM bring back material and crafts as they have auto and sporting goods.

Cari-in-Oly

I'm lucky in that I have 4 Walmarts that are close enough for me to shop. 2 have always had decent sewing/craft depts. with great knowledgeable employees and two have next to nothing.
I've never heard anything about a lawsuit but it could have happened. I do know that about 5 years ago when it became widely known that Walmart was closing out the regular fabric depts. across the country there was a massive letter writing campaign asking them to bring it back. Thousands of women across the country boycotted Walmart and let them know why.

Cari

quiltingshorttimer

Ha, Ha! Especially when you go into the store with a coupon for "regular price only"!
For those of us living in small towns, Walmart often serves as the only real retail store--in spite of knowing that shopping at Walmart will kill all small shop competition, we often have little choice. I feel fortunate that while no fabric is sold in my town, I have both a Wallyworld and a LQS just 13mi away! I mostly shop the LQS, but will shop Walmart for fabric for backing on wall hangings, table toppers, etc. Note that (at least in our Walmart) what looks like quilting cotton may have bolts of cotton/poly mixed in.

Onebyone

The Walmart fabric dept depends entirely on that dept. manager. Many just order the basic stock items and the ones that listen to customers or knows about quilting will order the good notions and tools. Anything in the Walmart inventory can be ordered as stock items for the store. It all depends on shelf space for that dept. I suggested getting rid of half the artificial flowers as that aisle is always a mess. The dept manager said oh my friends and I love making flower arrangements. One Walmart close by the dept manager is a quilter. That fabric dept is fantastic. Her dept. made enough profit to keep the fabric dept open, in fact it never got rid of that dept when all others did.

twinkie

Like Onebyone above, a lot depends on the associates in the store. I worked the fabric department in our small town for 3 1/2 years. Our Department Manager was fabulous and we were busy!!! I am a quilter and always was busy cutting fabric for the locals. We didn't have an LQS close by and the material we carried is material I used in quilts 8 years ago. After many washings, they are still in great shape. I still work for WalMart at age 72 and we have not had a fabric department for the last 5 years. Our store manager at that time didn't know a thing about sewing and decided they could make more money with a"party" department. I would love to send a link to this thread to corporate. The same complaint I have heard about all departments is no associates to help people. They also say there are never enough cashiers.

Now, in WalMart's defense, this is my feelings about the complaint. More associates result in more operating costs and higher prices of the merchandise being sold. Also I feel WalMart is a great source for the middle and lower income quilters to be able to continue with their beloved hobby. I myself cannot afford to shop at the LQS because the prices are out of my budget. This has all been said IMHO

grann of 6

The Walmart near me (10 miles) has a fair-sized fabric department, but they have a sign on the cutting counter that if you want assistance to go to the electronics department to get help. A few weeks ago I found some clearance I wanted for a specific charity quilt, and there just happened to be a clerk at the counter. Well, I never heard so many complaints about the way the department is run, and frankly, not much interested in going through that again. I even had to take the bolts to another department to get the SKU printed out. All for 2 pieces of fabric, which took me about a half hour to accomplish. I will be more then happy to drive further to my LQS and buy quality fabric and get GOOD customer service.

maryfrang

My WalMart has fabric. When others got rid they kept a small amount. Well now they have expanded the fabric on bolts, and the quality has improved too. There is not rows and rows, but the selection is not bad.

themachinelady

I, too, have found service lacking at Wal-Mart and what I did was hunt up the manager and complain directly to him about the situation. He immediately called someone and got me help. I told him there also wasn't enough cashiers, they needed to have some on standby to come and cashier when the lines got long. He said he would look into that and for a few weeks it improved, but then back to the old way again. May have to remind him one of these days.

As for Wal-Mart running out small shops, if the smaller shops would concentrate on service they would and could do much better. We had a young lady open a quilt shop (knew nothing about quilting, but listed to her grandmother who was a quilter; however the grandmother didn't know anything about running a business). The young lady was more interested in decorations for her shop than the quilting materials. She thought if she had antiques and only a little material people would flock in--didn't happen, plus her attitude to the whole thing was terrible. She wouldn't speak to customers, her hired help could do that! Consequently she didn't last long, plus her prices were outrageous as well and the quality of the material not all that great either. She had a lot of people who went to her store to start with myself included, but with an attitude like hers, lack of merchandise etc., I stopped going and those that continued were always complaining about something.

On another note, we have a small hardware store who bends over backwards on service and will try to get whatever you need if they don't have it in stock, are friendly and so accommodating and Wal-Mart hasn't run them out of business. In our small town, before Wal-Mart, most of the small stores took the attitude, this is what we have this is what you get whether you like it or not and many of those are no longer around. So I think it is the way the business is run, not necessarily Wal-Mart that causes their demise. Wal-Mart isn't doing as well as they once were and I think it is partially because of their service and lack of clerks, plus a lot of the clerks in some stores, will hide out to keep from having to work and that is not good either.

Our local Wal-Mart does not have fabric on the bolts, but the package stuff and it's not worth taking home. Another store about 45 miles away has an awesome fabric department and a full time lady there to help you. Yes, you have to watch the fabric you buy, but think you have to do that at the LQS also. The quilt shops about 25 miles away have some good fabric (expensive) and some poor fabric (still expensive) so you have to watch what you buy and not assume.

Just a few points and my two cents worth for the day. Happy quilting to everyone.

Quilter 65

My observation was that when WM jumped into the scrapbooking market, it was the effective end of many independent shops. Now they have seriously diminished their stock and carry only minimal supplies (at least around here) and the shops are defunct. I am concerned that LQS will suffer the same fate.

CurliQ

We have a good sized fabric selection at WM but what I like about the LQS is that they have the lines of fabric that I like and the collections. I am VERY indecisive when picking fabric so I like collections.