The important things

February 26, 2025

One year ago, my sister-in-law was given 3-6 months to live. Determined to live life on her own terms, she declined therapeutic chemo and got busy living. A number of bucket list trips were taken with her three adult daughters and assorted grandkids. Last summer, the two of us made the pilgrimage to Missouri Star Quilt Company. My sister-in-law attended her 40th high school reunion in the fall. With that event, she’d crossed off the major things on her bucket list and simply wanted to enjoy her grandkids as much as possible.

Cancer eventually began to take its toll on her body. She was admitted to the hospital over the Christmas holidays. We visited with her in the hospital. She was in good spirits once they had the pain under control, but she was definitely frail. Home hospice services followed her release from the hospital. In mid-February, her hospice nurse advised that my sister-in-law had only a few weeks left. Hubs left Monday to go see her. I’m so glad he did. My sister-in-law passed away last night. Thankfully, she’s no longer in pain.

As the saying goes, life goes on. The sun’s out, the birds are singing and hubs is headed home. My final beginning sewing class is scheduled for Saturday and hubs has a friend flying in from the west coast. Hopefully, we’ll have word on her final arrangements this afternoon. I don’t know how much preplanning was done and one of the daughters and her family live far away, It could be this weekend or early next week. We’ll certainly reschedule what needs to be rescheduled so we can be at her end of life celebration. That’s the important thing.

Joann’s future is doubtful

February 23, 2025

The winning bidder of the bankruptcy auction was a partnership of Great American Group and some of the lenders. They bought the assets of Joann with the intent of liquidation rather keeping it as a going concern. The bankruptcy court will approve/disapprove of the sale on February 26th. This means all 800+ stores will most likely close on or before May 31, 2025. FYI, Great American is the same group that liquidated Hancock Fabrics almost 10 years ago.

The Hancock’s closures didn’t bother me as much as the closure of Joann does. I have a personal history with Joann. Cloth World, the fabric store I grew up with, was bought by Joann in 1994. Shortly after, I helped reset one of the Gwinnett Cloth World stores to the new Joann format. As we moved around the country with hubby’s job, finding the local Joann store in our new town was the same priority as finding the nearest library. I am a librarian, after all.

With the closing of Joann, crafters have lost a major option in where to buy supplies. In some areas, Joann is the only fabric/craft store for miles around. Even in markets served by Amazon, Hobby Lobby, Michael’s and Wal-Mart, some crafters refuse to shop any and all of these stores for various reasons. Besides, Joann is open on Sundays and allows Sadie to shop with me. The teacher discount and sales meant this teacher could afford to do craft projects with her students without breaking the bank.

Practical me has been surveying my fabric and notion stash to see if there’s anything I need to stock up on should I find a great price during the closing sales. Honestly, I don’t need a thing at the moment. Should I need more Pellon SF-101 interfacing for a t-shirt quilt currently in the queue, I have other ways to get it. Hobby Lobby usually runs a 40% off fabric promotion every 2-3 weeks. Today, I learned that interfacing by the yard is included in that promotion. Bonus? Hobby Lobby is much closer to home, too!

Fortunately, we still have options to source materials our creative endeavors. It’ll be an adjustment to figure out where’s the best place to get certain things from now on, but I’ll survive. Something will eventually come to the marketplace to fill the void left by the closure of Joann stores.

Photo by Photo By: Kaboompics.com on Pexels.com

Musings on what happened to Joann

February 22, 2025

Out of curiosity, I’ve been skimming through the court docket. Know what I think? Joann’s has been badly mismanaged for years by executives who: (a) didn’t know their target customers as well as they should have and (b) were out to siphon off as much money from the company as possible. Follow the chain of ownership. The number of different LLCs that own Joann is dizzying. Too much intermingling among executives, members of the board of directors, suppliers, financiers and outside consultants. Lots of lawyers, accountants, consultants, rent-a-executives with four figure hourly rates all have their fingers in the pie. They’ve all filed paperwork with the court to make sure they get paid. What about the employees and unsecured creditors?

Joann has too many stores and no one was willing to be the bad guy and close the unprofitable ones until now. Gordon Brothers is taking care of that. Apparently, the remaining stores have garnered the interest of several suitors in an auction. It’ll be next week before we hear anything about that. Hopefully, the new buyer will revive the remaining Joann stores – returning the company to its fabric and textile roots. Keep the fabric, notions, yarn and needlework categories. Maybe some plastic storage. Have a carefully curated selection of sewing machines, accessories and staff who know how to use them. Offer classes again. Adults are looking for in-person beginner sewing classes because you can only learn so much from YouTube.

My unsolicited advice to the successful bidder who plans to keep the remaining stores open: Invest in your stores and people. Offer quality merchandise that’s priced fairly, with clear coupon/discount policies. Customers will return.