After exiting bankruptcy just last year, JoAnn Stores has filed Chapter 11 again, and it looks like this time they’re done. Gordon Brothers (the company currently liquidating Big Lots and some years back A.C. Moore) is the “stalking horse,” which means the company is open to other bidders, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. If no others come along in the next 60 days, they will begin going out of business sales at all locations.
JoAnn was one of, if not the, earliest large fabric retailers, founded in 1943 as Cleveland Fabric Shop (and going through an assortment of name changes over the years). Hancock Fabrics, which went out of business almost 10 years ago, was founded in 1957. Both grew relatively quickly.
But those early successes turned into suffering, as the home sewing market has changed a lot over the past 50 years. Many factors have led to the end of fabric retail, but a significant start was an increase in less expensive ready-to-wear items coinciding with more women (traditionally the ones most likely to be doing the sewing) entering the workforce in larger and larger numbers. As time went on, there were fewer and fewer people with sewing skills or the time and an interest to learn them.
By the late 1980s, fabric retail was still a $3.5 billion industry–but it had experienced no growth in the decade, and when accounting for inflation, was actually shrinking. Up until then, you could sometimes even find fabric in department stores like JC Penney or Macy’s–those were the first to go. It was the beginning of the end for widespread fabric availability. Hancock Fabrics was able to weather the decade with solid business decisions and acquired others that didn’t do as well, including Minnesota Fabrics, Fabric Warehouse, and Fabric Market.
JoAnn followed suit with expansion in the 90s, acquiring Clothworld, Fabricland (which included Fabric King and So-Fro), and House of Fabrics. They both also started incorporating a wider selection of craft supplies and holiday items rather than focusing on apparel fabric. Walmarts had large fabric and sewing sections as well, which some argue caused the “Walmart effect” of decline on other fabric retailers.
In 1992, there were approximately 2,000 full-sized fabric stores in the US, and this was the final peak for the industry. The seemingly endless expansion of cheap fast fashion meant that making your own clothes was often not even a cost-saving endeavor anymore, leaving the market only to enthusiastic hobbyists and designers.
The third of the large and long-lived fabric stores, Piece Goods Shops, closed the last of its stores in 1994. (I believe it was founded in 1935, but its existence is all but forgotten on the internet except by the occasional message board post, “Does anyone remember Piece Goods?” and its bankruptcy filing.)
As a lifelong seamstress and crafter in general, I watched this decline and constantly thought that surely there would be a solution just around the corner, given what seems like a growing interest in handmade. In the last twenty years, we’ve seen the success of Project Runway, The Great British Sewing Bee, and Making the Cut, not to mention shows like Heroes of Cosplay and Cosplay Melee. Beyond sewing, we’ve seen more baking and cake decorating shows than I could even begin to name. Social media is dripping with DIY projects. It felt like there was a market. Then Hancock Fabrics filed for bankruptcy in 2016, and we were mostly left with JoAnn for fabric. Michaels and A.C. Moore stores filled much of the need for craft supplies, until the latter closed all of its stores in 2020 and sold its databases and IP to Michaels.
The pandemic gave these retailers one last boost. JoAnn actually saw some of its highest revenue in 2021 as people spent a lot of time at home, explored new hobbies, and made masks. In their first bankruptcy filing, they blamed billions in debt on the post-pandemic decrease in demand as well as dramatically increasing costs from tariffs and overseas shipping.
I really thought–or at least hoped–that the maker movement of the early 2000s, growing cosplay hobbyist market, and ongoing interest in DIY and traditional handmade items would keep JoAnn, the last of the big sewing-focused chains in business. In many parts of the US, Joann is the only option to browse fabric and notions in person that isn’t dedicated to quilting or home-decor.
So what’s next? This is the end of the era of the large fabric retailer, and remaining options are limited. Michaels announced last March that they’d be rolling out a larger assortment of fabric, and I imagine that is likely to grow even more. (Even a year ago, they cited “filling gaps in the marketplace” as a reason for the change.) In several waves over the 2000s, Walmart has cut back and returned their fabric departments, as well as experimented with things like selling pre-cut fabrics or self-cutting tables to remove the need for an employee to cut fabric. Hobby Lobby stores often have significant fabric and notions sections, but are politically distasteful to many makers. Shopping online for fabric is a gamble, where you can’t feel or see the fabric, and color matching is impossible. If you’re lucky, a local store carries apparel fabric, but those are rare. Thrift stores and creative reuse centers are another option.
As for me, I’ll definitely be stocking up on harder-to-find notions, interfacing (which seems oddly less common at those other options I mentioned), and probably a few patterns with shapes that I might not have in my stash.
