March 5, 2007, 1:08AM Wal-Mart's plan to cut fabric departments draws critics
By LISA FALKENBERG Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
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SEGUIN - On a curb across from a sprawling Wal-Mart Supercenter stands a shopper scorned.
Doreen Taft represents the newest type of critic to clash with the world's largest retailer. She's a grandma. She loves to sew. And she wants her fabric department to stay .
"I should have named this the grandmas' and mamas' revolt against Wal-Mart," said Taft, a 63-year-old with a bowl of gray hair and flag-waving teddy bears marching across her red T-shirt.
Taft is one of a legion of quilters, seamstresses and sewing enthusiasts across the country who are wound up about Wal-Mart's plan to unravel its fabric departments at many stores.
For the past two weeks, Taft has been planted at a stop sign across from the Wal-Mart parking lot, disseminating to passing cars more than 3,000 petition letters, signed "A VERY UNHAPPY Wal-Mart Shopper."
A handwritten sign masking-taped to a rusted lawn chair exclaims: "Help! Help! Save our Fabric Dept. in this store."
In places like Seguin, a South Texas town of about 25,000 and a shopping hub for surrounding communities, Wal-Mart is the only game in town for fabric, seam binding, dress patterns, lace and other sewing supplies.
Independent stores closed down when they couldn't compete with Wal-Mart, and if Wal-Mart follows suit, shoppers would be forced to drive 30 to 60 miles to San Antonio or other towns for sewing needs.
Sewing enthusiasts are blanketing Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters with letters and petitions needling the retail behemoth to change its mind.
One online petition touts 27,000 signatures.
A test for the market Wal-Mart officials say the changes are part of a national pilot project, mostly at new and remodeled stores, to replace fabrics with "celebration centers" that feature party supplies for weddings, birthdays and other events. Spokeswoman Tara Raddohl said in a statement that celebration centers will continue to sell items such as sewing machines, yarn, needles and thread. Most stores will continue to carry pre-cut, packaged fabric, which doesn't allow customers to choose specific sizes and shapes.
The statement insisted "we're determined to be as relevant to customers in their local store as we can. ... This is still a pilot and we'll keep looking at how it's working before putting any roll-out plans in place."
Wal-Mart officials didn't give a telephone interview or answer e-mailed questions.
Local store managers said they couldn't provide details, although two said they believed fabric departments in all stores would eventually be cut.
Opponents say the fabric flap shows that a retailer known for catering to common folks has lost touch with the fabric of America.
"That little eight-by-eight postage stamp of a fabric department back there is not going to make or break Wal-Mart," said Taft, who adds that Seguin already has several party supply stores. "I don't feel like Wal-Mart takes their customers or their communities into consideration."
Critics say cutting fabric departments in urban areas might be good business, but in rural areas, sewing, quilting and knitting remain part of everyday life.
"For a lot of people, it's their hobby. It's what Wal-Mart is just taking away from them," said Ursula Alexander, a 15-year-old Seguin High School freshman who uses Wal-Mart supplies to design purses, sew curtains or help make theater costumes.
She's working on her own letter to Wal-Mart.
Many, like quilter Janet Welsch, believe, "If they've come in and run out the locals, they have a moral obligation to continue serving."
Taft, a former truck driver and materials expeditor at a Houston architecture firm who sews everything from tablecloths to doll clothes, began her crusade to save the fabric department immediately after store employees told her it was closing.
She taped a sign on the front of an electric cart she uses to get around the store and began scooting around the aisles handing out Wal-Mart's own "Tell Us How We're Doing" brochures.
"My dad said, 'You can't do anything about it.' He's 84 years old. I said, 'Daddy, you're full of crap,' " Taft said. "I'm a grandma, and I don't have anything better to do, and if I get mad enough about something, I'm going to work to change it."
Following a pattern She hatched her letter-writing campaign after hearing it worked for other stores. Taft said a manager in Pleasanton told her she had left the decision up to the customers. "She said they wrote, and they called, and she said that's what saved their fabric department. And that's what inspired me."
Last week, Taft was posted at the four-way stop, Wal-Mart as her backdrop, the wind whipping a ruffle of letters she held tightly in a manila envelope. Nurses and teachers across town helped circulate letters. One by one, shoppers driving to Wal-Mart snapped up petitions and cheered Taft's effort.
"I'm so mad about it," yelled a woman riding in a red Corvette.
"We already have a letter, and we're going to buy material right now," said the driver of a gold minivan.
A state trooper rolled through in his patrol car, saying he, too, frequented the fabric department.
Inside the store, shoppers block aisles with chatter, neighbors gab over Big Macs at a mini-McDonald's, and women weave through rows of yarn, dress patterns and bolts of fabric, everything from blue camouflage to John Deere emblems on a pink background.
Hunting the $1 bins for material to make pillows and curtains for their kids, Michelle Black, 26, and Paula Kelley, 28, said sewing is a tradition and a family project in their homes. Kids help measure, cut ribbon and pick out materials. They learn creative skills and how to express themselves.
"I'd be mad if I had to drive all the way to San Antonio to make my kids a pillow," Black said. "Then you might not make it. You'd just buy it ."
Analysts say the situation is yet another stain on Wal-Mart's image, already soiled with a history of labor disputes, hiring of illegal workers and a reputation for bullying its neighbors.
"Wal-Mart is now so big that it's hard for them to make a move without alienating someone," said Mark Rein, Chicago-based director of strategic consulting at the Maritz Research Retail Group.
Some see a silver-lining in Wal-Mart's departure from the fabric biz.
"In an open market, if Wal-Mart exits, then somebody else ought to be able to come in and take care of it," said Mark Alpert, marketing professor at the University of Texas' McCombs School of Business.
"In a way, there's an irony here. The same people who criticize Wal-Mart for driving out small business are now saying, 'Darn it, now you've got to keep providing this stuff.' It's actually an opportunity for small business."
snipped-for-privacy@chron.com
March 5, 2007, 1:08AM Wal-Mart's plan to cut fabric departments draws critics
By LISA FALKENBERG Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle
TOOLS Email Get section feed Print Subscribe NOW
SEGUIN - On a curb across from a sprawling Wal-Mart Supercenter stands a shopper scorned.
Doreen Taft represents the newest type of critic to clash with the world's largest retailer. She's a grandma. She loves to sew. And she wants her fabric department to stay .
"I should have named this the grandmas' and mamas' revolt against Wal-Mart," said Taft, a 63-year-old with a bowl of gray hair and flag-waving teddy bears marching across her red T-shirt.
Taft is one of a legion of quilters, seamstresses and sewing enthusiasts across the country who are wound up about Wal-Mart's plan to unravel its fabric departments at many stores.
For the past two weeks, Taft has been planted at a stop sign across from the Wal-Mart parking lot, disseminating to passing cars more than 3,000 petition letters, signed "A VERY UNHAPPY Wal-Mart Shopper."
A handwritten sign masking-taped to a rusted lawn chair exclaims: "Help! Help! Save our Fabric Dept. in this store."
In places like Seguin, a South Texas town of about 25,000 and a shopping hub for surrounding communities, Wal-Mart is the only game in town for fabric, seam binding, dress patterns, lace and other sewing supplies.
Independent stores closed down when they couldn't compete with Wal-Mart, and if Wal-Mart follows suit, shoppers would be forced to drive 30 to 60 miles to San Antonio or other towns for sewing needs.
Sewing enthusiasts are blanketing Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters with letters and petitions needling the retail behemoth to change its mind.
One online petition touts 27,000 signatures.
A test for the market Wal-Mart officials say the changes are part of a national pilot project, mostly at new and remodeled stores, to replace fabrics with "celebration centers" that feature party supplies for weddings, birthdays and other events. Spokeswoman Tara Raddohl said in a statement that celebration centers will continue to sell items such as sewing machines, yarn, needles and thread. Most stores will continue to carry pre-cut, packaged fabric, which doesn't allow customers to choose specific sizes and shapes.
The statement insisted "we're determined to be as relevant to customers in their local store as we can. ... This is still a pilot and we'll keep looking at how it's working before putting any roll-out plans in place."
Wal-Mart officials didn't give a telephone interview or answer e-mailed questions.
Local store managers said they couldn't provide details, although two said they believed fabric departments in all stores would eventually be cut.
Opponents say the fabric flap shows that a retailer known for catering to common folks has lost touch with the fabric of America.
"That little eight-by-eight postage stamp of a fabric department back there is not going to make or break Wal-Mart," said Taft, who adds that Seguin already has several party supply stores. "I don't feel like Wal-Mart takes their customers or their communities into consideration."
Critics say cutting fabric departments in urban areas might be good business, but in rural areas, sewing, quilting and knitting remain part of everyday life.
"For a lot of people, it's their hobby. It's what Wal-Mart is just taking away from them," said Ursula Alexander, a 15-year-old Seguin High School freshman who uses Wal-Mart supplies to design purses, sew curtains or help make theater costumes.
She's working on her own letter to Wal-Mart.
Many, like quilter Janet Welsch, believe, "If they've come in and run out the locals, they have a moral obligation to continue serving."
Taft, a former truck driver and materials expeditor at a Houston architecture firm who sews everything from tablecloths to doll clothes, began her crusade to save the fabric department immediately after store employees told her it was closing.
She taped a sign on the front of an electric cart she uses to get around the store and began scooting around the aisles handing out Wal-Mart's own "Tell Us How We're Doing" brochures.
"My dad said, 'You can't do anything about it.' He's 84 years old. I said, 'Daddy, you're full of crap,' " Taft said. "I'm a grandma, and I don't have anything better to do, and if I get mad enough about something, I'm going to work to change it."
Following a pattern She hatched her letter-writing campaign after hearing it worked for other stores. Taft said a manager in Pleasanton told her she had left the decision up to the customers. "She said they wrote, and they called, and she said that's what saved their fabric department. And that's what inspired me."
Last week, Taft was posted at the four-way stop, Wal-Mart as her backdrop, the wind whipping a ruffle of letters she held tightly in a manila envelope. Nurses and teachers across town helped circulate letters. One by one, shoppers driving to Wal-Mart snapped up petitions and cheered Taft's effort.
"I'm so mad about it," yelled a woman riding in a red Corvette.
"We already have a letter, and we're going to buy material right now," said the driver of a gold minivan.
A state trooper rolled through in his patrol car, saying he, too, frequented the fabric department.
Inside the store, shoppers block aisles with chatter, neighbors gab over Big Macs at a mini-McDonald's, and women weave through rows of yarn, dress patterns and bolts of fabric, everything from blue camouflage to John Deere emblems on a pink background.
Hunting the $1 bins for material to make pillows and curtains for their kids, Michelle Black, 26, and Paula Kelley, 28, said sewing is a tradition and a family project in their homes. Kids help measure, cut ribbon and pick out materials. They learn creative skills and how to express themselves.
"I'd be mad if I had to drive all the way to San Antonio to make my kids a pillow," Black said. "Then you might not make it. You'd just buy it ."
Analysts say the situation is yet another stain on Wal-Mart's image, already soiled with a history of labor disputes, hiring of illegal workers and a reputation for bullying its neighbors.
"Wal-Mart is now so big that it's hard for them to make a move without alienating someone," said Mark Rein, Chicago-based director of strategic consulting at the Maritz Research Retail Group.
Some see a silver-lining in Wal-Mart's departure from the fabric biz.
"In an open market, if Wal-Mart exits, then somebody else ought to be able to come in and take care of it," said Mark Alpert, marketing professor at the University of Texas' McCombs School of Business.
"In a way, there's an irony here. The same people who criticize Wal-Mart for driving out small business are now saying, 'Darn it, now you've got to keep providing this stuff.' It's actually an opportunity for small business."
snipped-for-privacy@chron.com