TSWLTH, revealed!!

Oooooh, I've seen this before and wondered what it meant, thanks!

Ummmm, why is it the store we love to hate? Mine is one of the golly-whopper ones with tons of crafts.

Well, I don't know about everybody else, but the only local choice I have is between Wal-Mart and Jo-Ann's. And the quality of fabric and crafts, and the variety from THWLTH is no better than Wally's. At least I know what to expect from Wally.

We have a Michael's opening here on Friday - no fabric, but I hope it gives Wally, JoAnn, and Ben a run for their money.

Sharon

cheap thread, cheap fabric ( as in crap, not inexpensive) long lines, clueless staff, junk in piles everywhere.... haven't we had this discussion before?

ps

THAT is the main reason I hate the place.......I don't want tons of crafts, I want some descent fabric! It's all you can do to maneuver past all that crap piled on the floor for the holiday six months away and the other crap piled in the isles on sale from the holidays already past.........I have never been one to sit and long for the 'good old days', mostly because they really weren't, BUT......the multitude of fabric stores are one thing I would love to revert back to. OMG, is that a loose thread or is my participle dangling?!?

Val

My beef is with the clueless staff and the apparent nazi attitudes of management, which get passed on to the clueless Hitler Junge staff to implement. Example: it would kill them to cut one thread past what they measure as an EXACT yard of fabric, no matter how uneven the previous cut might be. Then, their little pimple-faced brownshirt clerks have the gall to lecture customers who comment on that by instructing them about "how much it would cost to give everybody an extra inch of fabric..." It happened to me.

Another example, a clear advertisement stated "All Cutting Mats Half Price." Then at checkout I learned it really wasn't ALL of them -- just the ones they had in mind, and refused to sell me the one I selected for the advertised discount. I argued with the unyielding store manager for ten minutes or more before walking out, leaving a shopping cart full of fabric and other items, then made it my personal shopping policy to actively avoid ANY purchase there other than with their discount coupons.

I once owned and managed a retail business. It didn't take me long to learn an important lesson: winning a petty argument with a customer is rarely in a store's best interest -- especially if it only involves a few bucks. Good will from a satisfied customer is almost always worth many times the actual cost. Apparently that message never quite made it into the inner sanctum of the Joann's Reichstag...

I knew some other folks would provide the reasons for the moniker.

Having worked at one such store (for about 10 days; it quickly became clear that this would represent a net loss in my income, rather than a tangible paycheck coming home), I suspect the problem is in Beachwood's planning. They assume that every store is the same, with identical demographics, size, and needs. Thus a store in, say, Florida gets the same shipment of fleece (!!!) that the ones in Michigan or Ohio get.

Also, they send the same amounts of "holiday crap" like Halloween and baskets and summer. I've been in some smaller J-A that are overwhelmed by the merch, but they are told "put it out on the floor."

Yep, clueless staff. They'll hire anybody. They were overjoyed to get me because I know anything about sewing and notions and how to do things.

Yep, crafts crafts crafts. Regrettably, no one's learning how to sew or make things while using their brain. Fabric paint! No-sew costumes! Pre-cut kits!

TSWLTH is a teensy step above Wally World.

HTH

--Karen D. Check it out: a new FAQ!!

Have you ever been to Calico Corners? I bought a lovely length of fabric to make a garment, and you should have seen how they treated me. They were practically insulted that I was going to use their precious fabric to make a garment.

I would have reported them for that one.

Amen.

Uh, no, they won't. They didn't hire my daughter, who at age 17-18 was a very good seamstress for her age. *best innocent look*

We are fortunate enough to have a Hancock's in Sparks. Although I don't think they pay much, they do make an effort to hire people who sew. In fact, if an employee makes something up in a fabric currently for sale, they will exhibit it and reimburse the employee for the materials, and after the season passes, the employee can take the item home. Not quite as good as giving the materials and the time on the job to make it up, but still.....

The selection is broad - from very cheap fabrics, both in terms of quality and price - to expensive. They are getting more into home dec. fabrics and carry Waverly as well as some other good lines. The trims section is good. Patterns, threads, notions are all good. They seem to maximize the space they have. There are some craft items, but not many. There's a lot of quilting stuff. Wedding stuff, too.

I don't go to JoAnn's at all. I do go to Hancock's.

Me too. The women that work at Hancock's are very knowledgable. ALl of them sew. I do hate all the home accessories "Made In India" clutter they have around.

Their website had some forums up and running, and they were asking for suggestions - what did sewers want to see in the stores. No "Home Decor" junk, classes, and more sewing machine support were the three most popular answers.

At Michael's you'll get nothing but strictly crafts. They do have 2-3 aisles of cross-stitch and crewel kits. No thread for sewing, but a few sewing items such as thimbles and needles. Their sales are based on fabric paints, cake decorating, picture framing, baskets, artificial flowers, etc.

The one that I normally go to has been closed for almost a year re-doing the store to eliminate mold.

My store must be out of step because there's never any junk piled in the aisles or anywhere else. The crafts are completely on the other side of the store away from material and all sewing notions.

I missed the the first discussion.

I worked at Hancock's in college. There is a tiny little math test one must complete on the application. It was something along the lines of "Sally wants to make a blouse which takes two and one quarter yards of fabric. She also wants to make a skirt from the same fabric. The skirt calls for three and one third yards. How much fabric should Sally buy?" I think that scares away a couple clueless folks.

-Charlotte

Amen to that! Yet ANOTHER reason to include art and design in the U.S. public school curricula. We get far too many reminders of the real cost of cutting the arts in favor of "essential programs" like football and cheerleading. Others? Lawyers' offices, bankers' offices (how many freakin' English fox hunt paintings can there be on this planet?!!) and prefab gazebos overlooking highways in front of "mobile homes."

Fred

And the answer is: 4 yds, because pattern layouts waste fabric.

OK, 4-1/2 if there's a nap issue.

--Karen D. BTDT! still wearing a CW ballgown made from a 5-yd remnant and 1/2 yd of contrast

Well done! My boss said applicants did get extra credit for writing in "advise customer to buy pattern, then lay it out on yardage", or advice to that effect. We did do that lots, on the big cutting table, though that was a slow store which was closed right after I'd left.

In truth, she also told me that I was the first applicant in 3 years to answer all 6 questions correctly. My collegues were knowledgable women, but there are a few tricks on that test.

-Charlotte

I would rather buy fabric at Wal-Mart than at any JoAnn's I've ever been in. At least every Wal-Mart I've shopped in has SOME fashion fabric, basics at least, and the clerks are polite. They may not know a whole lot about sewing, but they are polite. And a lot of times they are quilters. Which means you never get uneven cuts on both ends. ;)

Oh, and I must say that Hancock's is getting pretty bad too. I found one of the Hancock's here, and I won't go back EVER. I will still try to find the other Hancock's in the area and give them a shot. But I won't go back to a place where clerks are rude; and the Hancock's I went to here must have worked hard to find the only truly rude people in NW Arkansas. I dithered a little over how much fleece to buy for some throw pillows for DD's room. Told the clerk, well I think 1/2 yard. Then before she wrote or cut anything at all, I said No better make it 1 yard each; that way if I decide to do welting and/or storage pockets I have enough. She acted like I'd made her some sort of obscene proposition. She hadn't even unrolled it yet for heaven's sake.

Then the kicker with her??? Heard her mutter "well she must be a New Sewer" (read New Sewer as "gutter trash idiot" and you're about there) to another clerk as I walked away. I had my kids with me so I was really good. I just ignored her.

Then I get to the cash register. Had a coupon for 50% off one regular priced fabric. I only had one piece that wasn't one sale already. When the clerk told me my total I thought it was higher than it should have been. But DS had been in a fabric store, shopping for his sister's room for an hour, and he was pretty much at the end of his rope. Before the ants could come all the way out of his pants, I wrote the check and off we went. When I got home, I looked at the receipt. She didn't apply the 50% off coupon to the piece I got that was full price. She took it off of one of the sale pieces, which gave me a much smaller discount than I should have gotten. GRRRRRRR!!!

So yeah, that store is off my list.

Sharon

There use to be a phrase in the English language called "customer service," I guess it's obsolete. BTW did anyone get a sales slip lately from JoAnn's with an 800 # for a customer satisfaction survey. I think the only good grade I gave was for courtesy of clerk. That's because our JoAnn's has hired some very nice people lately. Nothing else is satisfactory in the store, but the clerks are very pleasant people. What a change! Juno

Sharon, In 2001, soon after I moved to SC, I went to the only Hancock's in the area, there are no JoAnn's in SC or TN. The clerk was just as ugly to me as the one who waited on you. I called their home office and complained. I was sent some coupons to compensate and the next few times I went there, I didn't see that clerk. One day, I asked if she was ill, and was told she was no longer with Hancock's. Maybe you should call or write the company. I went online and found the name of the supervisor of customer relations and she was the one to whom I asked for when I called. We have 2 Hancock's about equal distance from us and both have some nice clerks and one or two that are ??mentally challenged or don't give a d---, I haven't figured out which one yet and don't care. When I know I'm going, I call ahead to see if one particular clerk, who is knowledgeable and polite is working. If not, I don't go that day. The same with JoAnn's. Emily