In the news yesterday, I learned that a major retailer would be closing stores. JoAnn Fabrics will be closing at least 500 out of their 800+ locations in the near future, which amounts to over 60% of their stores. Closing sales are set to begin very soon.
33 of these stores are in Pennsylvania, including 12 in the Pittsburgh area. Spared from this round of closures, surprisingly, is the Pittsburgh Mills location. That mall is pretty much abandoned, yet the stores around it seem to do very well. Also not closing in that mall is the Macy’s, though Altoona will be closing theirs.
So what does the closure of a craft store have to do with my life? Well, JoAnn Fabrics was a part of my long-running WIS career from 2009 to 2021. We had that account every year I was with the company. We also counted other craft stores like Michaels, Hobby Lobby, and defunct chains AC Moore and Pat Catan’s (the latter of which got swallowed up by Michaels in 2019). The large format, superstore Joanns were always a challenge for us. They had more fabric than the smaller format stores that we took less people to. Would we have enough scales and tables to go around? For Greengate Center, losing this store will be a big hit for them, and you have to wonder what will replace it.
I remember when Pat Catan’s liquidated their stores in early 2019 as we were sent to count all of the stores in the Pittsburgh area and points north (DuBois and Hermitage). We also helped out around the Youngstown-Niles area. Some of those stores in our area become Michaels while others closed or were repurposed into something else. The McKees Rocks location was razed and is now a GetGo Cafe and Market. The former Pat Catan’s became Michaels in Dubois and that has recently closed. Now the JoAnn Fabrics by the mall is closing too, leaving craft enthusiasts with just Hobby Lobby and not many other options unless they want to travel.
Craft and fabric stores were one place my Gram loved to shop at. We always took trips to Minnesota/Hancock Fabrics in the past, as they had a location in the Eastgate Shopping Plaza, just past Westmoreland Mall. Gram always loved making crafts, including quilts. For many years, I had a quilt on my bed that she made for me for Christmas.
They say that things happen in threes, and that includes businesses closing. Party City is closing all of its stores, Big Lots is also closing stores or changing them to a different name, and now Joanns (which has been in bankruptcy) will be closing a lot of its stores as well. It’s like a link to my past that is going away, as Joanns was an integral part of my tenure at WIS. For my friends who work there, it means that they will be out of a job. For my crafting friends, it means less options on where to shop for the products that they need.
In District 13, contest season has begun with area contests taking place over the weekend and on Monday night. Area 22 held their International Speech and Tall Tales contests on Saturday in State College. This area consists of clubs in DuBois, State College, and Lock Haven. Monday night, Area 23 and 24 got together for a joint speech contest at the Eat’n Park Training Facility in the Waterfront at Homestead. The winners will all move onto the Division C contest scheduled next month.
Coming up this weekend are the Area 2/3 International Speech and Tall Tales contests and the Area 13 International Speech and Tall Tales contest. Next Friday on the 21st, I will be at the Area 21 contest.
Stylish 🍒 