I know some of you hate wal mart but...

Absolutely, agreed. I'm all for buying handmade items as often as I can or can afford to. I've bought much handspun, handdyed yarns off of both etsy and ebay, and have made fantastic things with them.

The only times I go to places like WalMart or Michaels is if I'm looking for every day yarns making other items (ie market bags, etc). I save the handspun yarns for making gift items.

 

i watched a show on the diy channel about spinning yarn the other day... and i also watched on ripleys a woman who spins yarn from her own hair... she made a whole outfit from her hair =)

 

that is trippy.... of course that'd take forever, but neat nonetheless

 

i forgot how long it took but it was years and years

 

i used to work for walmart, my husband works for walmart, my brother works for walmart and my brother in law works for walmart and my aunt in law works for walmrt...my sources say its not true.

 

i hope they dont, the walmart by my house hasnt said anything, i also never shop there because it takes the ladies atleast 30 min to come to the counter when i go in to have something cut......... but the one across town has everything 25% off and is closing it all out................

 

thats really weird...not in oregon thier not...

 

the wal-marts around here have terrible service--actually I have yet to go to one that was really nice, and I have lived all over. I thought wal-mart here would be nicer because we are right here by the headquarters, but the poor folks that work for them here don't even care.

 

well me my family husband and some of my best friends have worked for walmart...when a company takes away all ensentive and all benifits and still expect happy cheery workers...its not going to happen.,,i was always ready to greet people with a smile and i was management(left and lost 4 bux an hour doing so but was so worth it).

 

well, I'm glad you were still nice. So many people around here work for wal-mart, and it seems that 95% of them are unhappy. A good friend of mine who works at a local wally world said her store is not going get any new by the yard materials in 07, that's what her manager said. The word around here is that the higher ups think that to continue being successful, wal mart has to cater to a wealthier demographic and rich people don't sew. It sounds like crap to me, but what do I know?

 

ok so the lady told me they are remodeling in January so if I want fabric it has to be soon............... the other wal marts here are going to remodel their craft area in like may or something, it might not be all that are getting rid of fabric since they are going to have all the craft stuff that isnt cut and sold by the yard...

but I just got 5 whole bolts of corduroy that had almost 16 yards on each and a few other misc. fabrics for $60......... holy shit I am in heaven LOL i dont spend christmas money on stuff for me, i buy fabric HAHA

I gotta keep going back because it was all 50% off today and who knows in another day or so it may go down to 75% off, shit!! if it goes down to 90% like their halloween fabric did a few years ago I will buy it all and stash it all away =)


SO i guess untill Jan Iwill be going to all of the walmarts in town and stocking up on fabrics...
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Wow, Funky, great deal - I'm drooling! Wish I were there! As to the argument of whether/when... I don't have links handy, but according to several stock reports, etc. that we've read lately, Wal-Mart is making a corporate-wide move away from fabrics. They've deemed that their biggest competition in the business world is Best Buy, and in order to compete they are going to start dealing in large appliances. According to the some of the higher-ups from Jo-Ann, their inside info is that some stores will be making the shift just after the New Year, and the rest of the stores will follow in April-May.

As for why they wouldn't be informing their employees, SDL, I've known many many people who worked for Wal-Mart, written research papers on there business model, done lots of reading, and I can tell you without a doubt that WalMart employees have a better chance of getting the truth about their company by reading business reports and stock articles than by listening to a word they're told at work. Wal-Mart isn't in the business of informing, educating, or keeping their employees involved - but would much rather make/keep them ignorant worker-monkeys. Good for you getting out of there, now you just need to get your dh and bro out too!

 

"but would much rather make/keep them ignorant worker-monkeys"

i completely beleive this, i know of a lot of other companies like this too...

when i worked at mj soffe, we were bought out by delta and they told us if the customers asked any questions about it... not to tell them anything, just to tell them we were still mj soffee. even thought we knew some of the colors would be changing and some of the prices would follow.....

i will actually miss going to talk to my fabric dept ladies about our kids and random misc stuff tho, the ladies that cut fabric at the walmart i went to today are really funny and nice and they give the kids tootsie rolls and i think they genuinely enjoy working with people... i will have to make sure i put in a good word for them before they get slid over to just stocking shelves and walking around making sure things look neat. seems like the fabric table would be one of the best jobs there.....................
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Yeah, a lot of companies are like that these days... The Wal-Mart business model has been so successful everyone else is trying to emulate them. Even Jo-Anns has been heading in that direction the last couple of years. I'm sooo glad they made Ian the Softline (basically fabrics) supervisor a couple months ago, because he's one of the few people there who has the vision and know-how to really do it - keep the place working and looking and running smoothly, but without sacrificing customer service. He's so loved down there that several of his customers made a point of coming out there (his store's a little out of the way) to bring him yummy baked goods and such as gifts.

A lot of people don't realize the job that is really being done even just by the person cutting fabric. A good cutter will not only have the knowledge to get you out the door with everything you need for a given project, but also might have the insight to help a newbie look at what they're doing from a whole new angle.

I could go on and on, but I need to go for a run to get rid of this energy!

 

our joannes used to be so small , but they got a huge new place i did see a price increase but i still love to go out there cuz the lady who cuts my fabric is sooo great, she remembers my kids names and they love her to death.... actually everyone who works at joanne here is super sweet, i have to try and find a wholesale warehouse around here.....
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I spoke to the woman in the fabric/craft dept on the 23rd. I was told a huge remodel of our Walmart would be starting in June 2007 all fabric would be gone before then. Walmart has also done away with the lay-away plan in the fall so that leave even more floor space to work with.

 

wow--it might be worth it to go to wal-mart to get fabric so cheap! I miss Jo-ann's so much. The closest one to me is more than 60 miles, so I don't make it there often.

 

well, i like to support the enviornment by hitting up the local thrift stores on half off monday !!! I reconstruct the clothing into cute sweaters or making t-shirts more girly by tailoring them w/ some elastic...or even adding some side panels to jeans or cords!!

SUPPORT the enviornement!

RECYCLE and RECONSTRUCT!!

 

Rar1013, thrift stores are pretty good in the sense where when only needing small amounts of material, although the unfortunate thing is when you need yards and yards of something, in there lies the problem.

I've noticed quite a few people in this forums bashing the big chains, the WalMarts and such... I know many of us do our best to support the "mom & pop" shops, the festivals, the thrift stores, etc, but the (un)fortunate truth of the matter is that the big chains exist for a reason, and at one point or another we find ourselves there.

 

They don't HAVE to exist, though...if everyone ONLY shopped at mom and pop stores and DIDN'T shop at the box stores, what reason would they have to exist????