Bye, bye Joann

I'm sorry that we didn't value you more.

Bye, Bye, Joann
By Marilyn Mackenzie


Joann, I will miss you. You started in 1943. And on May 30, 2025, you will close forever.

At one time, you had 850 stores in 49 states. Now you will have none. And I am sad.

Whenever I needed a perfectly colored button or thread or yarn, your store is where I went.

I also have to admit that when I was doing home parties for Christmas Around the World, your loss leaders at the front of the store were great for hostess gifts or prizes for games.

I also enjoyed those wonderful pieces of material that were easy projects to make pillows or Christmas stockings. I have never seen those anywhere else and I used to look.

I'm sorry that we stopped valuing you. I'm sorry that fewer people are sewing outfits from scratch or caring about the exact matching buttons and threads if they do. I'm sorry that they don't have Home Economics classes any more where every boy and girl in the 7th grade learned to sew an apron. Frankly, with the new interest everyone has about cooking, they might have enjoyed making their own aprons...if they had ever learned to sew.

I'm sorry that not every little girl wants to learn how to knit or crochet or even how to cross stitch. Those all used to be important. Until they weren't.

I'm betting that most people under the age of 45 have never even been inside Joann's Fabric Stores.

Some of us will miss you. The others will just shrug and say, "if you can't get it on Amazon, it doesn't exist."