Watch Out

It was last week, when my wife and visited her mother, during the visit, my wife and her mom were discussing the closing of some, then all Joann Fabric stores. "Watch out!" That was part of a phrase my wife used to describe all the upset females there will be around the nation due to the closing of a popular fabric/craft store. Her actual statement was "Husbands had better watch out".  Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned by the closing of her fabric shop.

Pickles Cartoon

My wife likes to sew and quilt and her go-to-store has been Joann Fabrics in Madison, usually the east side of the two Madison locations. Joann's first reported, about two weeks ago, that they would be closing a number of stores, including the Madison east location. My wife was dismayed at that, but resigned to having to go to the west side location. Early last week, the last week of February, it was announced they were closing all retail stores. My wife commented that "husbands had better watch out" as there will be a large number of upset women.

If I would go into Joann store with her, I, as a male, would be the outlier. It does not take a genius to know that most sewing and quilting is done by woman. Men watch football and baseball, and the women quilt, cross-stitch or something else to keep their hands busy. If another male or two happened to be in a craft store with his female partner, it was always fun looking at the interactions. I have been like a duck out of water, but my wife would occasionally ask for my opinion on color, fabric type or what have you in regard to her selections for quilts or clothes. I always appreciated that she valued my opinion so as to know what not to choose. 

The thing is with one grandchild and another on the way she was looking forward to making some clothes for the grandkids. But, now her store of choice will soon be no more. She also makes t-shirt quilts for clients and would send them to Joann for the edging and backing fabric that would be required. Her informed belief is other stores, such as Hobby Lobby, do not have the fabric choices and options that is/was available at Joann Fabrics. 

We made a trip to Joann Fabrics last week so the wife could use a gift card on material to recover a couple throw pillows. As my wife went to look for floss, not dental but cross stich, I held down the fort at the cut counter, so I asked her how much material she required, she looked at the width and mumbles some numbers to herself and finally said a yard and a half. Even though my wife got back in time, I still got to say the amount of fabric. I got a dirty look from my wife when I asked the clerk to verify the width. I then proudly proclaimed "a yard and a half." Prior to saying that I got another look from the wife, such as tell her the amount of fabric required.  As my wife waited for the brown fabric to be cut, my job became getting in line at the check out. There were two registers open and about 14 people ahead of me.

Joann's has a lot of stuff, more than fabric and we were both surprised that Christmas candy was only 20% off. They had other Christmas stuff in the loopy line for the registers. As a keen observer of the human condition, this is where things got interesting. A small box of 3-M wall hangers, the type that you can put on and peel off, was almost $13, I am not sure what they would be at a hardware store, but I thought that price high. It is, however,  in the aisle of impulse buying. With all the Christmas stuff at only 20% off, there were those headbands some with Christmas trees, one at each end, bopping about on small springs. More available were headbands that had the feet and calves of Santa as if going down a chimney, with the chimney being your head. I wondered, to myself, who would ever buy such junk. Right then the woman behind me, with about five pieces of scrap book paper (I did not know that was still a thing), started rummaging through them and picked the one with Christmas trees. Okay, so Joann's knows something about their clientele. Apparently, not enough to have saved the company.

Earl's ashes will not be at Joann Fabrics

The most curious object, however, was a pair of water based breast and cleavage enhancers. in see through hard sided plastic case. I first thought it was an odd object, but then realized it probably was not for two reasons. First, this store is populated mainly persons that can be inseminated; I only saw two other men in the store, so the ratio of persons who can be inseminated to those that could do the inseminating was about 15 to 1. Second, the store is a fabric store, with patterns for many things including dresses, and perhaps and perhaps a person with breasts would desire some breast and cleavage enhancers for some clothing they were making. I suspect this was not their normal location, but someone picked them up, and decided not to buy them, so dropped them off on a shelf while waiting in line at check out. It would be an odd item to located with all the 20% off Christmas candy.

The check out line, that midafternoon, consistently had about 12 to 15 persons during our visit. Check out would have gone much faster but for two women who had a cart full of plastic flowers. After several minutes, they completed their check out, the lady behind them noted they still had some in the bottom back of the shopping cart. Their total bill for plastic flowers, I do not know the how much they were discounted, was $83. 

I am not sure what my wife will do without Joann Fabrics. Perhaps some other store will come in to fill the gap. This is all part of  what may be downward trends following a high increase in demand from Covid. There are other examples of industries affected by increased demand due to Covid and now have downsized. I has happened in the bike sector, RV sector, high end appliance sector, and now the fabric--craft sector. But, fabric, unlike bikes and RV's, is a nondurable good as clothes wear and new ones can always be made. Perhaps, younger generations are just not into that. The historic low birth rate may play apart too. My wife sewed many of the clothes are kids wore at a young age, after all they grow out of them rather quickly.

As I watched the women in the check out line, I had to sympathize with their husbands, most probably at home at the time, not knowing what the future may hold in a wife undergoing material withdrawal. There will coming angst over the closing of Joann Fabrics, and the husbands will bear the brunt of scorned female. Husbands, if your wife is a sewer, watch out.