kso

Here is an email I rec'd today from WalMart.

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding the fabric department in your local store. As with any merchandise decision that we make, we have based our decision to reduce the stitching and fabric departments on customer demand, which does not appear to be as high today for a full stitching and fabric offering in some markets as it may have been at Walmart in the past.

In keeping with our emphasis on being a store of the community, Walmart is converting the fabrics and crafts department in some stores to a newly expanded assortment of merchandise that focuses on life's celebrations. We are thrilled to offer our customers this exciting new crafts and celebrations center that makes available craft and party planning needs along with information on current trends and new ideas in the area of life's celebrations, such as holidays, weddings and birthdays.

In those stores where the new crafts and celebrations center is placed, merchandise commonly referred to as 'notions' will be included in the product offerings - such as sewing machines, yarn, needles, thread, etc. As a part of this conversion, most of our new and remodeled stores that opened earlier this year, as well as a small number of existing stores, will feature the new crafts and celebrations center in place of bolt fabrics. Walmart will continue to carry cut fabric in most of our stores. Due to the continued evaluation of our stores, we are unable to share a list of existing stores scheduled to receive the new crafts and celebrations center at this time.

Sincerely,
Walmart Customer Care

sharon b

That is the same one they sent to me :cry: They don't even love us enough to give us a personal answer :wink: LOL

BKrenning

I'm willing to bet "Life's Celebrations" won't last very long. Paper plates in a thousand different colors, streamers and fancy napkins don't seem to be a very popular in my local Wal-Mart and it's taking up a huge amount of floor space. Bolt fabrics on the wall, taking up very little space in the next closest one to me always has a line waiting and no one was clamoring for square yellow paper plates or party streamers. Oh, and my local wally world now has copy paper in at least 4 different places. Come on! Really! How much shelf space do you need for copy paper?!! BTW--I wasn't even looking for fabric or copy paper. We were looking for a deep fryer.

sharon b

Besides there are so many places that you can get the plates, cups , etc for much cheaper :wink:

BellaBoo

Are they serious? How many customers demanded Walmart to get rid of the fabric dept? that is just plain nonsense and they want us to believe that? They wanted a more upscale image and needlework did not fit that image. At least they could be honest about it. WalMart will never be upscale. Can't do it with the customer base that keeps them in profit.

quiltbugs

I got the exact same email yesterday, word for word.

ClairVoyantQuilter

Maybe I'm the only one that sees this as a GOOD thing :) Those locally owned, sole proprietor LQS who can't come close to competing with Wal-Mart on price . . . .will stand a better chance of surviving as a result.

Across America, there are locally owned shoe stores,grocers, tire centers, hair/nail salons, photographers, etc. who spent a lifetime building up their business only to have business dry up when the Wal-Mart SuperCenter went in.

brenda21

I have to agree with you on this Clair. One of our 3 local walmarts sells fabric and the quality isn't very good at all.

Rebecca VLQ

Yeah, um...I'm not so sad to see the Wal-Mart fabric section go (Ours has been gone a year or more) that they're trying to PR the heck outta that and make it all shiny, happy....CELEBRATION AISLE! I call b.s. on that one. There's already a "celebration" section. And there's also a "seasonal" section for every holiday known to man. Whatev. Seriously.

CarrieAnne

We're losing ours....and I've called the 1-800 number 3 times.....I will be so sad to lose ours!