pocoellie

My sewing machine dealer says that the Chinese government owns Singer now and just bought the name. I don't know if this is true or not though, but doesn't see impossible.

peacebypiece

I used to work for Viking in a JoAnns store. The manager received some training from Viking, but did not have real sewing experience. for Viking the whole thing is a business (ie. profits) decision, although some of their decisions don't make a lot of sense. Our location replaced a local dealer who pulled out because JoAnns customers really don't want to pay for the top of line machines. Our store was closed because we didn't sell enough machines. What did they expect with a well established full service dealer with excellent repair service about a mile away? Our remaining stuff was shipped to another city, in a very similar situation. No $$ in that town either.

Candace

Yes, I've wondered how Viking made any money in this JoAnnes because there is a Viking Dealership/quilt store 5 minutes away.

oldhag

http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/112/112208.html
Here is some information on the Singer, Viking and Pfaff merger. This happened some time ago.There are really only a few places that manufacture sewing machines.

Candace

Well, the space at our Joannes is completely vacant and roped off now.

lheartsl

So far our is still in our joanns store.... I was there about a week ago. This is really the only fabric store around... (in central jersey) Crazy....

BJ SewKkrazzy

Viking was only demonstrated in the JoAnn superstores, though the others still carried them. But Viking and Singer are now made by a foreing company. I have an old one of each, from the '70's before the buy out...not sure if I would want a new one!

Carol's Quilts

The Viking section in our Joann's has been gone for a LONG time now - at least a year, maybe 2. The store has a few Singers for sale, but no sewing machine section like they had with Viking. I don't think the Singers are selling well - I wouldn't buy one. Their quality has really deteriorated, there are no longer any repair places left, there are no longer Singer shops left. There was a Viking store close by but it closed within a year of its opening!

janRN

I was at Joanne's last week and the Viking area is still there but there were more Singers on sale in that area. I didn't know they were the same distributor. There were only 4 Vikings and about 15 Singers.

milp04

This may be a situation resulting from changes by the new owners of JoAnn's and not by Viking and it's dealerships. It may also be that JoAnn's is allowing each of it's contracts to reach the renewal time and then end each contract. This will certainly be an interest to keep track of over the next several months to a year. I'm wondering what Viking plans will be in the future for their sales.

Pam M