The last time I shopped in a Joann store was more than three months ago, right before their final closures. I said goodbye to the employees I knew, wishing them well, and as I walked across that parking lot one last time, I knew I was saying goodbye to an era in my life.
As Joann stores were fading from retail storefronts across the country, rumors swirled about what might happen to their signature brands in yarn, and where people would find affordable fabric.
As it turned out, Michaels bought some of the former Joann IP (intellectual property) and their stores began to offer Loops & Threads versions of much-missed items like Posh (Big Twist) yarn.
I was thinking about that major shift in the crafting space this past weekend and realized that I have a very different emotional attachment to Michaels as compared to what I once felt about Joann’s.
To me, Joann stores were sewing stores that happened to also have a terrific yarn selection and a lot of other crafty things. I have many years of memories around sitting at the pattern bar in Piece Goods and similar stores with my mother and grandmothers. These memories likely played a role in the emotional attachment I had to Joann stores. Being in Joann’s “felt” like being in those fabric stores from my childhood so my mother could make my sister and/or me a costume, outfit or dress for a special occasion.
I will admit that SOME of that “charm” wore off when I went to work (part-time) at a Joann store near my house. Still, it never disappeared entirely.
Michaels, in their defense (although they don’t need me to come to their rescue), never staked a claim on being a fabric store. They’re not even really a super YARN supply store when compared with Joann’s. They’re unabashedly a craft supply store that started adding fabric as their main competitor in the crafting space went under.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve shopped at Michaels for years, picking up acrylic paint, beads, charms, wooden cutouts, and more. In those and similar categories, they’re great, have nice coupons and sales. It just never had the same “feel” when shopping there as Joann’s had, and it STILL doesn’t.
The GOOD news about this is that I’m much less likely to go there just to browse and snag a dopamine hit. In fact, I’ve gone into my local Michaels a few times and left without making a purchase. That never happened at Joann’s, and I know why. A trip to Joann stores was more than a shopping trip for me: it was a trip down memory lane.
Even if I wasn’t buying a pattern, fabric or sewing accessories; to me the store was a sewing and fabric store and therefore, deeply connected to some of my earliest craft shopping memories.
I was curious about how long retailers have been using knowledge like this (and more) to manipulate us into shopping and buying things we don’t need, and Google’s AI engine brought me the following:
Retailers and advertisers began to realize they could psychologically manipulate shoppers to buy more as early as the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Walter Dill Scott, an influential American psychologist, published “The Theory of Advertising” in 1903, marking a significant early exploration of the intersection between psychology and advertising. His work provided practical advice on how to attract attention, create memorable brand images, and motivate purchasing behavior…
Scott’s work laid the groundwork for the notion that advertising could tap into people’s desires and needs, moving away from traditional trial-and-error advertising methods to a more scientific approach based on understanding human behavior.
I’m not at all surprised by this and can almost always look around in a store and see the manipulation in bold form. Still, I am often impacted by the techniques employed to get me to part with my money.
I guess what I’m thinking right now as I remember Joann stores wistfully, is that maybe – JUST MAYBE – Joann exiting the crafting space may help me limit the number of times I mindlessly shop, spend money that would be better spent elsewhere, and bring home more things that I will likely never use.
That might be more of a good thing than I imagined when the specter of a world without Joann stores first emerged as a real possibility. Perhaps now I can use that time to crochet with the yarn I already have or sew with the many folds of fabric stored in my craft room.
And isn’t MAKING the reason we buy all those supplies?
Too many makers, me included, have been much more prolific SHOPPERS and acquirers of supplies than makers, if for no other reason that the amount of time we spent on each. Maybe now, in this new crafting retail landscape, we can get back to making and using up our accumulated stashes.
That feels surprisingly refreshing, and the amount of money to be saved is not insignificant. It was not unusual for me to spend between $25 and $60 each time I went to a Joann store. Once a week was not unusual, either. The AVERAGE of those price points is $42.50 which means if I no longer go to a Joann store to “browse“, and I can go into Michaels and not buy anything; I have the potential to keep around $184 a month ($2,210 a year!) in my bank account.
That certainly reframes my thinking on the demise of Joann stores. This reminds me that I can always see things from a different perspective. Sometimes, it just takes a little distance, and time.
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