Updated March 03, 2025 at 13:44 PM ET
If you love to sew or do other fabric projects, now might be your last chance to visit a Joann store to pick through what's left of the fabric brand's inventory.
After 82 years in business, Joann announced it is closing all of its roughly 800 stores.
"I've been to a couple of the stores and I walk out and cry," said Ingrid Crepeau, a professional seamstress who lives just outside Washington, D.C.
Previously known as Jo-Ann Fabrics, Joann actually started out as a humble cheese shop in Cleveland in 1943.
German immigrants Hilda and Berthold Reich ran the store with their friends, Sigmund and Mathilda Rohrbach, selling fabric and cheeses during World War II.
When the fabric began to outsell the cheese, they opened up more shops over the next few decades. By 1994, Joann expanded its empire by acquiring Cloth World, a 342-store company. And by the close of the century, it became the largest fabric and crafts retailer in the United States.
"At the time, we were testing and rolling out, sort of, super stores — meaning 30- to 40,000 square foot fabric stores," said Mike Edwards, a former Vice President at Joann in the early 2000s.
The specialty retail chain wasn't able to stay at the top of the fabric industry, however, as it began to lose market share to online retailers and struggled with intense competition from brick-and-mortar retailers like Hobby Lobby and Michaels. Challenges with inventory management and heavy debt from previous buyouts also contributed to the company's financial woes.
Though Joann did experience a revival during the pandemic with the popularity of at-home DIY projects, the temporary sales boost only seemed to delay the inevitable.
In January 2025, Joann filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in less than a year, citing continued declining sales. Not long after, it announced it would be shuttering all of its stores across 49 states.
For sewists like Crepeau, the closure of the fabric and craft supplies giant comes as a huge loss. She says the craft stores near her don't have much of a selection, and called buying fabric online a nightmare.
"You have to say, 'Can I get a swatch?' And then you get the fabric, and you go, 'Yeah, well, this isn't what I wanted.' So then you go to another fabric site and order some more swatches," said Crepeau.
Allison Lince Bentley, a sewing instructor in Brentwood, Md., also said it's hard to shop for fabric online. But from what she's seen from online sellers, things have gotten better.
"A lot of online retailers have gotten a lot savvier about how to communicate fabrics, showing videos of things, showing people stretching the fabric or moving the fabric … so that you can see it more clearly online," Bentley said. Bentley has also seen her students get more savvy with online buying, and "more used to understanding how to decode what fabric is," she said.
As for anyone that prefers buying fabrics in person, Bentley remains optimistic and hopes people can find ways to get creative.
"I think it opens up more opportunities for local businesses," Bentley said. "There's [also] so much repurposing that can happen. People can go to thrift stores. They can also channel Sound of Music and turn their curtains into play clothes."
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