Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores

If I walk in and see a long line at the cash registers, which is most of the time, I just turn around and leave. They are always poorly staffed in my opinion. I only shop here if I need something really quick and can’t wait to go to hobby lobby or order online. Hey that’s an idea! Replace this store with a hobby lobby!

Customer service was horrible! Nobody knew where anything was no one walked me to where I needed to go to find anything. Sale items were not marked properly so I wasn’t able to use coupons I thought I was going to be able to use. Frustrating when you waited in line for 5 to 10 minutes in order to check out to find out you can’t actually buy what you think you’re going to buy. Just really depressing shop in there.

When I first went to this store they was nasty, rude and didnt want to help me. So i never went back until my my girls started to knit and crochet. They are nice and very helpful. I’ve been back to this store a few time now.

This place is OK, generally go to others places but will come here if I have a coupon or if I can’t find something somewhere else.
Pretty pricy and there is never staff to help you. Its such a big store and I always walk down several aisles before I can find what I’m looking for or an employee to help. Cashier service isn’t great either, no one really seems pleasant and they can come off being rude sometimes.

It’s pretty much your standard Jo-​Ann. I if you want to check out fabrics in person this is the place for you. If you want reasonably priced fabric, check some where else.
Generally I’ll shop here when I need something that day or I’m not exactly sure what I’m getting. Otherwise Amazon or one of the many custom fabric websites are the best. They lines here are always crazy long and it’s made me late more than one time. 20 minutes at the register or even more at the fabric cutting area is insane. Like other reviewers have mentioned, one of the ladies at the counter are incredibly rude. She talks down to me every time. The other lady is insanely sweet.

Terrible. I always come out of there feeling miserable. Most do not know what they are doing or do not belong in a craft store… sorry burlap allergy? Not a place to work then for you… Just saying. And no one can cut a straight line… maybe a few, but most cannot. I wish I could say good things, but everytime I go, I sink when I come out. And there is never a sale. Trust me. The coupons are good for full price items… everything else constantly has a sale price on them so they are not actually good for a coupon… frustrating… Everything is always «on sale». The staff, most of the time is grumpy… or act like your questions are stupid, but then when you ask where something is… have no idea where it is or what you are talking about. The lines are long… unbelievably long. Like to the back of the store for cutting counter. Then you wait in another line for the cash register.

I hate writing bad reviews and I would love to give the benefit of the doubt, but I’ve never had such terrible customer service in my life. Heres why:
1) After waiting in line for 20 minutes to ask for help, we had not one, but two cashiers look at us like we were crazy when we said that we needed some help.
2) Even though both cashiers said they would send someone to help us, we waited for 15 minutes — and no one ever came.
3) After being frustrated by a total lack of customer service, we were ready to check out and leave. When the cashier asked us if we found everything alright, we said no. Her response? «That sucks. We’re understaffed. Want a bag?» And we never got a bag.
If you own or manage this Joann store — please, make some much needed changes before this place goes out of business.

There is a woman who cuts fabric, (Marie, or Mary?) She is so unbelievably rude! She treats people like they are dumb. And she yells everything. She’s been there forever too! You would think they would eventually stop letting her chase customers away! Completely bitchy. When I told the manager, Kat, she was even more rude. I will shop at Hancock. Joanns isn’t worth it.

There are chronic issues re: staffing. Today I waited 35 minutes in line to have fabric cut, then waited another 15 minutes in the checkout line. That is beyond unacceptable. That’s not even quite the longest waits I’ve experienced here, either. Usually it’s not quite this bad, but still slow (typically cutting line wait is still 15 – 20 minutes). It is as if they don’t bother to schedule additional staff on high-​volume shifts, like weekends and around Halloween and Christmas. This is a problem that should be pretty easy to fix, but they never seem to, and in the meantime it makes shopping here pretty miserable. Also, the fabric is really disorganized, and they’re often out of staple items.

To the customer complaining about their 20% off coupon, remnants are supposed to be 50% off of the current selling price, so if the bolt was already 50% off, you should have gotten it for 50% off that price… the same as 75% off, which is why you can use a coupon. If it didn’t ring up at 75% off, that was the error, not the coupon.

I used to like this place but I ran into a woman named Lacey on two separate occasions because I had issues trying to find an item and both times she basically said «you figure it out! I’m too busy for this!» and stormed away. I feel really bad for everyone else there if that’s their manager.

I hate leaving negative reviews, but I have had two bad experience here recently. I will share the latest.
I brought a fabric remnant up to the counter. It was approximately a yard (just over) and was 50% off the original price because it was a remnant. I had a coupon for 20% off my total purchase INCLUDING sale items. However, the cashier told me that «the computer won’t let you use the coupon because you already have a 50 percent off remnant discount.»
I pointed out that the same exact fabric I had in my had was available on the roll in the back back of the store and just happened to be on sale that week for… you guessed it, 50 percent off. So, if I walked back, got them to cut me a yard and brought it up to the front it would STILL be 50 percent off (aka: the same exact price as the one in my hand) AND I could use the coupon. She refused to try to override the system or call a manager and just suggested that I go get more myself. So I did.
I had to walk back, get my fabric, wait in line (which is another issue — two employees working on the same customer’s fabric… like 20 different kinds to cut — and only after the other customer suggested they help me instead of both working on hers did someone cut mine), get my fabric cut, walk back up, wait in line to check out and pay with my 20 percent coupon, which then worked. Ridiculous. They were the EXACT SAME piece of fabric.
Luckily I am not a sewer and only need fabric a couple of times a year. I think next time I will look elsewhere…

I paid for 8 yards of fabric, only received 6. I called in to speak to the manager & she told me she was too busy to help me. TERRIBLE service.

I purchased a lot of supplies to make crafty things for my wedding this summer. Afterwards, I had a number of items left over that I hadn’t used, so my mother helped me out by returning some of the items for me. One of the receipts fell between her car seats, so a few of the items were not returned with original receipt.
This store has a policy of returning the lowest value at which the item has ever been priced, if you don’t have a receipt. One of the items had been clearanced out, so she received less than half the price we paid back on a merchandise card.
This particular item had been purchased less than a week prior, so this really irritated me. When we discovered the receipt between the car seat, I went back to Joann’s and asked them to return the full amount of money. While I didn’t think I was going to get it back on my credit card, I was hoping that I could at least get the full credit.
Here’s where things dissolved. I entered the store and went to the nearest cashier. She looked at me blankly when I told her what I wanted to do, and referred me to an older lady named Jean. Jean was very nice and said that she could help me out. She proceeded to try to get the appropriate amount back to me by re-​returning the item at the normal price, then having me pay back the clearance amount. However, she screwed up and did not actually refund the normal price back to me (she said she was putting it on my gift card). When I tried to explain that she was actually having me leave the store with LESS money than when I came in, she got upset and tried to tell me that I didn’t understand the process that she was using. I understood perfectly, and kept trying to explain to her how the balance on the gift card was LESS not more. Finally, she got extremely frustrated with me (I was very polite, and kept thanking her for helping me out, and was never rude during the entire process) and went to talk to the manager. The manager had her refund the clearance price back to me (which was put on a separate gift card). So, I ended up leaving the store with the EXACT same amount of money as when I went in.
This poor cashier just couldn’t understand what I was saying, and wouldn’t listen to me. So my whole visit to the store was pointless — in fact, now I have the same amount of money on two separate gift cards instead of one. I’m sure at the end of the night, this cashier’s register didn’t total up, since the money was never refunded to me.
Oh well. Caveat emptor. And now I’m stuck with these stupid gift cards. (Yeah, first world problems, I realize.)

I hate chain stores. I wish I could find a local place.
First — I get in there and it is always so messy. There is no rhyme or reason or organization to the store.
Second — Once I get my fabric, I have to wait twenty minutes for it to get cut. I get so upset when people have questions and they walk up to the fabric cutters and steal them away. We are all waiting in line, please tell them you CANNOT help them.
Third — I was told to buy supplies for a class. I wasted $ 10 after paying $ 17.50 for the class on materials that ended up being provided for me.
I find that I get overwhelmed when I go there. The workers tend to be knowledgeable on basic ideas, but I have been «helped» right into three wrong purchases. One left me with the wrong needles, the wrong thread and an overpriced option. I just wish that some of the prerequisite for working at Jo-Ann’s was actual knowledge of sewing, crafts and the products.
Oh corporate America, one day I will escape your sewing store.

I’ve been frequenting both Madison Jo-​Ann Fabrics for quite a number of years. I’ve come to realize there must be a bad work atmosphere, general lack of employee motivation/​morale, or troubles with management, because I have never had good customer service here.
As a freelance artist, I buy quite a bit of supplies from Jo-​Ann, and when I can’t find it, from their competitors. Jo-​Ann has a fabulous selection, and a majority of the time I don’t have to go anywhere else to complete my shopping list. However, I really wish the store had better service. It’s gotten to the point where I would rather go to Michael’s or Hobby Lobby than here because I feel as if my business is not important enough to merit assistance from any of the employees. There is an atmosphere of general misery among the staff; lines are usually long as there is only one or two cashiers working. When I do ask for assistance, I’m usually treated to a very lackluster employee who is short with me («Here. It’s right here. K?») and even at the checkout I am either rushed through (really, don’t let the door hit you on the way out) or it takes a good ten minutes for my small purchases to be rang up and bagged. Overall, I’ll probably have to start taking my business elsewhere.

Big, but lacking. Back when this store opened (8 years-​ish ago) it was pretty fab — though it always seemed to not have as much fabric as many smaller JoAnn’s. It’s gotten a bit more unkempt in recent years. My recent visit found it in the middle of a minor remodel/​reshuffle and finding things was tricky. In addition to having to run all over the store to find things, they –as always — only had 2 cashiers working and a checkout line wrapping around the designated area and back onto the salesfloor. This ALWAYS seems to happen there. And while I happened to get a perky cashier on this particular visit, I tend to be met by rather surly employees. Still, I come back though, as it has things that can’t be found in other places. But I usually leave a little annoyed. This store is decent, but it does have the capacity to be awesome if it tried a bit harder.

I make it a point not to write reviews for chain stores/​restaurants, but I had to make an exception…
The lovely, lovely woman at the register doubled me up on coupons (40% off one item + 15% off total purchase) without my asking. I was totally caught off guard, but pleasantly surprised. In economic times like these, THAT is what earns you a 5 star rating from me. :)

This JoAnn’s is a bit run down. I guess I am spoiled by my new, shiny JoAnn’s in Chicago. They probably have the items you need, just not as many of them.
Unfortunately I encountered an employee who shared with me her displeasure at having to work EVERY YEAR THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING. Seriously, lady? It’s the busiest shopping day of the year and at least you have a job (unlike myself). Keep your «harrumph» to yourself.
Plenty of parking and coupons galore still make JoAnn’s tops on my crafting list.