I have a bone to pick. I strongly believe that people who work at specialty stores should be experts in their field. That way they can ACTUALLY HELP YOU. The people who work at Joann Fabrics are often annoyed. I believe this may have something to do with the fact that they are always severly under-staffed. Secondly, they rarely know an answer to any of my questions.
Just this afternoon, I went in to get some muslin for a toille I'm making. A toille is a muslin mock up of a formal gown for fitting purposes. I asked where the muslin was. It's with the quilting fabric I'm told. This seems arbitrary, but oh well. There was a sign on that said "Muslin, 99 cents/yard" so I found what I wanted & took it up to the cutting counter. The lady says, this is $3.99/yard. I told her about the sign & she says "this is not muslin". Seriously, I think I know what muslin is. It's unbleached, loose-weave cotton, often with telling little brown specks in it. It was muslin. So she proceeds to roll her eyes (yes, she actually did this) & told me it was quilting cotton. I FLIPPING KNOW WHAT MUSLIN IS. So I went back & found something suitable for $1.99 a yard (the 99 cent stuff was un-usable) & she askes me what I'm making. I think it's in their employee contract that they have to ask you this. I don't know why that gets up my craw everytime I'm trying to check out that I have to explain myself, but it does. I told her it was for a fitting. She said "you mean lining?". I said, "no, a fitting". She said "you mean a pattern?". Really, am I not supposed to be alarmed that an attandant at a fabric store has no idea what a muslin fitting is?
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2 comments:
Heh...
This on top of the fact that they often don't have what I'm looking for, because THEY don't order when they're out (or better yet... nearly out) of something, they have to wait for the corporate office to choose what to send to them...
And the fact that Joann.com is an entirely seperate company, so stuff I want that I can find there (TLC Cotton Plus, for one) can't be found in the store, and you can't return anything you bought online to the brick & mortar store (that especially irks me).
And, they woefully under stock key departments (in my opinion)... yarn could be much better, needles and knitting accessories even more so... the fabric selection seems unreasonably low (granted, some of that impression might be that they have the quilting fabrics in an entirely seperate area than the rest of their fabrics, but non-quilting fabrics seem to consist of at least 40% fleece), and their silk flowers are crap. C.R.A.P. Other departments seem okay to me, but they're not my obsession, so I'm probably just not looking closely enough. They could beef up all of it, if they didn't try to spread themselves so thin (why, pray tell, do they have a FRAMING department???).
So... I love/hate Joann's. Despite not being able to find what I want more often than not, I still can't stay out of that place. I do think a lot of it has to do with the 40% off teasers (which are so frustrating, anyways, because you can use them on large items or a huge cut of fabric, but only ONE skein of yarn).
LOL... looks like you hit a nerve there, eh?
- Leisel
http://sagebrush.typepad.com/knotagain
The 40% thing will get you every time. I have shopped at Joann's since I was in college at Kent State in the Akron, Ohio area and shopped at the Hudson, Ohio mothership store. Still, I hate going there. How can explain to them that their corperate atmosphere completely stinks when I continually give them my business? It's one huge circle going down the toilet!
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