When I’m not working, or entertaining a toddler, I find myself stitching needlepoint projects (no, I am not 85, needlepoint is popular again with a younger crowd). There is lots of chatter in the craft world about Joann stores closing. Where will we buy our embroidery floss, fabrics and crafting supplies? Sometimes, it takes a store closure for us to appreciate the service that it provides to our communities.
Joann isn’t the first to close all their stores in the last few years. There was similar outrage for stores like Bed Bath & Beyond, and lately for Party City, which is also going through the bankruptcy process. Of course, I would be remiss not to point out that if we had been shopping at these stores, they likely wouldn’t be going out of business in the first place. The ease of online shopping both for our everyday purchases (and everything in between) means that the knitting needles and yarn that you would have stopped at a Joann store to purchase over the weekend now appears in the slew of Amazon boxes that arrive at your porch weekly. We have traded online convenience for in person shopping, and for that, our communities will likely suffer. Stores close, retail locations sit empty (often drawing crime to them), and the people who work at these stores are left to find new jobs.
The hope is that people will take this opportunity to shop at local stores to find what they need when these big chain stores close. Is there a local grocery store that sells balloons now that you can get a bouquet for your child’s birthday party now that party city has closed? Is there a yarn shop that you can go to instead of Joann? While it may be more expensive at times to shop at these stores, the economic impact on your community is greater. According to research done by Capital One, nearly 70%, or $0.70 per dollar spent at local businesses stays in your local economy. Currently, more than 54% of all retail sales are completed at a local business. This is a chance to increase that number and keep local stores open.
For small communities, it is important to recognize that there may not be a local option. I think about the one stop light farm town in Iowa that my mother-in-law grew up in. When K-Mart went out of business in the mid 2000’s, the town struggled to find a new retailer to take its place. All these years later, with a declining population size and an increasing median age, new stores aren’t popping up anytime soon, and residents are forced to drive 30 minutes to a larger town where they have some retail locations left. While Amazon is the tempting option, many small businesses have websites and ship out nationwide. Spending a little bit more time doing research on available products at small businesses will really impact these companies in the long run.
For now, the craft world is shopping Joann at a deep discount and mourning what was once a wonderful place to indulge in our craft purchases, despite not appreciating it while we had it. But there is much to learn from this experience, and I for one hope that people learn to appreciate what stores we have left and shop them, in person, as often as they can.
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