Can Hobby Lobby Replace Joann?
*This post may include affiliate links, which allow me to make a small commission off your purchases. The money is earned at no additional cost to you.
Hobby Lobby (HL) was a competitor to Joann. Now, Joann is gone and Hobby Lobby is the only one left standing. But, can this retailer compete with offerings Joann once had in their stores?
Fabric is sad.
Joann had an abundance of quilting cotton but very little fabric for making garments. It was sparse on garment making fabrics, but still had more garment fabric than Hobby Lobby offers. All of the HL locations I visited had a few short rows of garment fabrics.
I’d guess one row was filled with knits, while another had canvas, denim, and other thicker materials. However, HL offers nothing when it comes to getting fabrics for special occasions like proms or weddings. Joann was spares in its special occasion fabrics, but at least they offered something.
Thread is ok.
Joann offered thread from all the major brands like Gutermann, Mettler, and Sulky. But, Hobby Lobby only offers its own store brand thread. I never had a problem with the store brand thread and have a sneaking suspicion that this thread is made by a larger brand and re-labeled HL. The thread is good quality. However, I don’t have confidence in using the quilting thread for large projects that I wish to hold onto for many years. Instead, it makes more sense to purchase a big brand thread. In this way, it costs more money than it did to purchase the name brand varies from Joann using a coupon.
Notions are nice.
A few years ago, HL switched from a coupon business model to alternating weekly store sales. The weekly store sales allow for greater savings, but also have the potential to cost you more money. When it’s Fiskar and sewing notions sales week, you can stock up on all the items in that section and get every single item on sale. This allows for greater savings than if you were to use a coupon, which can only be applied to one single item. If its not sales week for the item you need, however, you have to pay full price. This is where the sales structure can cost you more money.
Yarn is good. But accessories are better.
The yarn offerings from HL are pretty good. You just have to make sure to purchase all your yarn on the proper sales week. When you get the HL yarn on sales week, it is cheaper than buying from Joann because the discount applies to every skein you buy. However, HL doesn’t offer anywhere near the selection of yarn Joann once had inside their stores. While HL doesn’t have the same variety as Joann, they offer a very wide variety of knitting and crochet accessories. These accessories are very high quality and many preferred them over those once sold by Joann.
Store experience is mixed.
HL is a lot more organized than Joann. Plus, they have better staffing. At the same time, they have the same over supply of seasonal items Joann customers once complained about. Hobby Lobby isn’t perfect. But, they still offer more fabric and have more square footage than their current competitor, Michael’s.
No Comments