Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores

Horrible customer service! Waited in line on a Saturday for over 30 minutes. They only had two cashiers to check customers out. And they were extremely slow. I will definitely never come back on a Saturday but still why would they not have more cashiers at such a busy time? Very disappointing.

You’ll spend more time standing in line than you will shopping.
The fabric cutting table is the worst. The floor can be covered in customers waiting, yet the employees will still chit chat with one another. I’ve never seen anyone move as slow as the employees in that store. While about 15 customers were waiting for cutting service, employee #1 sat there and talked about how cute the fabric employee #2 was cutting. Ridiculous.
If you finally make it through the cutting table torture, you get to stand in line for days waiting for a cashier. Seriously. Don’t do it to yourself.

Let me begin by saying – I have no craft.
I’m like the antithesis of Morgan Le Fay in craftiness.
I’m 110% muggle when it comes to craft of any sort.
Sewing? Can’t do it. Knitting? Nada. Painting, quilting, scrapbooking? Nope. Nope. Nope.
So, in reviewing a craft store – do keep in mind, I don’t have extensive experience with such stores.
However, I have, on occasion, had some sort of insane inspiration strike which has left me in search of goods that only such stores seem to carry.
This week? I decided to put together a gift basket. Only, it’s for a guy – so I wanted it be more of a rustic gift crate. After searching at a variety of stores around town (and online), I came up empty.
Enter Jo-Ann’s.
Within 2 minutes, I found an unfinished crate (on sale for $ 12.99) and brown paper shreds to fill it. Day/​gift idea saved!
I’ve also had occasion to get Halloween decorations here and found that they have some of the most reasonably priced decorations in town. Some are still absurdly priced – but if you look around a bit – some of it is just downright cheap!
I’ve always received friendly service at check out, though haven’t had occasion to need customer service anywhere else in the store. I’ve even had them offer coupons when I haven’t had any. Seriously? Amazing.
So, for my occasional needs? Jo-Ann’s has always delivered.
Get to it!

Terrible experience at the Boise Milwaukee store. Fabric cutting folks had absolutely terrible customer service from the moment we stepped up to their desk, were unprofessional as if asking for their help inconvenienced them. I will say that the lady at checkout was very pleasant and had great customer service skills, and we did end up with what we were looking for. We’re gonna vote with our dollar and not come to this branch anymore.

I visited the Milwaukee location yesterday to get a few supplies for my upcoming wedding. I generally go to the Federal Way location because it’s closer but I’m glad I stopped here this time. Thankfully I didn’t need fabric because the cutting line is always packed but I was able to get my items quickly and the selection for everything is massive, almost dizzying how many choices there are. When I finally got to the register I found out an item that didn’t have a tag was more expensive than I anticipated so I moved away from the register to think about it before checking out. Once I returned to the register the clerk, Rikki, helped me soooo much by telling me about all the coupons she knew of that I could find on my phone and use right then and she saved me $ 30 on my order! That makes a huge difference to me and my budget and it was so refreshing to see someone willing to go above and beyond to help someone’s life be a little easier. The store was clean, I found all the items I needed and then some, and Rikki was the icing on the cake. Great experience and thank you so much!

The Boise, Idaho store on Milwakee is the worst every time I go in there. The line for fabric cutting is ridiculous, I’ve learned to grab a ticket first, then shop for fabric. Besides that, today I had to get ½in
/​yd, the checker, her name was Ashley according to my receipt, typed it in as 2in
/​yd, (big difference) and when I tried to correct her politely she turned into a total *****, accusing me of not knowing what I was talking about. A 2.5 yard roll of foam should not cost 55 dollars, yet she would not hear a single thing. This is terrible way to treat a customer, we ended up walking out with not having everything we needed and a horrible taste in our mouths. It wasn’t worth fighting her because she was entitled and on a high horse. This is the second time I’ve had a terrible experience with her in the past two months. Customer service is unheard of at this store. I am going to try to avoid it at all costs.

This was my second time in this store. I found what I was looking for but was dissapointed to find so many empty hooks in the needlework project aisle. The store seems to be well laid out, and it is clean. I like that they have such a large parking lot. If I don’t drive myself to drink with one of my new projects I may be back for more :)

For what seems like the millionth time, I left the store today without buying anything that was on my list. I even had a 40% off coupon AND a $ off my purchase coupon. Still nothing. This store drives me nuts. Let me count the ways:
The sales are often misleading. For example, they’ll have «All Papercrafting Products» on sale. Yet the scrapbooking adhesive from the scrapbooking aisle doesn’t ring up at the sale price and the cashiers won’t honor it.
The line is too long and the cashiers are too slow. Many times, I have left my selection (s) on a shelf near the door and left without buying anything. I won’t wait 20 minutes to give a store my money.
I want a particular item and, although there’s a peg with its name on it, the peg is empty. It was empty last week, the week before, and so on. Order more already!
The staff can almost never be found on the sales floor helping the customers. On the rare occasion you can get one’s attention, they’re clueless. For example, I asked if they had a certain rubber stamp in stock. He scanned the barcode and said, «No, but we have two thousand of them at the Nampa store.» Well, yeah, I’m sure they don’t have 2,000 of them. Being that it’s a fabric store, I’d guess it’s 2 POINT 000 — to account for fractions of a yard of fabric. *scream*
I’m all about the deal, so I will probably continue to shop here for the bargains… but I will cringe each time I do so. And pretty soon, when it’s no longer worth the ordeal, I’ll stop.