Jo-Ann Fabrics, the 82-year-old chain that sold fabrics and arts and crafts supplies, announced on Feb. 24 that it was unable to find a buyer and would close its remaining 300 locations (leaving customers at the mercy of the hugely problematic Hobby Lobby stores—look them up on Wikipedia, they are horrifying). The store was founded by two German immigrant families, first as the Cleveland Fabric Shop, changing to Jo-Ann Fabrics in 1963 (after the families’ daughters, Joan and Jacqueline Ann). The company had been suffering financial problems since 2010, not helped by Covid (many stores stayed open during the lockdown, and Jo-Ann sweetly but misguidedly offered home-made masks to hospitals). As Lester Holt just now told us on the NBC Nightly News (and Lester himself is retiring this summer), Big Lots, Macy's, Kohl's, JCPenney, and Walgreens are also closing numerous locations (if my neighborhood Walgreens closes, where will I get my prescriptions, and go emergency shopping when an oncoming storm has the ShopRite packed with panicked villagers buying bread, eggs, and milk like the Cossacks are coming and are expecting French toast when they get here?!).
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