I hate JoAnn's

[byhammerandhand]

Wife and I are putting together a beginner's sewing kit for our six year old grand-daughter.   Today only they have a 70% sale off "notions," so we ran over after church at their door opening.

We pick out an assortment of stuff.  After some back and forth, we get checked out and my CPA wife is looking at the receipt and it's not right.    Didn't quite ring up right for her.   And of course, decoding the register tally and/or paper receipt is a puzzle. Some discounts shown by item, and some just a total discount at the bottom.    Item by item, the cashier has to call back to manager. 

The lady behind us had a similar assortment of about a dozen items.
- Scissors are not discounted because they're already on sale
- Something else not on sale, even though it's on the "notions wall" because it's not considered a notion
- Several items not discounted because they are "quilting notions" not "notions."
In all, I think she ended up buying one thing and leaving the rest.

We get back in line (my wife says "for the principle of the thing.")   Return everything, some refund in cash, some back on the credit card.   Go through our purchases (now in two groups), get discounts on some, sale prices on others, ASG discounts added in somewhere.  As a former software guy, I can just imagine their POS (that would be Point-Of-Sale, not Piece-of-$hit) software trying to sort all this out during checkout.

The cashier, God bless her, remained calm through the whole deal even though she probably knew the whole day with notions coupons would be like her first two customers with exceptions.

I told my wife that Harbor Freight always has 20-25% off coupons active.   Something can be for sale for 50% or 75% off and you still get a coupon discount off that.

[sofadoc]

Customers routinely bring me cushion jobs that they started trying to do on their own, and soon realized that they were in over their head.

They bring in all the crap that they bought from Jo Ann's. Some cheap fleeceback vinyl that cracks within a year. The green colored sheets of foam that are roughly equivalent to what our suppliers sell as "economy foam", or "back foam". The tiny little spools of cotton thread that is made for artsy-fartsy craft work. Some 12" zippers that are normally used to sew into the back of a woman's dress. And some welt cord that resembles crochet yarn.

Sometimes, they leave the Jo Ann's receipt in the sack. I'm always amazed at how much they paid for that junk.......even WITH a coupon.

[byhammerandhand]

I only go to JoAnn's to read the articles, errrr, I mean to buy needles for me and thread for the wife.

[bobbin]

I loathe that store.  I go there very occasionally to fulfill some desperate, immediate need. 

I echo Sofa.'s  comments.  They offer little of professional quality (with respect to "materials"/guts) although the fabric is OK.  The counter help is pretty poor, but given the current minimum wage I'm not remotely surprised. 

I also echo the "rescue scenario" related above... .  I always feel bad for the "sucker du jour" but since I charge by the hour for my labor and will work on COM, however much they paid for crappy materials really isn't my problem. 

JoAnn's is nothing more than one more crappy "discount" place... right in line with Bob's Furniture/Ashley Furniture/etc..

[chrisberry12]

if a customer comes to me with all the junk they bought from any store, I tell them to take it all back home. I am not going to put my name on that junk and the work will suffer from the bad quality of supplies. They can hire me to do the work with much better quality supplies. Live and learn!!!

Chris

[kodydog]

Agreed.

[sofadoc]

I don't mind working with customer-furnished foam, batting, and fabric/vinyl. But I won't use their own "notions", such as welt cord, thread, and zipper.

[bobbin]

Ditto, Sofa.. 

I try to educate my customers about the appropriateness of foam from JoAnn's.  Much of the time it's not well suited to marine or porch furniture and I explain why.  When the foam succumbs and it's time for new stuff they usually come to me.  If I'm faced with fabric that is completely inappropriate for the application I will turn a customer away, with the reason why.