Joann, a 80-year-old crafts and fabric retailer, will close all stores
Joann announced in February that it would be closing 500 of its remaining 800 stores as part of the bankruptcy process. Joann announced in February that 500 of its 800 remaining stores would be closed as part of bankruptcy proceedings. According to a Joann news release, the winning bidder, GA Group, and a lender acquired “substantially” all of JOANN’s assets. GA Group plans to wind down the company’s operations and conduct going-out-of-business sales at all stores, pending bankruptcy court approval, the company said.
Joann said in a statement that its leadership “made every possible effort to pursue a more favorable outcome that would keep the company in business.”
Joann, which was previously called Jo-Ann Fabrics, is based in Hudson, Ohio. The chain of storefronts, which spans 49 states, has long been a favorite for crafters. They offer a variety of colorful yarns, fabric rolls, sewing machines, seasonal items, and other crafting materials. Joann, a publicly-traded company at the time, filed for bankruptcy in March 2024 to reduce debt. The company then returned to private ownership. The company attributed the low sales to the challenging retail environment. The retailer continued to spiral downward in the months following. Joann announced in February that the company would close more than half of its stores. The company said that the closures would begin immediately. However, the timeline for the store closures and winding down operations is not yet clear. Joann announced in a letter to suppliers that they had “generally ceased purchasing goods and services, except for those it believes are necessary to support an orderly wind down of operations.” GA Group didn’t immediately respond to Monday’s request for additional information. Ms. Brumfield has been shopping at her local Joann for almost a decade, because the store is the only one nearby that carries the yarn she needs for her knitting and crocheting projects.
“Whatever you needed, they probably had it, and it was going to be the quality you wanted,” she said, adding that finding the products she usually bought there was going to be “a lot more difficult.”
