Company Man asks 'The Decline of Joann...What Happened?' A tale of the Retail Apocalypse

I'm returning to the Retail Apocalypse by sharing Company Man's The Decline of Joann...What Happened?

This video explores what has gone wrong with one of the country's biggest fabric and craft stores.

As I customarily do for Company Man Mike's videos, I'm displaying his complete list.


"Less sewing" is a phrase I've never written here before; the closest I've come is using less and sewing at opposite ends of 'Fahrenheit 11/9' wins three Razzie Awards, two for Donald Trump and one for Kellyanne Conway, but not together, so that's a false positive. Also, while I've been been blogging about women's careers since Mother's Day 2012 and have been writing about how women (and men) shop since 2009 (reproduced in 2011), I don't know if I've connected the effect of women entering the workforce on shopping before. It was about time.

Competition is a common theme, although Joann's story didn't mention the usual suspects of Amazon and Walmart; instead, it was Michael's and Hobby Lobby.* Joann's vanquished their competitors in the fabric business, so their competition is in crafts.

Buyout is another name for private equity, which I last wrote about in Company Man asks 'The Decline of Party City...What Happened?' A tale of the Retail Apocalypse.

I've mentioned the role of private equity in the failure of retail chains many times before, most recently in 'Bankrupt - 99 Cents Only Stores' by Bright Sun Films, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse. It took more than a decade, but the debt from the leveraged buyout finally caught up with Party City.

The same turned out to be true for Joann.

"External factors" were very much the same for Joann as it was for Big Lots! Both thrived during the pandemic because people were at home, then suffered once people returned to work. Ironic.

On the other hand, inventory fits the pandemic narrative of disrupted supply chains compounded by tariffs. At least it's not Big Lots! issues with inventory tracking and billing. I'd never seen that before!

Company Man Mike's video came out nearly a month ago and the story has developed since then. For that, I'm turning to Jen of Sewing Report LIVE for JOANN Bankruptcy Auction...Who Won + What's Next?

Day 2 update of the JOANN bankruptcy sale auction at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. The winning bidder is GA JOANN Retail Partnership, LLC (partnership between Great American Group + term lenders). Next up is the bankruptcy court sale hearing on February 26, where the judge has to approve the sale of assets to the winning bidder. Great American Group CEO Scott Carpenter said during the auction call most JOANN stores will stay open until the end of May and every item in every store will be discounted. They are working on a multi-million dollar retention plan for company employees, with 90% of that budget going to stores. Fresh inventory should soon be rolling out to locations. Disclaimer: I am NOT an attorney, this is obviously not legal expertise.

Looks like all stores will close and the inventory will be liquidated by the end of May. That will be an especially sad day for people who sew clothes and costumes.

That concludes today's installment of tales of the Retail Apocalypse and pandemic. Stay tuned for more evergreen entries I can share next month through Friday.

*I'd love to write a "Decline of Hobby Lobby...What Happened?" post, but their customer base may support them as much as they do Walmart, for reasons I like even less. Instead, I might have to settle for Hobby Lobby - The Controversial History. Sigh.