My Walmart is phasing out...

their craft dept.

It's a Super Center and they've been remodeling the entire store for over a month (and what a PITA that is every week when I go food shopping). The owner of my LSS told me last week that her aunt has been working in WM's craft dept. since they opened about 10 years ago. Apparently they're phasing out most of the dept. The fabric is all gone. Right now the scrap aisle is pathetic and almost completely empty. Most of the crafts are in the lawn & garden section while they remodel. Another part of crafts is in a different part of the store (they have the scrap stuff divided between the two areas ). I don't understand why they'd phase it out. Not that I bought all that much there, but occasionally I'd pick up some flowers or adhesive or something.

This could be a very good thing for my LSS. With Walmart's scrap dept. out of the picture she has very little competition in our immediate area. I'm loving my LSS more and more everytime I go so I want her to stick around for awhile.

Is anyone else's local Walmart making big changes?

My Walmart went through this last year. We are down to just 1/2 of an aisle for scrapbooking stuff. The other craft aisles seem to be going strong, though. I hope my WalMart does not phase out their fabrics. It's already pretty small to begin with, but DD is a Fashion Design major, and she depends on WalMart prices for her numerous projects.

Our Supercenter was completely remodeled in the fall of last year but nothing changed in the craft dept. It really wasnt that big to begin with but they still have a little bit of everything.

I've noticed that a majority of the scrappin' supplies are on sale for super prices...but don't seem to think that the whole craft dept. is being phased out..I hope not!

Meijers did that here...they REALLY cut down on their craft department.

No changes at my WallyWorld...I hope not! I do find some stuff there. And, that is where I buy my cricut stuff because it is so much cheaper!!!!

Mine is doing the same.. But I really like Targets selection of Scrap stuff also..

Our local Walmart went through a remodel about 6 months ago and it also downsized the scrapbook stuff. They have quite a few stickers, but not much else. The used to have 5x7 size vellum that worked perfect for poems, they no longer that anymore.

I'm glad that we now have a small scrapbooks store in town another wise I couldn't buy anything local.

Lynn

I dont shop at Walmart enought to really notice anything--maybe once or twice a year if I HAVE to. LOL So I guess I am not missing anything!

• Luvmyfam Said:

1/2 an aisle is all my WM's scrapping stuff EVER existed of. My WM is pretty darn sad if you ask me.

I am happy to report that not my walmart.. it is actually a new wal-mart and they have a good two aisle of scrapstuff.. not including all the critcut items..

Our Wal-Mart here is keeping part of their craft area but in the next town over they are closing out the whole craft department! Plus they are not going to carry the Cricut's in most stores.
The only thing we have been told here is to call 1-800-WalMart and lodge a complaint. Not sure how much good that is going to do as a bunch of people did that when they phased out their lay-away's and as you know they no longer have lay-away's.
Right now it is a wait and see as to how many stores close out their craft departments.

Our area just got a little bigger since remodleing.

They did a huge market survey and actually separately tracked craft/fabric and floral sales.

Some stores lost everything, some just downsized and some got bigger. They are trying to reduce delivery costs due to gas prices and only stocking stuff that sells in a particular market.

Ours remodeled last year and the scrap stuff almost went nonexistent but I noticed recently they are back up to a whole aisle of scrap stuff. Mine has never carried Cricut though.

Ours is remodeling right now. Took all the fabrics out and put in electronics. The scrap stuff is down to nothing, but I think that is good for our LSS. I will miss the fabric department though. I bought more scrap stuff there than I did from the scrap department.

Our Walmart remodeled. They have an aisle of scrapping stuff, but it's boring and never changes. I haven't seen the Cricut there at all. I like Walmart for other stuff, but I don't buy any scrap stuff from them. Maybe buttons, but that's about it. And Michaels is right across the street, so why bother with Walmart's craft stuff?

Our walmart's is doing the remodel store shuffling thing. We had ours phase out fabric also. They moved the crafting section down by the automotive. They also didn't make the aisles large enough for the electric mobility carts OE wheelchairs, much less a shopping cart. They are trying to cram more in. They are reducing the size of some departments, but increasing others. I don't understand it at all. The departments that aren't hopping are growing!!

from what I was told by a Walmart sales associate, all locations are getting rid of their fabric/craft section. they are 'revamping' the stores. they will still carry some craft items, but it will be a 'party' section...don't know if this is all factual or now??

Ours has downsized the other crafts, but still has lots of sb stuff. Just like someone said above, I was told they did extensive makret research and examining of their sales records to see what sold and what didn't in each area. For now it appears ours is safe!

I've not seen any changes in our Wal Mart here in the sunshine state yet. We are located between a super store and two regular ones.

• grammascrapper Said:

That's exactly what ours is doing. The electronics dept. is twice the size it used to be. The girls 7-14 clothing dept. is split in half. The clearance stuff is in furniture and the regular stuff is next to the baby dept. I was really bummed when I went in shortly after Christmas and found out they were phasing out fabrics. I was going to buy some fleece to make myself a blanket but never got the chance to buy it before it was gone. Walmart had the best price.

Like someone else said, some of the depts. have really wide aisles (like health & beauty), yet other parts of the store are crammed together (like the grocery aisles - where you need more room!). I can't wait until this remodel is over because the grocery half looks like someone threw all the food up in the air and put it back on the shelves where it landed. Nothing is organized or put with similar items. You can hear customers mumbling under their breath how ridiculous the store is. It takes twice as long to get my grocery shopping done. Last night it took me 10 minutes to find a package of #%@! raisins (I need them for a recipe). It's really frustrating.

My Wal-Mart has always had their craft section by automotive. However, I have yet to see the cricut. Scrapbooking is about 1 1/2 isles bleding in with jewelry making. However, when I went to OKC this weekend, their Wal-Mart had the scrapbooking with cards and party supplies. They also carried Cricut ($194), but it was back with fabrics. Crazy!

I don't know what is up with Walmart! First they did away with the layway dept. I did not use it that much but it was packed at x-mas (so someone was using it). And now the craft dept.........
What next.....the food dept?

Judy I was in the one in I THINK Auburn - and noticed the same thing. DH took me there to get glasses and I wanted to see what we had while we were there, and it turned out to be about nothing

Ours remodeled last year. The craft department really didn't downsize at all. They do tend to adjust the amount of area needed for each individual type. For instance, they downsized the yarn are but increased the kids craft area. Kids crafts are huge in my town. They downsized the fabric a little but increased the cake decorating area. Give them a few months and they will change things all over again.
As for scrapbooking, it really hasn't downsized at all but they will rearrange the aisle quite frequently.

Well, if that happens here there will no longer for me ever to enter a WM... not that I'm there much anyway.

Last time I was in Walmart buying some fabric the cashier told me that she heard they were going to be eliminating their fabric section. I didn't even thing to ask if they were eliminating their craft section I really hope they don't since I don't have a lot of other crafting stores closeby.

• KatieJo Said:

As it is now there are only 2 things I go there for, one is Starbucks and the other is yarn. If they drop the yarn completely, I'll just switch coffees LOL!!!

The Wally's that I shop @ still have their fabric & craft dept...I can't really tell much of a difference...

Our Walmart still has their craft and fabric department and I haven't noticed anything different. In fact they actually increased their scrap dept a couple years ago. Hopefully they won't take it away, not that I get a lot of stuff there but being that it's only 10 minutes away and the LSS is on the other side of town it's nice to run up there when I need something real quick.

Yeah, rather upset at how much they downsized. Just makes us have to go to M and Js more, and I'm not always happy with their selection either.

Well, I'd hate to see it go but I hardly ever buy sb stuff there b/c all of the embellies and albums are for cats and dogs at our walmart.

I have so many pics to deal with, I'm pretty sure I'm never going to make an album for my dog. So I can see where they think that people around here don't sb, but it's just because the paper they have is too specialized!

the wal-mart i go to now hasnt made any changes to there scrapbook section. thank goodness.

the wal-mart in my home town in FL did this in August. They changed everything around and didnt have any scrapbook stuff for over two weeks.

Ours finally got a cricut section! Everything is pretty much the same.

Corporate has said that the fabric is going to be gone, they wont carry it. Ours expanded their scrapbook section to a full aisle (both sides) and two endcaps!

Ours still has the same amount since I started looking there. Although, they may have phased it down before I began to shop in that section. I really only buy adhesive and sometimes stamps there.

Hmmm...I'll have to ask again at ours. We just got a new SuperCenter. I commented to the girls how much they had cut vs our old store and they told me they thought they were working on bringing more stuff in. But that was a couple months ago, so maybe it's changed.

My wm remodeled last year. They are trying to make them all layed out the same I guess. We still have about an aisle of sb stuff. About the same as before. I think they downsize a lot during the remodel then get some of the stuff back in later. They had said they weren't going to have as much material but it looks like just as much as before.

My sister heard the lady in the fabric section telling another customer last week that our fabric department was going to be gone in June. Don't know about the rest of the craft area.