I already had an idea picked out for the blog this week,
but last night I got some news that blew that idea out of the water. I received
a text from a friend at 6 p.m. telling me that all Hancock Fabric Stores are
going out of business.
This friend lives in Winston, so I assumed she had been
at the Reynolda Road store and got the scoop.
It didn’t take me but a minute to grab my keys, pocketbook, and cell phone and head for the door.
“I’m going to Hancock’s,” I hollered over my shoulder to
Bill.
“Now?”
“Yes.”
“But you can’t need anything….you just got back from
Lancaster.”
“They’re going out of business.”
“Oh.”
He knew this was more than a pursuit of that perfect
background fabric for my next applique project.
This was the beginning of a long good-bye.
For those of you non-quilters/sewing enthusiasts out
there, you have to understand the place that fabric and quilt stores hold in
the quilter’s/sewing enthusiast’s heart.
It’s more than a store. It’s kind
of like the bar on Cheers (that’s an old TV show – if you don’t know what it
is, please google it). It’s a support
system. It’s a classroom.
It’s a place where everybody knows your name and most of
your business.
I started sewing in 1986, shortly after the birth of my
daughter. The only game in town at that
point was Piece Goods. I shopped there
and even worked for them on occasion when they needed extra help or was doing
inventory.
Then Hancock’s opened.
I tried to divide my time and dollars spent between the stores, but
Hancock’s was literally five blocks from where I lived and Piece Goods was all
the way at the mall. For a young mom
with two toddlers, Hancock’s tended to win in the end. They knew me, knew my kids, and became a part
of my life. After Piece Goods declared
bankruptcy and closed, Hancock’s was it as far as real fabric and notions
went. I wasn’t quilting at this point,
but I was making all of my children’s clothes and most of my own. Soon I was teaching clothing construction and
French heirloom sewing for them.
In 2001 I signed up for their block-of-the-month class
and that’s when I met Ellen and really learned out to quit. For several years I belonged to that bee as a
member and then became the leader when Ellen retired and moved to Shallotte.
So that Greensboro Hancock’s store became my lifeline in
many ways. When I needed a break from
kids or grading papers or life in general, I’d head for Hancock’s.
They knew me there.
They’d greet me when I came in the door and point me to the newest bolts.
I held my breath in the mid-2000’s when they went into
Chapter 11 the first time. The High
Point store fell victim to the first round of downsizing, but the Greensboro
store was good. I held my breath again
this past January when they went in for their second round Chapter 11 and was
relieved when the Bridford Hanock’s store manager told me that the Asheboro
store was shuttering, but the Greensboro store was good – however the company
had to find a buyer by March 31.
That didn’t happen.
Word must have spread pretty quickly last night. By the time I got to the Bridford store, I
met two quilters in the parking lot and five more folks I knew in the
store. The store manager greeted me by
name and we hugged.
It’s the beginning of the long, slow goodbye.
I know retail establishments of any kind aren’t living,
breathing beings, but they house them.
And if we’re lucky, the relationship between them and us transcends more
than dollars and cents and debit cards.
We learn their children and they learn ours. If we have a question, they can answer it. If we have heard about a new technique and
haven’t had the courage to try it yet, someone in the store (customer or
employee) may have and they’re willing to share it with us.
It’s a place where they know us and we know them.
This is why it’s so, so very important to support your
local fabric and quilt shops. It may be
chain store, but they employee our neighbors and friends. Online shopping is wonderful and you can do
it in your jammies and it’s well and good that we buy from them.
But the relationship with them is not the same. They’re not going to smile and greet you by
name when you open their web page.
Liquidation begins at all Hancock’s today. No coupons will be honored. Everything is
back to full price with 20% off the top – the Great American Group and lawyers
are setting the rules now. No 10% off
for guild memberships or teacher’s discounts.
The bottom line is what matters during this process.
In about two months, a place that has occupied a fairly
significant part of my life and heart will be shuttered and darkened. It’s a prime location, so I imagine Ollie’s
may expand into it or it will become something equally depressing. And I will have to find somewhere else for my
bee to meet and somewhere to buy sewing machine needles at 7 p.m. on a Friday
night when I break my last one.
I hate goodbyes.
Please not that the Hancock closings do not include Hancock's of Paducah. That store is independently owned and operated and will stay open.
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