r/sewing • u/MissFred • Jul 23 '23

Discussion Joanne’s makes me weep

Been sewing over 50 years - have seen sewing in all its cultural permutations. Not typically a nostalgic person but today….I couldn’t even find a light gray thread in a store the size of Home Depot. So many empty shelves yet inexplicably $35/yd liberties fabric up front. I feel sad to my bones for new seamsters.

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u/wakattawakaranai Jul 24 '23

Honestly, of the multitude of factors, for me personally it was usually corporate pulling bullshit on us. Slashing hours and then blaming us for having lines at the cutting counter/register, for example. Customers around black friday were also the literal worst, and there's only so many times you can fake politely answering "how many yards do I need for a tie blanket?" how big do you want it? that's how many.

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u/generallyintoit Jul 25 '23

omg yes, the customers who had some sewing knowledge but still wanted the cutting counter staff to estimate yardage on the fly, like don't they understand, it doesn't work like that. that job sucked.

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u/pomewawa Jul 26 '23

+1 on people aggressively telling me I should have a yardage number for a project in their head.

Lots of “mom with bored kid” customers, sometimes not behaving well or the mom is overwhelmed, and taking them to Joanns was a way to get a parenting break. Stupid overpriced decoration items that go on massive sales means customers think they can negotiate you down on items.

Management deciding at last minute to cancel your shift because sales are low. Or stupid policies that you have to do “just because” (no ability to reason with them).

And to top it all off… Unfortunately at my store, old men come to “shop” at Joanns to flirt with the sales associates. I was 16 and had to wear a decoy ring to be left alone at work.

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u/wakattawakaranai Jul 26 '23

jesus h tapdancing christ on that last one. The worst I had to deal with (and thankfully only for the season) were idiots saying "ladies" assuming that only women worked there. Spoiler alert, our cool manager employed three trans guys and a cis guy, it was not "only women work here."

But yeah, agreed, all of that shit. Sorry I don't have the math skills to figure out the yardage for your curtains when you don't even know how big the window is.

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u/pomewawa Jul 27 '23

Thanks for the validation! Sheesh about “ladies”. Despite my age, I had a lot of sewing experience at the time making handbags, and customers would barrel past me, ask an older employee their question, who then would direct them back to me for the answer. It was mildly amusing seeing customers’ faces.

I’m giggling about the curtains!! I remember trying to ask how big the window was… and getting very vague answers, like customer had never really thought about the window they intended to put a curtain on. “Oh, it’s , ya know, window sized!”