Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store

Hubba hubba, ding ding –they have everything. Huge store, great sales, if they don’t have it — you can find an easy alternative. I love the fabric — all the cute home things… good staff who work very hard. Ribbon was 70% today.
Great stuff for art projects. Love the place.

This is my first review ever on Unilocal and it is for poor service at this store. I went there around 6pm with a baby and I got cranky attitude from the employee! She was cutting fabric for me and I started small-​talk with her and all I got back was rudeness and lots of attitude. She is lucky I didn’t act on my anger. If you can, go to another store. They also have very long lines and one cashier.

Horrible, horrible, horrible. I’m shocked that they are still in business! Never have what you are looking. Don’t dare ask for assistance! One person cutting fabric in the store on a busy Sunday before Christmas! The manager, Tempe was twice as terrible and The employees are terrified of her. I called the cutter that I was so sorry that she had to work for such a awful person.

I have been going here to do my craft shopping for five years. Today the checkout lady gave me such a hard time for using my coupon and then when she finally agreed to let me use my coupon she didn’t scan it right. I’m very frustrated. she made me feel like I was troubling her to do her job.

Need more cashiers, there was 5 people in line one cashier. Customers are not first, management is poor.

I am giving this the lowest rating not just because of the dismal quality of fabric, but even more so the dreadful customer service which I assume relates to lack of decent working conditions for employees. I was there yesterday evening and learned there were only 3 people working at most, truly understaffed. This resulted in poor morale. We had to wait half an hour or more to get fabric cut because there was a special order of about 25 bolts being cut before us. Surely someone else could have helped out! But no. That’s when I learned of the problem with understaffing. I don’t know what Joann’s corporate profits are like, but someone is probably making money… while these poor women who need jobs struggle with minimum wage pay in an understaffed facility. Now onto the actual contents of the store. Except for notions and threads and crafts stuff (which I can’t really comment on), the quality of the fabric is pretty bad. I went in for some ribbing, and first I had to find it and then there was a poor selection of colors. I would boycott this place completely except there is nowhere else to go in Marin. Also I am seduced by the ubiquitous coupons and discounts. (Which may account for the poor working conditions and not enough staff.) Not a fun friendly place. No customer service. And probably, and understandably, no knowedgeable employees. Compare to the wonderful Stone Mountain in Berkeley.

Clearly the management/​owner (s) are not reading these reviews because the horrific under-​staffing issues remain — after years. If people don’t want to shop here (because of the poor customer service,) who wants to work there under these «guaranteed to fail» circumstances? And what’s the point of «yelping» if no one pays attention? Your customers are screaming for change and you, the management, appear to turn a blind eye. The only reason I can see that this business survives is because there isn’t any competition nearby.

Looooooong line. One register open… bummer…the young lady at the register called for back up. Everyone else was busy with customers on the sales floor according to the gal at the register. The associate at the register was very nice and offered us the discounts available.

Everybody was so nice! They have an efficient method at the fabric cutting area. You take a number, just like at the deli.
This store has a huge variety of inexpensive vases ranging from $ 0.99 for a 6 in round ruffled vase to $ 5 for a 7 in cylinder. They have hurricane vases both 4 and 6 inches.
I was able to find fabric to make curtains for my gazebo wedding ceremony and copper wire to hang the fabric. I came close to buying a sewing caddy that would double as a cards container.
Excellent place for those attempting DIY wedding decorations!

All I wanted to do was exchange a green spool of yarn I had purchased for a beige spool same company same size same everything but different color. how hard can that be welllll without a receipt I was told by the cashier I had to work with the person in charge. The person in charge told me she would only give me 50% for the green yarn I was exchanging and charge me full price for the one I wanted because the one I had purchased was probably on sale when I bought it which it was not. I told her I paid full price. She told me that was policy and that’s all she could do. I grabbed my yarn and told her now I know why they have such a low Unilocal score. I don’t ever want to go back to this store.

If I could give this place zero stars, I would. I have been shopping there for years out of necessity. I have probably spent thousands of dollars at this store. NO MORE. I was there for one sample of one piece of fabric. After waiting for 20 min for ONE person to be helped, I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut a one inch square (smaller than they cut when giving you a sample). The toxic lady cutting fabric grabbed the scissors and fabric from me and screamed at me that I could not touch their equipment. I am fine with them telling me not to do that, but they need to learn that you do NOT yell at your customers. They need about 10 more people working there – which I realize is not the lady’s fault, but it is her fault for accosting a customer.
I hate this place and will never return and will tell everyone I know in Larkspur/​Corte Madera to avoid it. I will now drive to Michaels to avoid Joann’s staff and horrible staffing mismanagement.

This might be the worst example of customer service I have ever encountered and I would rate it zero stars if I could. We purchased a gift card and the associate made it clear that we could return the gift card if it didn’t work out. Now, we went back to return the gift card (with all the receipts) and the manager, Ariel, not only said we were lying about what we were told but mentioned there was «no possible way» to refund our money to our debit card. She refused to believe that one of her associates could have given us the wrong information. I will be calling corporate to ensure our money is returned. I have never been made so aware that the customer does not matter to a business. Please shop elsewhere for fabric and crafts! This store does not care about customers!

store is usually messy, but from what I have heard they are under staffed and no one is applying for jobs there so not much the management can do about that. I would say if your going to shop, actually have time to shop and understand it is the middle of the holiday season so obviously they are going to be busy.

This store is always horrendously understaffed. I’m standing in line right now with one checker and a backup of 12 customers. Their prices are not competitive with Michael’s either, making this a frustrating adventure. Spend your time and money elsewhere.

I usually like this store, but I went in tonight asking an older woman at the register if they had beeswax… she was kind of cagey with her answer saying…“no. Um, well… what are you using it for?” I said «for making candles or lip balm» and she said «well…no». Considering her answer it seemed like there was some sort of beeswax she wasn’t telling me about. So I asked «so you don’t have any kind of beeswax here?» And she shot me a look, raising her eyebrows, like she was a mother reprimanding her child for asking too many times for more candy, and with major attitude said «NO»!“
I know it sucks working retail, but seriously… I was just asking if they had beeswax, no need to get hostile.

This place is really great, but give yourself plenty of time to browse the entire store or you won’t know what you missed. The ladies cutting fabric are very nice even though it is very chaotic because of the holiday season. Watch for sale prices because you can usually save 50% if something is on sale. The parking lot spaces are a little tight, so don’t bring your big car here.

The store is very disorganized and hard to find anything. The staff here is very slow. They are understaffed and no one seems to care when an entire line of people are waiting. The workers don’t seem to know how to do their job either.

I’ll start by saying that there are some decent fabrics here. But overall, the customer service is so slow and there’s not much unique here.
Go to Britex in San Francisco instead.
Dan

I guess I know why this store doesn’t have the highest Unilocal ratings because I do understand what most people are complaining about but I certainly don’t completely agree.
For example the employees aren’t going to win any customer service awards but I don’t consider them rude, it is a smaller store but I always find every thing I’m ever looking for and the parking lot is situated sort of tightly put I’ve only seen the parking lot full once and that was during all the holiday craziness.
I personally really enjoy this store. I frequently have to purchase decorations and craft supplies for my job and it’s never very busy in here and if you stay on top of when the seasonal stuff goes on 70% off you can get some AMAZING deals. I don’t even want to tell you this because I don’t want any competition!

A smaller store located right off the ramp of 101. The aisles are narrow but the quantity and variety of items available are not lacking. I was looking for ribbon and needed some assistance finding it. I asked for help to avoid wasting time and they told me which aisle to go to. Some people personally escort you to the aisle but I guess since the store was so small, it wasn’t needed. No biggie. I found what I was looking for and the gent found something he wasn’t looking for but purchased anyways. He’s the baker in this pair. Check out was easy, the cashier was friendly and they didn’t charge for for a bag for all our goodies.

I need to buy some buttons.