Joann Fabrics Customers Upset Because Stores Stopped Taking Gift Cards Before Closures: ‘Incredibly Upsetting’

Mar. 15, 2025

Joann Fabrics exterior.Photo:Tim Leedy/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty

Photo by Tim Leedy 4/11/12Jo-Ann Fabrics opens new store in Wyomissing.The new Wyo store.

Tim Leedy/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty

Joann Fabrics may be going out of business, but that hasn’t stopped customers from complaining about the company’s practices.

“I just want you to know how incredibly upsetting it is that you cut off our ability to use gift cards,” one user wrote in theInstagramcomment section of a March 3 post, which advertises “up to 40% off” of everything.

JOANN Fabric and Crafts store in Miami, Florida.Joe Raedle/Getty

A customer shops in a JOANN Fabric and Crafts store slated to close on February 13, 2025 in Miami, Florida. The company announced it will be closing approximately 500 of its roughly 850 locations across the United States.

Joe Raedle/Getty

“Regardless of the fact that you are closing, your business took money and now refuses to give the product in exchange for it. Wrong,” the person concluded.

“It’s disgusting. I just found out myself,” a person said in response to the original Instagram comment.

“I guess my $100 went to…?? Liquidators? Like they’re not making money back at this point, honor my gift card. Also Quietly deciding this was BS,” they said, also sympathizing with the workers who will have to deal with angry customers in-person. “Shame on them for their store employees having to tell customers this also.”

Joann shopping cart in Moline, Illinois.Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty

A shopping cart sits in the parking lot outside a Jo-Ann Store LLC location in Moline, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018. Joann, the crafting and arts supplies chain which dropped Fabrics from its name earlier this year, tried to make the case that many small businesses shop at its stores for supplies to make locally produced goods, leading it to dub Trump’s tariffs a “made-in-America tax.

Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty

A separate comment from another person read, “So upset you cut off gift cards so quickly and with little notification.”

According to the FAQs page, “The sale is expected to last for approximately 12 weeks, until the end of May, or until supplies last.”

The company also added that “leadership, our Board, advisors and legal partners made every possible effort to pursue a more favorable outcome that would keep [Joann Fabrics] in business.”

Products can be viewed on their mobile app, but must be purchased in-store, as the option to make purchases online is no longer available.

Rolls of yarn fill a shelf in a JOANN Fabric and Crafts store slated to close on February 13, 2025 in Miami, Florida. The company announced it will be closing approximately 500 of its roughly 850 locations across the United States.

The stores have also stopped accepting returns.

Additionally, those who previously received certain discounts, such as “Girl Scouts, Teachers, Military and Healthcare” workers have had their benefits paused.

In January, Joann Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in less than a year.

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Retail liquidator GA Group was announced as the new buyers for the closing company.

“Time is of the essence,” lawyers for Joann Fabrics previously said. “The Debtors face significant liquidity constraints which are best addressed through a swift but robust marketing and sale process.”

source: people.com

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