Jo-Ann Fabrics is Now Closed

Jo-Ann Fabrics was founded as the Cleveland Fabric Shop in 1943. Twenty years later, new stores opened under the Jo-Ann name in 1963 after further expansion outside the single Ohio store. In 1959, Jo-Ann was incorporated as Fabri-Centers of America. In September 1998, the company changed its name to Jo-Ann Stores.

After being publicly traded for 12 years, Jo-Ann was sold to private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners on March 23, 2010 and was delisted from the American Stock Exchange (now NYSE American) a year later.

In 2021, Jo-Ann filed an initial public offering on the NASDAQ and traded under the stock ticker symbol JOAN. This was the second time in history that Jo-Ann was a public company. However, Leonard Green & Partners retained a majority stake in Jo-Ann Stores.

On March 18, 2024, Jo-Ann Stores first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. As a result, stock trading was stopped on March 28th with the delisting on April 9th. Jo-Ann was reorganized as a private company on April 25th.

Jo-Ann would file another round of Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 15, 2025, and on February 12th, Jo-Ann announced the liquidation of 500 locations which was expanded to the remaining 300 locations twelve days later on February 24th. As Jo-Ann emptied their inventory from their warehouses, in-store merchandise was restocked daily.

255 locations closed at the end of April, with the remaining 535 closed in May, and Jo-Ann Fabrics ceased operations on the 30th. The private label brands, logo, and website became part of Michaels Stores on June 5th.

The above information was provided from this Wikipedia article.

Below is a tour of one of the former Jo-Ann locations in Brandon, Florida.

Jo-Ann Fabrics #1959

11215 Causeway Blvd, Brandon, FL - Lake Brandon Plaza

This Jo-Ann store opened in 2001 and received remodels in 2010 and 2022. Other anchors to the expanded plaza upon opening were Babies "R" Us #6446 (currently Nordstrom Rack #796 since October 24, 2014) and CompUSA (currently Total Wine & More), with Publix #663 in the original portion from 1998 (store opened on January 21, 1999).

This location would close in mid-May 2025 when their inventory ran out during the liquidation sales as a result of the company's bankruptcy.

This first part is how the store looked in May 2019 with signage from the 2010 remodel.

A single entrance was featured that turned into two separate doors as you made your way through the vestibule.

Looking at the C numbered aisles, with C15 having doormats and C17 having candles & lights. The aisle numbering is similar to Target and Walmart, where each aisle is divided into two sections.

The Idea Market was located in aisle C14.

Aisle A12 had items for special occasions, A10 for floral, and A8 had household tools.

Let's head out these doors for the final part of this post, showing this Jo-Ann during liquidation.

These were the listed sale items. Holiday décor was at 90% off since they were about to run out.

The rentals area didn't have any merchandise as they were being used for fixture sales. Storage crates that ranged from 10 to 20 cents were located underneath the sign.

Same goes for the creator's studio and services.

The Pop! area was a special section for limited-time, seasonal, and trendy items, intended as a "store-within-a-store". None of that merchandise exists anymore as this area was used for discounted items.

This area, normally home to cutting machines, was completely empty!

At least Jo-Ann still had some inventory of floral, including artificial plants in the "Bloom Room" department.

Holiday floral as seen on the left was the item that received the most discounts.

An informational sign telling the differences between picks, bushes, and stems. The shelves that this sign was located had no remaining stock.

Five-packs of meal prep containers were discounted at half off the original retail price.

And I also found this random children's guessing game alongside the containers.

Plastic storage containers were also half off, and if you look at the top, there are comparisons between the original and the reduced prices.

Since the store's HVAC was turned off during my visit, this 24 inch fan was one of the only sources of air conditioning (Commercial Electric model SFDC6-600CT0-4, a Home Depot exclusive). There was also a Honeywell HT-904 at the checkout's cashier area.

Here's a new style of Technibilt/Wanzl cart that I've never seen before until I revisited this Jo-Ann. It even had a cupholder!

And here is what the Jo-Ann website looked like a day before the official closure.