Well it’s official, Joann Fabric is a public company, listed on the NASDAQ below the expected valuation it was still a profitable IPO for those on the inside. As a former consultant to the financial services industry, I’m not going to bore you with the details, the real reason I am bringing this to your attention is to remind you to shop local. Michaels is going private but to a team of investment professionals with access to capital your local yarn store can only dream of.

When you are building your project shopping list, remember, Joann doesn’t need your dollars, they have the investment community to call upon, your local yarn store and fabric stores need us to support them; today, tomorrow and always.

So what do you do if you don’t need anything and still want to help them out? Buy a class, a gift card, or just stop by with a cup of coffee and say hello. In general, people want to patronize a store where they see other shoppers, who wants to be that random person in an otherwise empty store? Now that we can finally start to move around the country a bit, take advantage of it, get up, get dressed, grap a cuppa and get going.