What's up at Hobby LobbY?

[DeltaDawn]

Good morning.

 

I am a longtime lurker, but this is my first post. I just need to know if anybody's else's experience is like my own.

 

I went to my local HL a couple of days ago, to get baby yarn for a couple of afghans. Much to my surprise, I discovered there was absolutely NO conventional baby yarn, of any kind. No RH. No TLC. No Bernat. No SS. No nothing.

 

I asked the young woman in that department what was up. She said HL was no longer carrying any of these "conventional" baby yarns. They did, however, have miles and miles of various "Yarn Bee" novelty yarns--in my opinion, badly overpriced and suitable for almost nothing. (Has nobody at HL noticed that the novelty yarn craze has been dead for a couple of years now?)

 

Stunned, I went to the SS worsted weight area, thinking perhaps I could substitute. My HL stopped carrying the 7-oz SS a long time ago, in favor of 3-oz skeins. Sometimes that's okay--if you're using lots of colors, the 3-oz skeins might suit you better. I started to pick up a few, only to discover they had been repriced from their former 1.29/skein (.99 when on sale) to 1.99 per 3-oz skein.

 

I thought this must be an error, and found the young woman again, who assured me that no, this was not an error.

 

My local Michael's has the 7-oz skeins for 2.99, WalMart about the same. By my calculations, 7 oz of SS at HL will now cost 5.00.

 

I have the unhappy feeling they are trying to force us to buy their overpriced and underqualitied Yarn Bee novelty yarns, by either denying us access to alternatives (as with the RH/TLC) or by overpricing what they DO carry to the point that nobody would be fool enough to buy it.

 

So my question is: have any of you encountered these problems, or are they isolated to the HL in Memphis, Tennessee? And if you've encountered them, have you gotten any kind of satisfactory answer from HL personnel?

 

In conclusion, I do want to thank all the contributors to this board, for their excellent original patterns and their links to the patterns of others. I am indebted to you all, and glad finally to be out of the closet.

[birdlady1]

Wow, I'm going to have to pay a visit to my local HL. It's been a few weeks if not longer.

 

HL is facing a lot of competition from the likes of Joann's, Michael's and Walmart, so they may feel a need to offer something different since they can't compete with the prices of their competitors.

 

Being different doesn't always work. Maybe they'll figure that out when they start losing customers.

[Me&P]

Ugh. I bought several different kinds of the Yarn Bee brand to make hats for babies (I had well over a dozen hats, each made with a different yarn and at least 4-6 were of HL brand b/c they were 1/2 price). I was disgusted with the quality! I wind everything to cut out knots before using it and I had at last 2-6 knots in EACH SKEIN! That, to me, is unacceptable.

 

The HL here still has a ton of different kinds of yarn, but if they go all YB yarn, I won't be buying from them anymore.

[srlandis]

I've been noticing that my HL (in Chattanooga, TN) has been carrying an increasing percentage of the Yarn Bee and that the price of YB has been going up. I know that some of the YB I've bought in the past is now marked up by at least 50%. Unfortunately, our Michael's is pitiful and on the other side of town and Wal-mart hardly carries any yarn. That leaves AC Moore, which is where I buy most of mine now. Unless I go out of town and find a Jo-Ann's which is pricey but has a good selection. HL used to be great, but not now.

 

susan

[Misty.Creek]

I was suprised when I went to HL to get cotton yarn that they only have small balls of SugarNCream and all the rest is acrylic/wool, etc. PLUS...JoAnn's will honor Michael's and HL original coupons (not print-outs) and Michael's will honor HL and JoAnn's but HL only honors their own!! My Michaels is moving down the road so it's empty for a few weeks and JoAnn's didn't have what I needed. ARrgh! And this was after standing in line forever with two hungry/tired monkeys since they only have 2 registers open at most.

[texasredhead]

I noticed that too when I was there last time. I didn't really put my finger on the problem but it explains why I don't buy yarn there most of the time. They seem to be into this specialty yarns but not the basic stuff. I usually go to Joanns and I am impressed with their selection and special yarn they get it for their endcaps that are a good price. I think HL should just forget carrying yarn if they are going to do it this way.

[DreamsOfYarn]

I was just at my hobby lobby today and they had quite a bit of RHSS. They actually had more than they usually do. And they even had colors I haven't seen in quite some time. It was the normal 2.19 a skein price for 7 oz. They also had a lot of baby yarn, and not just their yarn bee brand. I saw a few different brands of cotton yarn besides their brand as well .

 

I also noticed that their new yarn 'I love this yarn' has more colors. I saw 9 different colors today. Of course, I have all the colors now

 

I will be keeping an eye on things there, since I go there at least once a week.

[LaurieE]

There's a new HL in my area so I went there the other day for the first time. I found exactly what you described. I was very disappointed in the yarn selection. They also didn't have very much of the I Love This Yarn brand. I guess I'll continue to buy my yarn at Joann's, Michael's, and WalMart.

[birdlady1]

I stopped at my local HL because of this thread and left empty-handed. Very unusual for me. They had lots of Red Heart SS (top to bottom and halfway down one side of the aisle) but, you're right about the HL brands. There were tons. But it wasn't just the HL brand that was overpriced; it seemed they raised prices on most everything. Since baby yarn is 40% off through Saturday the 31st, it was pretty picked over and they only restock once a week.

 

My store generally looked understocked. I wonder if they're in trouble and are cutting back.

[Selune]

My Hobby Lobby doesn't really carry any baby weight yarn except for the Yarn Bee ones, and they are usually around $5 for a skein. But I did manage to find some regular yarn there the other day and it was 40% off. My Michaels has better selection for baby/sport yarn, but it's also very expensive and they are never on sale. As for JoAnns, ours sucks big time. They basically have one isle of crappy yarn and a few patterns.

[Mermaiden]

HL here near B'ham AL still has a selection baby yarnss, but hmmm, they have been putting them on sale an awful lot lately.. They have definitely been increasing their HL brand stuff in a couple of types, slowly but surely. They still have plenty of other stock, though I'm not sure what they got rid of to make room for all this new Yarn Bee yarn.

[Lisaizme]

I would write to the district offices of HobbyLobby (there's a link on their website) and let them know about your poor experiences.

 

The HL where I live has even griped at me for buying yarn!!! And they HIDE yarn that has been discontinued....never putting it on clearance. I wrote to the district office about my experiences and if they still hide yarn, they now do it where I can't find it.. and they do have clearance stuff now.

 

I had a salesperson there make me so mad I put back about 60.00 worth of yarn one day and only bought 1 skein .. that I could find no where else. And I went and found the manager and told him exactly what had happened and that his store lost money because of the salespersons actions.

 

I really don't like to shop at HL.. but we don't have much else besides a poorly stocked Michaels and Walmarts which sometimes do and sometimes don't have yarn.

[thebratfink]

THIS is exactly why we all have 'stashes'.

 

I don't even LOOK at HL for my thread anymore. I have to walk 3 miles to get to the thread section then they don't have what I need/want.

 

I go to Joann's or Walmart.

 

Retailers are stupid!

[sunnywolfgar]

Hi Dawn,,, have them order it for you,,, I would go talk to the manangers they will get it for you. Most times the girls working say oh I don't know if we can do that etc... or we dont do that,,, or they give you this stare look,,,, Hey they get yarn....so why not get what you want. Everywhere the last 15 years that I have move from town or states I just go and talk to the managers and they are alwys happy to get it ordered for you.. so next time you go to HL just go ask for the managers and if they say,, can I help you just say thats ok I want to speak to the manager please...I never had a problem geting them to order yarn for me.

[DreamsOfYarn]

At the Hobby Lobby's that I go to, they have signs posted that say they will special order yarn for you. I've had them do that a few times. They called me when it was in, and if it was on sale when they ordered it for me, that is the price I paid for it when it came in.

 

I must be one of the few lucky ones here that has no problems with my area HL's.

[Pharmagurumi]

My HL does have a -lot- of their Yarn Bee yarn. I just recently bought some acrylic baby Yarn Bee stuff and it looks nice to me. I Love This Yarn is a lot better than RHSS, in my opinion.

 

But I have Lion Brand, lots of RHSS, Bernat, Caron SS, and more at my HL. I really haven't had a problem with them. Granted, also I've only just been into Walmart and HL for retail craft stores, so I can't compare the others.

[CraftyShannon]

The Hobby Lobby where I go to does have a lot of yarn, but they also have tons of clearances on name brand yarn all the time. Not quite sure what all they have phased out, but I'd guess a good 75-80% of the yarn dept. is now Yarn Bee yarns. They do however have a good stock of Red Heart SS, Simply Soft (in the small skein), some wools, and the smaller skeins of cotton, and a good vareity of thread.

 

However, I have noticed that unless you get anything else on sale, you are paying $5 for a very small skein. They have phased out much of the baby yarn except their yarn bee kind (which I think has to be hand washed for a baby) and very select colors of TLC baby yarn.

 

Still, I shop there because they have great clearance yarns, are always fully stocked, have colors I can't find anywhere else, and the store isn't dirty or crowed like JoAnn's and unlike Michael's most of the staff is helpful and friendly.

[msmusic]

I just looked at their companion website today, since we do not have a HL in my vicinity, and they have really streamlined what they offer - not a whole lot of variety in colors on many of the products, either. I used to be able to find practically every color of RH at this site, but no more!

[crochetbycharlene]

Good morning.

 

I am a longtime lurker, but this is my first post. I just need to know if anybody's else's experience is like my own.

 

I went to my local HL a couple of days ago, to get baby yarn for a couple of afghans. Much to my surprise, I discovered there was absolutely NO conventional baby yarn, of any kind. No RH. No TLC. No Bernat. No SS. No nothing.

 

I asked the young woman in that department what was up. She said HL was no longer carrying any of these "conventional" baby yarns. They did, however, have miles and miles of various "Yarn Bee" novelty yarns--in my opinion, badly overpriced and suitable for almost nothing. (Has nobody at HL noticed that the novelty yarn craze has been dead for a couple of years now?)

 

Stunned, I went to the SS worsted weight area, thinking perhaps I could substitute. My HL stopped carrying the 7-oz SS a long time ago, in favor of 3-oz skeins. Sometimes that's okay--if you're using lots of colors, the 3-oz skeins might suit you better. I started to pick up a few, only to discover they had been repriced from their former 1.29/skein (.99 when on sale) to 1.99 per 3-oz skein.

 

I thought this must be an error, and found the young woman again, who assured me that no, this was not an error.

 

My local Michael's has the 7-oz skeins for 2.99, WalMart about the same. By my calculations, 7 oz of SS at HL will now cost 5.00.

 

I have the unhappy feeling they are trying to force us to buy their overpriced and underqualitied Yarn Bee novelty yarns, by either denying us access to alternatives (as with the RH/TLC) or by overpricing what they DO carry to the point that nobody would be fool enough to buy it.

 

So my question is: have any of you encountered these problems, or are they isolated to the HL in Memphis, Tennessee? And if you've encountered them, have you gotten any kind of satisfactory answer from HL personnel?

 

In conclusion, I do want to thank all the contributors to this board, for their excellent original patterns and their links to the patterns of others. I am indebted to you all, and glad finally to be out of the closet.

 

mine has rows and rows of al kinds of yarn. A new one I want to try was called I Love this yarn!

[loopy1]

This is funny! There's another thread where everyone says how much they love Yarn Bee.

 

I've never bought any because I don't know what I'd do with it. I'm a pattern person and I don't see any patterns using Yarn Bee! Substituting scares me...never comes out right! Yarn Bee also seems overpriced to me.

 

I did get several skeins yesterday of "I Love This Yarn!" after reading on here about how everyone just "loves" it! It feels so soft! But it was so hard to find! Had to wait for the clerk to come back from lunch to tell me where to find it and it was mixed in with the RHSS. I thought that was kind of silly unless they think people will accidentally buy theirs instead of RHSS.

 

Found out they don't carry (I don't know what you call it that #10 thread is wound around) 100 or 150 yd "balls" of 100% cotton #5 or #3 thread. You have to buy it in the little 20 something yard pkgs.

 

And HL is just up the street from where I live. Michael's and JoAnn's is a bit farther away. And our Wal-Mart, now Super Sized, has decreased the size of their crafts section! It's also close to where I live.

 

Oh, the struggles of buying thread and yarn! Is there a good place to buy it online? Everywhere I look it's too expensive plus you have to pay shipping!

 

[CraftyShannon]

Loopy- I do like Yarn Bee yarns. I just wish Hobby Lobby didn't exclude selling other brands to promote only their own. Of course I know they do this to make money and yes most stores do it (I could gripe all day about grocery stores), but I liked how Hobby Lobby was better when Yarn Bee was a choice of yarn there, not the only choice. I only have noticed in the last 3 or 4 months....after a HUGE clearance.....that the directon of the types and brands of yarn has changed so much as the store I frequent.

[Lisaizme]

 

Oh, the struggles of buying thread and yarn! Is there a good place to buy it online? Everywhere I look it's too expensive plus you have to pay shipping!

 

 

Check out http://www.knitting-warehouse.com while they don't carry everything.. they do have a nice selection. And their shipping is a flat rate.. no matter how much or how little you buy. I try to think of shipping as equivalent to what I would spend on gas (my yarn stores are a far distance from my residence). Maybe there's a way you can rationalize the shipping for your situation?

[Empress Busy Bee]

My Hobby Lobby was doing that a little. However I was in there last Thursday and they've restocked the a lot of the name brand stuff. It was nice seeing full shelves for a change. No they don't have the selections they used to have. I remember them having several different sock yarns, now it's hard to find one.

I've not used any Yarn Bee yet. I do plan on buying Frosting this year though.

As for baby yarn, they seemed to have plenty in most brands. I wasn't looking though.

[Sylviaf]

My HL has also been OK. I don't really buy much Yarn Bee, but I haven't had problems with it either.

[pryor208]

I like the Yarn Bee yarns, mainly because they're the fun kind that I wouldn't pay full price for, but on sale, they're cheap and easy to mess around with. I just wish I lived somewhere cooler year round, because scarves are the easiest things to make with the novelty yarn and they're fun to wear. I'm thinking of making a wrap from some soft Yarn Bee yarn. It's a little hard to crochet with cause you can't always see your stitches well, but it's definitely fun and inexpensive to mess around with.