I don't even clip Joann's or Michaels coupons; everything always seems to be on "sale" so the coupons are no good. I save myself the frustration and just buy the item if I need/want it. Just a crock to get you in the door. :(

Bee,
You would love to go to the fabric store where my Mother shops. Mother lives in Youngstown,Oh and they have a big JoAnns store in Boardman,Oh,which is about 10 miles from Mothers, but when she can't find what she wants there she drives about 30 miles to a little Amish town in Pennsylvania.

I went with her once, and what a fun day that was. There is not a single electric light in the whole town, not even a traffic light on the state highway that runs through town.

The fabric store is a huge clapboard sided building that looks like something out of a cowboy movie, complete with the covered porch, raised wood sidewalk in front, and a full length hitching post running across the front of the store, with half a dozen horse & buggies tied up there.

We went in the front door and the moment we entered we were greeted with a pleasant "Hello" from a young girl wearing one of those plain calico house dresses that the Amish girls are famous for.

Once inside I saw that the store was about 40' wide and at least 80 to 90'long. Along one wall was the old fashioned "Coates" thread display racks for about 40' and I can assure you, if a type, size or color of thread is made anywhere, they have it. There had to be at least 12 display isles running the full length of the room with nothing but bolts of fabric. They even had about 20 bolts of homespun that they make in another little building next door.

Mother says they have everything from the finest real silk, to genuine sailcloth, and every grade of synthetic known to man, and if you need leather, they sell horsehides, cowhides, pighides and sheephides. They even had a section with vinyl upholstery material.

They even had about 4 or 5 Singer Sewing machines and when Mother saw those she said she would never buy a sewing machine unless she could test it first. The girls said "Thats no problem".
Mother says, "Where you gonna plug it it, there is no electric in the store?"
The girl laughed and said, "If you want to try one I'll go out back and start the generator".

What got me was the prices. Mother said everything in the store was about 60% of JoAnns price or less.

I don't know what Mother was planning to make, but when she picked out the material she told the girl she needed 16yrds. The girl rolled the bolt out and measured 16yrds, then she says there is only about 22yrds on that bolt, how about I just let you have the bolt for the price of 16yrds.

I was looking at some leather and the girl says "they have a much better selection of leather at the Leather & Harness shop about 1/4 mile down the road."

After Mother got all the stuff she was looking for we went next door and had a cup of coffee in the dim light of kerosene lanterns at their restaraunt.

What a lovely scene your story evokes, LP. I wish I lived over there and could see it for myself--how kind of them to off your mom 6 yards of material for free! It's nice to see you posting again; you were missed.

LazyPup, I enjoyed your post because I was born and raised in Youngstown and know Boardman very well. Things have changed so much there but it was a wonderful place to grow up. My family lived first on the south side and then on the West Side right in the middle of Mill Creek Park. Such good memories. Oh, and by the way Joannes has been on my list of places to never shop for a long time. Satine

Bee, I'm sorry you had trouble. I use coupons at my JoAnn's when I need to go with no problem.

Lazy Pup, I need the name of that town please! We may be going that way this fall. And, if I reallllllly want to go, I am only on the west side of Cleveland, so I can still go, if I get brave enough to drive it alone! And I loved your story.

Pup, that sounds like a wonderful store! And no tricky/useless coupons needed. Your mom is fortunate to live within driving distance.

Bee--that's a little dirty trick, lowering the price a dollar so you cannot use your coupon. Some retailers just play games to keep customers from getting any real savings. I know they have to survive but feel they could be a bit more generous with the "deals."

PS I don't think they have a special key. The pricing and coupon decisions come from management, not the people at the register. I hope you can find your item somewhere else.

Socks is right.. I was wanting to buy one of the sidewinders. The silly thing was $99.00. I was not going to buy it for that price.. I'd wait and use a coupon when it wasn't on sale. The day came and the sign was down so I tried to use a coupon and when I asked the lady she said it was on sale and I couldn't use the coupon. I didn't buy it. A few weeks later it was on sale again but my coupon was good on sale item, too. I bought it..

I have noticed they are getting worse about doing this.. You have to ask about a lot of things or you get surprised when you go to check out..

or the senior day..i try and go then, if i'm lucky enough...boy they're sure quick to send emails if you buy online...

I will have to write to Mother and get the name, location and hours of that store. I would love to get you a phone number so you could call ahead, but the only phone in town is in a phone booth in the park....LOL (Don't you believe that either...all those Amish folks now have a cell phone hidden deep in a pocket..... LOL)

I asked the lady how she could afford to have such low prices and still make deals like she gave Mother. She said it was easy. The land under the store is part of her families farm, the lumber to build the building was harvested from their own woodlot and cut in their sawmill.

The building was built by her 7 uncle's and 5 brothers. They have no light bill or gas bill, taxes are an absolute minimum because their town has no fire dept, police dept or or other expensive infrastructure and all the employees who work in the store with her are daughters or other family members, who are content to work for minimum wage and occassionally other ladies in the community help out and take their pay in trade.

Now for you ladies who are familiar with Youngstown & Boardman, here are a couple flash from the past memory photos for you:

Lanternman Mill, the grist mill in Millcreek park. The actual wooden water wheel that powers the mill is inside the building in the stone section at the bottom. They did that to protect the wheel from freezing in winter.(you can see the bridge upstream from the mill)

The covered bridge in Millcreek park:

I could put on a complete show of photos of flowers from Fellowes Gardens botanical garden in Mill Creek Park.

I remember when.... JA used to always accept the coupon even if the item was on sale. If the sale price was 25% off, & your coupon was 40%, you would get the 40% off the original price. They stopped doing that some time ago @ our store. Once in a great while there might be one that works on sale items, but very infrequently.

Socks, you're right,,, it IS a "dirty trick". I agree they want to survive, but that won't happen when you irritate customers. They're the ones who created the coupon dependency, jacking their prices up then having multiple coupons etc.

The clerk added a bit to my dissatisfaction, too. I only had 2 items & 2 coupons. When she told me the price on the other item after ringing it up (same $ as original), I questioned, "was the coupon not good on that either?". She responded, "Oh, you got me so confused..... I forgot to ring in the coupon." Huh?? **I** wasn't the one to confuse you!! She did ring it in, but just the fact that she "blamed" me for the confusion, is well.... irritating. How about blaming their store policies??

Susie, I'm gonna try the same "work around" once I simmer down, LOL! I'll keep trying until I get a better price than $1 off.

It aggravates me when they say an item is on sale and there is not a sign saying so. This is how it was with the sidewinder. The first time I went in a looked at it it was 20% off but I knew I could do much better with a coupon so I waited. I went back in after the flyer changed and the sign was gone. To my surprise they told me it was on sale $10.00 off. What a ripoff! A couple weeks later it was on sale again plus I had a coupon for sale items, too. I think I ended up getting it for half price or a little less. I knew I was not going to pay $99.00 for the crazy thing. This seems to happen more often on the higher priced things.

Now ladies Joanns puts out a small magazine type book called Fashion Fusion. It comes out 2 or 3 times a year. On the back of the book are 4 coupons that are good for 4 months. The one that is out now runs until the middle of June. There will be a new one come out about the time. They can usually be found around the cutting table or the pattern section. It is put out by Simplicity and usually has a lady featured on the front. The book is $2.99 but has 2 50% off and 4 40% off coupons for you to use. I always pick up a couple and keep them in my car.

Lazypup and Satine....what fun to read your replies, since we lived in Greenford, nestled in amongst Canfield, Boardman, Youngstown, Salem, North Lima and Columbiana. Been to Mill Creek Park many times. Lots of great stores in Boardman. Most of all I miss Pat Catans craft store.

As for Joann's and coupons...I find the same thing down here at ours in Georgia. I can never use a coupon because everything rings up as being on sale, even though there are NO signs by the items I am wanting to purchase nor are they in the sales flyers.

I have totally given up using any and all coupons. First there's too much "fine print". Second, you have to organize and remember to bring and use them. Third, I do okay just shopping unadvertised "manager's specials" . Finally, it drives me crazy trying to remember all this stuff. Basically I buy what I like/want/need/use. I don't even read the store ads that come with my newspaper on Sundays and Wednesdays. They go straight in my newspaper recycle box.

Beautiful pics, LazyPup. It's nice to know that places like that still exist.

do you think it would do any good to write them and voice your displeasure?

I went in to ours the other night to get some scrapbooking supplies...my once in a lifetime scrapbook most likely...NO ONE WAS ON THE FLOOR...the only person I could find to help was a MAN at the register...no offense men...but men just don't have it in a crafting store unless its in the framing area...there wasn't anyone I could find with a badge on in the whole store...but that seems the be the norm everywhere nowdays!

I was really put out...they wont be in business if they keep running there stores this way!

I went in to buy some yarn. I had a few coupons from them and a few from Michaels. I was told I couldn't use more than one coupon per purchase. I know that was incorrect, because I was just there a while ago and did the same thing and the girl rang each item with each coupon. She said I had to ring each item up as separate item. Well, I just stood my ground and said go ahead, we'll hold everyone up while you do that. I'm not crazy about going back there again. I usually try Michaels first and JoAnn's as my last resort.

Actually, Liz, I did go to their website & complained in an email about the situation. I said theirs certainly was not an appropriate business plan & that it ticked off customers. We have an option of using their coupons in their competitors' stores.

Haven't heard back & don't really expect to.

Lovely pics Pup!

Love the pics, Lazypup! I look forward to hearing the details for the shop.

Tami