Jo-Ann's now open at Berkeley Mall
By From staff reports
Published in News on November 8, 2013 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/DENNIS HILL
Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts opened its doors for a "soft opening" today ahead of its grand opening Nov. 21. The store will hold grand opening events through Saturday, Nov. 23.
The eagerly awaited opening of the Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store at Berkeley Mall was expected to draw hundreds of customers today as it opened its door at 10 a.m. this morning.
A grand opening is planned for Nov. 21-23, with Mayor Al King cutting the ribbon with store and local officials at 8:45 a.m. on that Thursday.
The store announced in June that it would be opening a store at the mall.
The chain is one of the nation's leading specialty retailers of crafting, decorating and sewing products. It offers not only the materials to make clothing, household items and other projects for the home, but also assistance with coming up with creative ideas for those projects, such as classes in knitting, crochet, quilting, sewing, scrapbooking, painting, jewelry-making, floral design and foodcrafting.
Jo-Ann stores are located all across the state, with locations in Greenville Rocky Mount, Fayetteville, Raleigh and Cary.
Nationwide, the chain, with headquarters in Hudson, Ohio, has stores in 48 states.
The grand opening of the Goldsboro store will feature gift card and tote bag giveaways as well as discounts and other promotional activities. An open house featuring instructional classes will be held on Saturday, Nov. 23, from 1 to 3 p.m.
Jo-Ann Fabrics was founded in 1943 when German immigrants Hilda and Berthold Reich, and their friends, Sigmund and Mathilda Rohrbach, opened an imported cheese store in Cleveland. Fabric was added, which sold very well. So they opened a second store.
But without money for a second store inventory, full bolts were divided into two, for the second store inventory. Eventually, the owners pulled the cheese from the shelves and added fabrics and opened the first Cleveland Fabric Shop. Expansion in the 1960s led to the company's new name, Jo-Ann Fabrics.
Over the years, the company bought other fabric stores and added them to the company. About 750 Jo-Ann stores currently exist in both the small-format and large-format establishments.
Most of the small-format stores, which number more than 500, measure less than 24,000 square feet in area. The large-format stores, which number about 235, contain an average of 36,000 square feet.