Letters: Joann adapting to changing needs of consumers
Joann evolves with time
As a retired longtime employee of Joann, I’ve been reading your recent articles on the company’s bankruptcy with interest and disappointment. The only connection local tailors have to the retail fabric and craft industry is that they use and work with fabric, so their relevance here is a stretch. These articles present comments based on conjecture and misinformation, and are short on facts.
The industry is not dying, as a local tailor speculated in one of the articles. Like most businesses, it is evolving to adapt to the changing needs of the consumers, and as a former fabric buyer at Joann, I can confirm that online fabric sales are strong. Many people are now sewing apparel for creative expression and custom fit, and social media is full of their efforts.
Even with home economics classes not being offered in most school systems, young people are inspired by what they see online, and are relying on sources such as YouTube to learn sewing techniques. They are fearless, and figure out how to get it sewn. The future looks bright!
Not referenced in these articles are the strong quilting fabric business, and the important crafting business among others. Given my 46 years in the business, I think the picture these articles painted is totally misleading. The Joann bankruptcy was, in my opinion, caused by questionable leadership decisions over a span of many years, exacerbated by the pandemic, and is unlikely to recur anytime soon.
Your readers depend on accurate reporting. It is my hope that any future articles will tell a more factual story, and not continue to spread more misinformation.
Dan Cox, Rock Hill, South Carolina
Protesters miss point
I am ashamed of our young people participating in the hateful, violent protests across our country.
The war between Israel and Palestine has now been mimicked on our college campuses. Instead of being against the carnage and death in general, I believe these protests have missed the point of the bigger picture. Human beings are being killed and both sides are to blame. We can waste time arguing over who shares more of the blame but more people are wounded and dying every day!
I suggest a reset.
The atrocities happening in Gaza and Israel simply need to stop. If our college students really want to make a difference, set an example for the world to see: UNITE and protest the violence and destruction with one clear message.
Dennis Moncrief, Cuyahoga Falls
Believe your eyes
President Joe Biden’s mental acuity continues to diminish at an alarming rate and most Americans see this. Those who refuse to acknowledge this, like Rick Hawksley (“A response to the response,” April 21) are engaging in Alice in Wonderland stuff. Hawksley was responding to a letter (“We can’t afford Biden,” April 7) critical of his March 17 letter (“Please stop already”) attacking former President Donald Trump.
Hawksley, like Biden and his radical-left handlers, do not want Americans to believe their eyes, but that genie is out of the bottle. Without offering any facts or evidence, Hawksley flatly stated, “Not one word of the response to my March 17 letter is true.”
The writer of the April 7 letter went into great detail about the disastrous Biden presidency — according to polls, the worst in at least 70 years — the lies, corruption, economy, fentanyl, border, China, etc. The truth, Mr. Hawksley, the truth.
Biden has continued the failed Obama policy of placating Iran — with horrible results — by refusing to enforce sanctions, allowing a broke Iran to sell oil on the black market, enriching itself and arming its proxies (Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis) in the Middle East, leading to the brutal butchering of 1,200 Israeli men. women and children. Blood is on Biden’s hands.
Biden’s deplorable withdrawal from Afghanistan left 13 American service members dead and $86 billion in military equipment in the hands of the Taliban. Everything Biden has touched has gone up in flames. No country respects Biden and he is trapped with a vice president who is even more unpopular than he is.
Biden’s administration is rife with pro-Hamas TikTokers. He has allowed 10 million unvetted illegals into the country — many of them single males of military age. He has turned Border Patrol agents into Uber drivers.
The Biden Justice Department has done nothing to stop the lawlessness and chaos on college campuses as pro-terrorist mobs spew antisemitic hate and the FBI warns of unprecedented terror threat levels. The country is not safe. Biden is an elderly, clueless fossil being used by the radical left to further an agenda that is tearing America apart.
To quote Jack Nicholson from the 1992 film, “A Few Good Men,” Mr. Hawksley, “You can’t handle the truth.”
Mark Stevens Canton
Apply the law equally
In America, we value our freedoms, including our freedom to elect leaders who govern in our name. But after the “Access Hollywood” tape scandal, Donald Trump covered up his sexual affair with Stormy Daniels to keep voters in the dark so he would not lose the 2016 election.
The former MAGA president is on trial in New York in a criminal cover-up that set the pattern for his presidency: Trump lies to voters and meddles in elections in his quest to seize and hold onto power.
As with their other attempts at overturning the will of the people, Trump and MAGA must be held accountable. They will keep chipping away at our freedoms until they face the full consequences for their crimes.
Trump was indicted by a jury of everyday Americans, who weighed the evidence and determined he must stand trial before a jury of ordinary Americans to ensure that we apply the law equally to all.
Faith Greer, Stow
Reconnect the program
We can afford foreign wars. We can afford to pay for food, housing, medical, and more for people here illegally. We can afford to send rockets into space. We can afford humanitarian aid abroad.
The Affordable Connectivity Program, a landmark piece of U.S. government legislation that made it easier for 22 million American households to afford internet connection in their homes, expired in May.
The program’s end leaves millions of Americans without use of the internet. Families with household income at or below 200% of the federal poverty guideline per year got a $30 monthly credit on their broadband bill. People living on tribal lands got up to $75.
But we can’t afford it now. Low-income seniors, schoolchildren, folks working from home, and other Americans lose yet again.
How much is enough? We have war heroes dying on our streets homeless and alone. Suicide rates are higher than ever because that’s the only option for some. It’s nice to be warm, fuzzy and positive, but isn't it time we insist on change?
Lori Karasek, Cuyahoga Falls
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Letters: Future of Joann is not as dire as depicted in articles
