Back in June I reported that Joann’s was taking over the Daytona Beach, FL location of the AC Moore that was closing there (as well as reportedly several others in the state). At the time, a rep. for Joann’s confirmed that Joann’s was opening new Florida stores in 2008 but declined to confirm specific locations.
Joann’s threw a grand opening today for their new Daytona Beach store – in the old AC Moore location on International Speedway, just as was reported. Crafting celebrity Donna Dewberry arrived during my visit to demonstrate her bestselling One-Stroke Painting
technique. A large crowd – several dozen people – was crowded around her as she went through several demonstrations (tearing off the signed paintings and giving them away when they were completed) in the time I was in the store.
The store is a small-format Joann’s store, with a much smaller scrapbooking department than the superstores have. The scrapbooking department wasn’t that busy compared to the fabric department and several other areas.
There wasn’t a single Creating Keepsakes branded product that I saw other than a few books, although their products were a huge fixture in the last superstore that I was in. The brands that I did see a lot of included Fiskars/Cloud 9/Heidi Grace, EK Success, Sandylion, KI Memories, Die Cuts With A View, Around the Block, and Creative Imaginations. A lot of room was devoted to exclusive Debbie Mumm products and also to die cutting machines.
Nancy, all of the Jo-Ann’s around here no longer have any of the CK Brand stuff. It was all clearanced out and some stores may still have some in their clearance section. KI memories and Colorbok have really expanded their lines in both the Superstores and the smaller stores.